Hidden agendas behind every project goal

One Project, Many Agendas: Why Stakeholder Goals Don’t Always Align

Every project starts with a clear goal, usually summed up in a single sentence that outlines the intended change. A strong project goal not only details the project’s deliverables but also highlights its purpose. Meaningful projects hold a significant place within the organization’s portfolio. While defining a deadline or setting specific performance metrics can be challenging, doing so makes the goals more precise and actionable. Having well-defined plans and ideas helps to secure the organization’s resources effectively.

Every project has its own objectives, but achieving them relies on a group of individuals, each contributing their unique experiences, motivations, and priorities. It’s quite common to find that each member of the project team may have their own agenda, which they hope to fulfill through their involvement in the project. What might those agendas look like?

Everyone tends to present their best and most professional selves. For junior team members, some projects might signal the beginning of a career shift, providing a chance to learn new skills or develop existing ones. On the other side, there are colleagues nearing retirement who are eager to leave a lasting impression and achieve one final milestone. Meanwhile, middle managers may be striving for career advancement. In every organization, you’ll find long-standing loyal employees who have been around for years and know their departments inside and out. While they aren’t looking for a career change, they do want to ensure that any changes brought about by the project won’t create too many hurdles in their daily routines.

When considering the goals of a project, I often think about the various characters involved and their unique agendas. It can be challenging to address these in formal stakeholder management, but I pay close attention to stakeholders within my projects, especially when I notice they have their own interests at heart. In these situations, a project manager must tread carefully to avoid being used as a tool by stakeholders to further their personal agendas, rather than concentrating on achieving the project milestones.

When you run the project or are part of the project team, you can observe many characters. I noticed especially these profiles:

Soon-to-be retired

Working alongside senior colleagues can be quite fascinating. Their wealth of experience often brings a sense of calm to projects. Typically, they participate in their final project with a desire to leave behind something meaningful, as they are keen to protect their reputation. A failure later in one’s career can be far more damaging than one early on, when there’s still time to bounce back. Consequently, they may be resistant to changes that could render their expertise less relevant or shift influence to others.

In some countries, colleagues nearing retirement might opt for reduced working hours, which can lead to a lesser commitment to their projects. Some may even feel disconnected, merely counting down the days until retirement. Those approaching retirement may also resist adopting new tools, methodologies, or cultural changes that challenge their established ways of working.

Ambitious Junior

A lot of Junior team members are driven by the FOMO effect (Fear of missing out). They want to be included everywhere. They are building identity, credibility, and capability — the project is a proving ground. They seek for visibility. They want their contributions noticed by senior figures who influence promotions and opportunities.
Junior colleagues may be eager to impress to the point of over-committing or underestimating difficulty.

Middle Manager stuck in between

Middle managers often find themselves caught in the middle, balancing their team’s needs with their own career growth. Major projects can serve as a launching pad for career advancement, but this can create internal conflict. They may feel the urge to overpromise to upper management while simultaneously striving to safeguard their team’s workload and well-being, as they hold a deep sense of responsibility for those they lead. When the pressure on their team becomes overwhelming, middle managers might resort to territorial behavior — such as withholding information, resisting collaboration with other teams, or subtly competing for resources. The dual pressures from above to deliver results and from below to protect their team can drive them to become defensive or inconsistent in their actions.

Mightful Sponsor

Sponsors typically remain constant throughout projects and tend to stay out of the daily operational tasks. They often receive only brief updates over time. This role is usually filled by seasoned colleagues who are well-integrated within the organization. In organizations where politics play a significant role, the sponsor’s opinions, alliances, and affiliations can significantly influence the project’s objectives, milestones, and overall support.

It’s crucial to pay close attention to changes in sponsorship, especially when new sponsors come on board. Typically, new sponsors bring along additional colleagues and teams, either replacing the existing setup or at least making adjustments. This can significantly affect the project’s workflow, the organization as a whole, or even the project’s objectives.

External Agencies

When collaborating with external agency colleagues on a project, it’s crucial to remember that these agencies primarily focus on achieving their commercial objectives through this partnership. As a result, effective organization and project management must monitor the efforts made by the teams and the value they deliver. Additionally, there are often competing agendas at play—those of the agency as a whole and those of individual consultants. While these agendas may align at times, they don’t always coincide.

Ultimately, the agency aims for a successful and visible outcome that they can leverage in future pitches. The client organization serves as a valuable reference, offering a compelling case study that can help open doors to similar opportunities down the line.

Agencies must keep their consultants billable, which can lead to project scopes, timelines, and team sizes being subtly inflated to align with staffing needs instead of actual project requirements. Hiring an external agency can often be a lifeline for many projects, as consultants typically bring valuable experience and additional capacity that the internal team may lack. However, it’s crucial to recognize that the project management and teams supported by the agency have their unique dynamics at play.

It’s important to acknowledge that this perspective is a broad generalization. Every individual involved in a project contributes their own passions, fears, expectations, motivations, and objectives. The project manager’s role is to understand the varying attitudes and agendas of team members. By supporting those that align with the project’s goals and keeping an eye on those that may undermine them, the project manager can steer the team toward success.