Strategic Thinking for Stakeholder Support

To manage the political waters of your community and interact with key stakeholders, complete this six-step process of strategic thinking for each stakeholder. See Put in Place Strategies for Involving Stakeholders or Preventing Them from Blocking Your Efforts for more details.

1.a. What are our partnership’s desired impact and major outcomes?

1.b. What tangible results/successes have we demonstrated up to this point?

2.a. Which stakeholder are we approaching and what is his/her organization or constituency?

2.b. Why is this stakeholder key to our success?

2.c. Before we contact this stakeholder, what do we know about her/him, including community interests and organizational needs?

3.a. When we first contact a stakeholder, what can we learn about his/her opinion of our partnership and his/her thoughts about our desired impact, major outcomes and successes to date?

3.b. What is important to this stakeholder and what is he/she dealing with that could impact our partnership?

4.a. In continuing our contact with this stakeholder, what are we learning about her/his values, self-interests and perspective that will help us align interests or recognize an impasse?

4.b. What are we learning about what motivates this person?

5.a What is the heart of our desired impact and major outcomes that we will not change? What is non-negotiable even with an important stakeholder?

5.b. How can we rephrase our desired impact to incorporate this stakeholder’s opinions and self-interests, while demonstrating that this is a win-win proposition?

6.a. Where does this stakeholder fall on our rating of importance? From what we’ve learned, do we need to change our rating category for this person?

6.b. Who are we choosing to approach the stakeholder, and why?

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