360° Stakeholder Mapping

OnTrackNorthAmerica has pioneered an approach to stakeholder identification and cataloging that supercharges facilitation, collaboration, and results for any problem or opportunity. We have successfully applied this approach for over 30 years, advising on infrastructure projects in 47 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

Stakeholder engagement has often been stymied by the question, “Who are all the stakeholders?" The answer can seem indiscernible until a list or catalog of all the stakeholder groups comprising an industrial system or a geographic area is produced. With this framework crystalized, there is the opportunity to zero in on each group's relevant entities and individuals within the context of specific goals and projects. All stakeholders can be identified and included. 360° Stakeholder Mapping enrolls individuals within communities and industries as generators of stakeholder mapping content.

We typically begin mapping participants from these primary sectors: academia, advocacy, business, community, funders, government, labor, and media. Zeroing in on who to include from each sector for a new initiative begins with informative online research. However, the key is to dialogue with knowledgeable individuals in the industrial arena or region to learn who needs to be included.

Three questions to stimulate your thinking…

1) What is the ecosystem of stakeholders you want to engage toward transforming the results of that system?

2) What groups comprise all stakeholders in that arena and community?

3) What subgroup designations enable conversations with the appropriate stakeholders?

Create your groups and subgroups while considering the project’s objectives and what must be discussed. Think about the ecosystem's geographic extent. Designate each stakeholder in multiple groups by sector, roles, and geography. Sometimes, you want to communicate with everyone in a specific county, region, or state or organize stakeholders in geographic teams. At other times, you may wish to convene a dialogue with all the folks who provide transportation services or work in mining. So, for instance, you may benefit from creating federal, state, and local government subgroups within a "Public sector" (uber) group. By assigning people to multiple group designations, you can easily convene cross-sector stakeholder discussions for specific subjects.

This specificity demonstrates respect for stakeholders' time and energy, engenders trust and participation, and facilitates long-term engagement.

Industrial systems are for people, managed by people, and they affect people. The fundamental requirement for large-scale collaboration and progress is to relate to all the appropriate people. Delivering and receiving input, perspectives, and commitments is magnificently efficient when you build an initiative’s participant database through 360° Stakeholder Mapping. With this practical approach to stakeholder facilitation, all the right people can redesign our industrial systems.