Here's how you can resolve conflicts between stakeholders in a Business Intelligence (BI) project.

Typical conflicts are due to 1. misaligned priorities on the functional/organizational objective. E.g. billability vs revenue vs customer revenue outcomes 2. turf war since the BI dashboards uncover one group's inefficiencies. E.g. project delays due to multiple inventory stockouts in the year. The referee (senior leader outranking both stakeholders) has to clearly call out the BI project's objective & KPIs - e.g. customer success measured by incremental quarterly revenue, profitability increase, decrease in project delays etc. This will help align both stakeholders & their teams to a single organizational outcome & resolve conflicts harmoniously.

"In the realm of Business Intelligence projects, resolving stakeholder conflicts is crucial for success—it's the art of aligning visions." Establish clear communication channels, prioritize common goals, and utilize data-driven insights to mediate disagreements. As Confucius wisely noted, "The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home." Likewise, fostering unity among stakeholders ensures BI initiatives progress harmoniously towards achieving organizational objectives.

Understand the root cause of the conflict. Are there strategic differences or misaligned expectations? Typically stakeholder conflicts fall into one of these broader categories. To avoid making the situation worse, it's important to establish clarity across the aisle between you and your stakeholder group. At that point, you can find common ground and come up with an action plan going forward to address the issues one at a time.

Once at work, we discussed some metrics for a specific analysis - the annual revenue increase. We asked the audience for their ideas, and the finance and commercial areas had different viewpoints. We spent an hour without reaching a concrete solution. Finally, I combined both ideas and scheduled a new meeting. The focus of the next meeting was not on debating, but on presenting the analysis results with their ideas.

In my experience, one critical yet often overlooked aspect is aligning the communication styles of stakeholders. Understanding whether each key player prefers detailed reports, visual data representations, or quick summaries can make a significant difference in how effectively you address and resolve conflicts. Tailoring your communication can bridge gaps and foster collaboration. Additionally, fostering a culture of empathy goes a long way. When stakeholders feel heard and understood, they are more likely to collaborate towards common goals, making negotiation and implementation smoother.

Curate a safe space for stakeholders to express their perspectives without fear of being judged. It's okay sometimes to just listen and not have a planned response in mind. Find the common ground between both of you to see what's causing the disconnect and focus on addressing that gap going forward.

Setting the project's overall goals as a top priority is essential to resolving stakeholder disagreements in BI projects. Urge the parties involved to put the shared goals ahead of their own agendas. Everyone's efforts should be directed toward common goals in order to reduce conflict and create a feeling of purpose that is essential to the project's success.

We can foster a sense of shared purpose, minimize friction, and increase the likelihood of achieving the project's desired outcomes by establishing clear goals and objectives , by setting clear roles and responsibilities and also by utilizing the tools and platforms that facilitate collaboration and communication. Main strategy is regularly reviewing progress towards the shared outcomes and provide constructive feedback to team members

Una estrategia efectiva es tener aliados y la capacidad de ser flexible en ciertos aspectos. Por ejemplo, durante una presentación, es posible comenzar mostrando los puntos que un gerente específico quiere destacar primero, sabiendo que, a través de la narración de la historia de los datos (storytelling), se llegará a los puntos clave del análisis y los datos relevantes. De esta manera, el gerente está contento porque se presentaron inicialmente los datos como él quería, pero al mismo tiempo, todos terminarán viendo y comprendiendo los aspectos cruciales del análisis. Es importante asegurar que esta estrategia no altere la interpretación de los resultados finales. Esto es una muestra de una buena negociación y gestión de intereses en BI.

Brainstorm viable solutions with your stakeholder team so that they also feel a level of accountability in the process. People love to see through a vision or plan when they feel they have input in the process. So establish this ownership upfront when discussing potential BI solutions for the company. Make sure to consider all viable alternatives from the core solutions the team comes up with. This way you understand the risks and benefits associated with each approach and your stakeholder team is also aware before committing to a specific solution.

In my opinion, this is the most recent and surprisingly the least utilized part. Why? Because the management didn't adapt from the start. So, if your management has been operating like this, you should take two steps back and restructure it to ensure proper monitoring.

This situation is not going to end; instead, you will gain experience in problem solving. The key is to take all recommendations and do a better job in the future. Highlight the relevant information and models, and remove the outdated differences.