Let's look at a practical example here of communication and stakeholder understanding. Effective communication is crucial in ensuring that stakeholders understand what the project is doing and its benefits. Communication will need to start early, even before project design, taking into account the stakeholder interests and their potential concerns.

So let's take the example of setting up an inner city homeless shelter. Consider that an NGO is establishing this shelter and we will have various stakeholders and their reactions may vary. So how would people react to that? Think about the people who live in the neighborhood, people who run businesses, institutions such as the police, what about healthcare providers, the media. Each stakeholder will have a different perspective on the problem and also a different perspective on the solution.

Neighborhood residents may have a range of opinions, they may have concerns around crime and they may have community pride in helping. No stakeholder groups are completely homogeneous, so you may have different opinions within the same group. One neighbor may say, "we don't want this around here that is going to lead to crime and antisocial behavior." And perhaps another neighbor is saying, "it's great that we are doing this, our neighborhood is the one that is supporting this."

Healthcare providers may have a positive outlook, recognizing the needs for services to the vulnerable homeless population. After all, these are some of the hardest people to reach, they may have chronic illnesses and yet they are homeless, so it's very hard to get services to them.

When it comes to business owners, local businesses, they may have mixed perspectives, some may consider there will be a potential negative impact on business, others may see benefits, some may say "it's bad for business," some may say "it will be good for business."

Moving on to the police, their stance may be neutral, but they are going to need close communication and frequent regular information. They haven't really got any particular bias on this issue, they are neutral at this moment and they will be keeping an eye on things. It would be our intention to communicate with them closely and keep them informed.

Looking at local politicians, the local councilor may see potential political gains or losses depending on the outcome of the project. They may be thinking, "this will make me look good, I could get re-elected if this project goes well, but also if this project turns out to be unpopular with the community, it may impact their political career."

Another stakeholder could be the media, local press, journalists, and they may be saying, "there could be a story here, but what kind of story?" So the press too is a stakeholder in this scenario and how they portray the project and what kind of press coverage they give largely depends on you.