In my experience, when facing pushback on design changes, it’s important to first ensure that any proposed changes are supported by a solid cost-benefit analysis or other quantitative assessments. This helps to present the pros and cons of the change, making it easier to compare the potential value against the risks or additional costs. To find common ground, active listening is key. It's essential to understand the concerns and perspectives of other stakeholders, ensuring they feel heard and their feedback is considered. If Compromises can be made in the tolerable range we can include certain elements of stakeholders' suggestions into the final design, addressing their concerns without losing sight of the overall project goal.

Managing stakeholder pushback on design changes can be challenging, especially mid-project. If a design change is necessary for safety, code compliance, scheduling, or cost savings, I would articulate the reasons clearly and professionally, explaining why it wasn't identified earlier. If it was my oversight, I would take responsibility and outline why the change is beneficial now. For non-essential changes, I would provide stakeholders with the pros and cons, empowering them to make an informed decision. This approach builds trust, encourages collaboration, and helps find common ground, ensuring alignment on the best course for the project.

Mostly, when there are pushbacks, it is because stakeholders fail to see the benefits the change will bring to the project. Also, stakeholders see cost will be incurred due to the change and will resist it. Lastly, they see the change may result in delay of the project. To find a common ground, a cost-benefit analysis will need to be presented to the stakeholders as well as how the project will not be impacted with respect to on-time delivery.

Presenting the pros and cons of design changes to stakeholders can help achieve common ground and mutual understanding. Implementing changes during the design stage is significantly easier than addressing them later on. Reaching consensus becomes more feasible if the proposed changes demonstrate cost and schedule benefits for the project (CAPEX) and long-term operational expenditure (OPEX).

Listen carefully ,raise documented management of change ,ask all involved parties for meeting check with financial with the cost of change ,raise the issue for stake holder and sign off the documents for final decision , but from my experience many asks for design change but fewer will take the risk of consequences so mostly it is end with minor modifications and out of the box solutions