Address conflict with a difficult stakeholder - ChatGPT Tutorial

- [Presenter] As project managers, we often face resistance to change, like getting pushback from stakeholders or even worse, dealing with people who reject our plans. Today, we'll explore how ChatGPT can help navigate these challenges. So let's talk about a real-life example. Imagine you're introducing a new project management tool and Mr. Chow, a key stakeholder, questions its necessity. He says something like, "I'm not sure why we need to change our current processes. What's wrong with our existing tools?" A quick note here, I recommend providing context to your situation in ChatGPT. By doing so, you're helping it contextualize its answer with the most relevant detail. So me, copy and paste what I have here. "Please simulate the dialogue and provide step-by-step guidance to help me, the project manager, best prepare when dealing with a resistant stakeholder. Context: I want to launch a new project management tool and Mr. Chow, a key stakeholder, questions its necessity. He says, 'I'm not sure why we need to change our current processes. What's wrong with our existing tools?'" Okay. Now here's a step-by-step guide directly from ChatGPT. A very long output, but what's great is it has steps broken out from one through seven with example, talking points, and even has suggestions for how you close out the conversation. Now, what's great about this is you have an idea of what this conversation is going to look like and you want to prepare your talking points and rationale in case any of these scenarios come up. So another prompt that I like to use is this: "Can you provide me with a one-pager with potential concerns and rationale presented in a table format? I want the rationale column to include two to three bullets each for my talking points." Now what I have is a clean table with a list of potential concerns and bulleted talking points on the right. Pro tip: Save this list for your next conversation. You can take a screenshot or copy and paste in a separate doc. And you can always tweak it as you see fit. The important thing is you have these safe somewhere so that you have access to them. Now another approach is asking ChatGPT's suggestions for best practices. What are the dos and don'ts going into this conversation? So prompt that I'm going to use, I'm going to paste it here, is this. "Now detail the best practices in a bulleted form with the dos and don'ts and specific examples with top things to consider. My goal is to address his main concerns." What I love about these responses are that it's so tailored for my project and addressing specific concerns. For example, in the provide evidence and data, it's really smart idea to present a case study where a similar organization saw improved project outcomes using the new tool. And I can come into that conversation prepared. Additionally, in terms of the don'ts, what I don't want to do is overlook stakeholder feedback. I do not want to ignore his concerns, but I want to make sure that I'm properly addressing them and not dismissing what he's coming up with. So what's next? You can take this in all sorts of different ways. You can ask ChatGPT to simulate other scenarios with something like, "Can you come up with new high-probability and high-stakes scenarios and pushback that I can prepare for?" Or you can ID specific next steps. For example, I would like to use something like this. "Can you provide me with top 10 ideas and strategies for conducting stakeholder interviews to better understand their concerns and brainstorm creative solutions for addressing resistance? Please rank in order of importance." The possibilities are endless. The key is equipping ChatGPT to help you identify potential concerns so that you can come up with a game plan in advance. Convincing a resistant stakeholder is a nuanced process that requires you to be strategic and agile. Imagine how the real conversations go. They can be uncomfortable and nerve wracking. You never know what to expect, but you can best prepare. Coming up next is another hot topic: using AI to craft the right stakeholder communication so your message lands every time. Stay tuned for more.