Good stewardship and execution of human and material resources are essential in effective leadership as it highlights abilities in project management and execution and overall communication within a team. A leader needs to be prepared to facilitate conversation to build a cohesive team to lead change projects for their organization and effectively report and communicate to their stakeholders.
The key human and resource materials I have leveraged for my action research project would be a project communications management plan and a stakeholder register. As my project shifted and changed shape from when it was first conceptualized, it was imperative for me to have a record of all project changes for the future project planning and execution. Through this plan, I had a long-standing record of all project accomplishments, barriers, and changes to ensure accurate information sharing with all project stakeholders. The project communications management plan allowed better collaboration and enhanced transparency with project stakeholders during quarterly updates with Willis Dady’s Equity and Inclusion Committee, Senior Leadership Team, and Board of Directors. Although the pros of this communication plan outweighed the cons, it is still important to note my increased workload and stakeholder reliance on the plan from the stakeholders. I found that I was duplicating efforts in reporting my project changes in multiple places and stakeholders were expecting to be consulted prior to changes because of being provided with regular reporting.
The stakeholder register was the primary human resource material that was beneficial in developing and executing a successful action research project. Although I did not learn about a formal stakeholder register until midway through my project, I already had a internal and external stakeholder list but breaking that list into a formal register was very helpful to further determine the different levels of stakeholders I would be leveraging throughout my project. Similarly, the pros outweighed the cons in the use of this tool, it enhanced my communication and stakeholder engagement. However, it was a very complex tool to get started and break down into different levels, especially if one person fell within multiple levels. For example, a member of the Senior Leadership Team may be on level one, but also, they’re a member of the Equity and Inclusion Committee, which is level two. Once the register was developed, it was easier to navigate and maintain to streamline the execution of the project.