Stakeholder Map

 Stakeholder Map

What is a Stakeholder Map workshop?

This workshop enables you to identify your project’s VIPs - the stakeholders. It helps you take into account everyone who can significantly impact a decision, or might be affected by it.

Deciding who has what level of input and interest in a project can help to align decisions appropriately. A stakeholder map helps you develop an effective strategy to communicate with the relevant people and manage their expectations.

Use Priority Map to help you with this tactic. Consider using Democratic Discussion to help facilitate the last part of this tactic.


Stakeholder Map Miro Template


How to run a Stakeholder Map workshop

1. Create a Priority Map with Power and Interest on the axes as follows:

Stakeholder Map Diagram

Power: a stakeholder’s level of influence in the system—how much they can direct or coerce a project and other stakeholders.

Interest: the degree to which a stakeholder will be affected by the project.

2. Create a list of stakeholder groups by answering the following questions:

Who will be impacted by the project?

Who will be responsible or accountable for the project?

Who will have decision authority on the project?

Who can support or obstruct the project?

Who has been involved in a project like this before?

3. Together, map the list one stakeholder at a time on the grid, based on their relative power and interest.

4. Discuss specific strategies for each stakeholder:

Who needs to be informed of what, and when?

Who needs to be consulted about what, and when?

Who is responsible for engaging each stakeholder?

Origin: Mitchell, Agle & Wood 1997

Not sure if this is the right approach for your team at the moment? Try a different tactic for understanding the problems and challenges you face. Or if you’re happy that you know what the next big challenge is for your team, try a framing tactic to help you articulate your problem, ready for solving.

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Stakeholder Map is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.

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