PMP Practice: Promote the Shared Vision

When key stakeholders have divergent interpretations of the project vision despite a clear charter, the project manager's most effective action is to facilitate collaborative realignment around the shared vision. The scenario reveals that the charter already establishes dual objectives with equal priority, but stakeholders are not operating from this common understanding. By bringing both functional managers and the sponsor together to revisit the charter and explicitly connect both objectives to organizational strategy, Rune addresses the root cause—misalignment on vision—rather than treating it as a simple conflict or documentation issue. This collaborative approach rebuilds team engagement by clarifying priorities and demonstrates leadership in unifying stakeholders around the project's true purpose. The closing fact that team engagement is already declining makes proactive facilitation essential rather than waiting for escalation.

**Why not A:** Updating the stakeholder engagement plan and escalating to the sponsor treats the misalignment as a documentation issue requiring executive intervention. The charter already establishes dual objectives with equal priority, so the PM should facilitate alignment directly rather than asking for a top-down prioritization decision.

**Why not B:** Meeting separately with each manager and then revising objectives to favor the one with more organizational support abandons the charter's intent. Both objectives were approved as equal priorities, and tilting the project toward one based on political support undermines the project's approved business case.

**Why not D:** Continuing to execute the approved charter without addressing the misalignment ignores the observable impact: declining engagement and team confusion. While the charter is correct, stakeholders are interpreting it differently, and that interpretation gap must be actively resolved through facilitated dialogue, not passively ignored.