Stakeholder Toolchains

by | Aug 16, 2021

Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the left circle, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Identification Canvas and Community Map. These are collectively labeled as ‘1’ with iteration arrows between them. In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories and Stakeholder Map & Matrix. These are collectively labeled as ‘2’ with iteration arrows between them. In the right circle, one tool is listed: Quickstart Stakeholder Engagement Canvas (labeled ‘3’ with iteration arrows and instructions to ‘Repeat for each stakeholder’).

The Innovation Toolkit has 5 stakeholder-related tools, and now that you know which one to use and when, the question becomes: How can I create an ITK Stakeholder Toolchain?

As a quick refresher, Toolchains involve using a series of ITK tools in sequence, where the outputs of one tool becomes the input for the next tool. By chaining multiple tools together, you can help your team really make progress towards your intended objective.

Planning for stakeholders falls into three general steps, as listed below:

  1. Identifying who is a relevant stakeholder;
  2. Assessing which stakeholders to engage with; and
  3. Assessing the optimal engagement approach.

To create an ITK Stakeholder Toolchain, decide which planning steps are your objective. Next, pick & choose a tool that supports each step. If your objective is only one of the planning steps, then pick both of the tools. Voila! Now you have an ITK Stakeholder Toolchain.

Here are six example ITK Stakeholder Toolchains based on your objective:

 

 

#1 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to identify a list of relevant stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the left circle, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Identification Canvas (labeled 2) and Community Map (labeled 1). Arrows show iteration between the two tools.
#2 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to categorize and assess multiple stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories (labeled 1) and Stakeholder Map & Matrix (labeled 2). Arrows show iteration between the two tools.
#3 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to identify and categorize stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the left circle, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Identification Canvas and Community Map. These are collectively labeled as ‘1’ with instruction to ‘Pick One.’ In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories and Stakeholder Map & Matrix. These are collectively labeled as ‘2’ with instructions to ‘Pick One.’
#4 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to categorize and plan engagements for stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories and Stakeholder Map & Matrix. These are collectively labeled as ‘1’ with instructions to ‘Pick One.’ In the right circle, one tool is listed: Quickstart Stakeholder Engagement Canvas (labeled ‘2’ with iteration arrows and instructions to ‘Repeat for each stakeholder’).
#5 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to incorporate equity considerations when identifying, assessing, and planning engagements for stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the left circle, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Identification Canvas (labeled ‘1’) and Community Map. In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories (labeled ‘2’) and Stakeholder Map & Matrix. In the right circle, one tool is listed: Quickstart Stakeholder Engagement Canvas (labeled ‘3’ with iteration arrows and instructions to ‘Repeat for each stakeholder’).
#6 Stakeholder Toolchain: I want to identify, categorize, and plan engagements for stakeholders
Venn Diagram with two circles. Left circle is labeled Identification and right circle is labeled Assessment. In the left circle, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Identification Canvas and Community Map. These are collectively labeled as ‘1’ with iteration arrows between them. In the intersection of the two circles, two tools are listed: Stakeholder Power Categories and Stakeholder Map & Matrix. These are collectively labeled as ‘2’ with iteration arrows between them. In the right circle, one tool is listed: Quickstart Stakeholder Engagement Canvas (labeled ‘3’ with iteration arrows and instructions to ‘Repeat for each stakeholder’).
While there are many stakeholder-related methods and tools on the market, our goal with these ITK stakeholder tools is to help teams quickly get started or unstuck when thinking through how to include relevant stakeholders for their effort. We encourage teams to use the ITK tools in combination with other market tools to create even more Stakeholder Toolchains.

Let us know how it goes in the comments below!

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Links to ITK Stakeholder Tools: