Stakeholder Mapping

At the start and throughout your HUB-IN journey you will need to identify key stakeholders – Who are you already working with? Who do you need to work with? When and in what capacity?

Your key stakeholders might be different at different stages of  the process. (You will find practical tools and guidance in Stage 1 and Stage 2, which you might revisit during later stages).

In Stage 1, the initial discovery stage, the Stakeholder map (PDF) will support you to get an overall picture of the people related to your project and develop your understanding of who needs to be involved and how. You can then start building your Stakeholder database (xls) – see suggested steps below.

This activity will be useful for:

• Making plans to get your stakeholders excited about HUB-IN and your HUB
• Developing strategies for how to involve stakeholders at different levels and keep them engaged
• Informing your roadmap
• Informing your Geotool

This activity is called ‘Discover and understand your collaborators (friends & enemies, critical friends & troublemakers)

Format:

• You can run this activity one or several times with groups of 3 to 5 and up to 20 people.
• This activity can take place in person (for instance in a workshop setting or after a visit of your HUA seeing your local ecosystem) or remotely. Each stakeholder can be invited to start adding to the stakeholder map before the group session and also after.
• Activity total duration: 1 to 1,5 hours shared session.
• Material needed: post-its, pens, printed or drawn by hand . Sstakeholder Map for in person sessions (+ as option: map of your local HUA and ecosystem, digital map – as Geotool – or physical map) or an online whiteboard tool (e.g. Miro or Mural) for remote sessions.

Activity steps:

Check the Stakeholder mapping guidance pages provided in the PDF document to download beside here.

• Map your HUB-IN stakeholders using the Stakeholder map (PDF) considering a spectrum of stakeholder groups
• Start building your Stakeholder database (XLS) – this is a live document that will be developed throughout the project
  • This Stakeholder database will include the results of the stakeholder mapping effort. It should illustrate the high, medium and lower priority stakeholders. 
  • Take time to collaborate with your teams and stakeholders to fill in this template. Some questions may be more difficult to answer at this early stage than others. Do not worry if you’re not able to answer everything at once, this will grow over time.

Following steps:

• Prioritise stakeholders when defining your HUB intervention (as part of your roadmap)
• Start creating a narrative to engage each stakeholder
• Think about barriers and opportunities in your ecosystem
• Think about future actors – future ‘formal’ value exchange, future ‘soft’ value exchange

• The Stakeholder database can start as a list, which you will build up over time.
• Ensure you are involving diverse stakeholders and an appropriate spectrum of stakeholder groups / categories.
• Consider creating more than one Stakeholder map on different HUB topics / HUB-IN themes. The Stakeholder map template shows at the centre of the map the high-level topic “HUB-IN heritage-led regeneration”., Consider sub-topics or sub-themes.
• Take note of the type of relationship your team have with the stakeholders (well established, problematic, new, non-existent) as this can inform how you prioritise your efforts when shaping your Outreach and Engagement plan (LINK) in the next step of your journey.

To get your HUB up and running, you will need to prioritise key stakeholders which you have identified in Stage 1. In Stage 2, which focuses on better defining your project, you start to prioritise who needs to be involved, in what capacity and at what point of your journey for planning, preparing, setting up or developing your HUB-IN place. Building on the stakeholder mapping activities conducted in stage 1 (Stakeholder map, Stakeholder database), the ‘Stakeholder matrix’ will support you to see who to manage closely and who to keep satisfied, who to keep informed and who to keep on your radar .

See suggested steps below:

This activity will be useful for:

• Focusing and further developing plans to get your stakeholders excited about HUB-IN and your HUB, when you define your intervention(s)
• Developing tailored strategies for how to involve each key stakeholders at various levels and keep them engaged
• Developing your roadmap
• Developing your Geotool

This activity is called ‘Define and prioritise your ‘Advocates’ and ‘Potential blockers’’ 

Format (like the Stakeholder map) :

• You can run this activity one or several times with groups of 3 to 5 and up to 20 people, with individuals pre-populating and adding information after a shared session. 

• This activity can take place in person (for instance in a workshop setting, after a round table, after a visit of your HUA seeing your local ecosystem) or remotely.  
• Activity total duration: 1 to 1,5 hours shared session (including briefing and debriefing). Each stakeholder can be invited to start adding to the stakeholder map before the group session and after. 
• Material needed: post-its, pens, Stakeholder matrix printed or drawn on a big sheet for in–person sessions (+ as option: map of your local historic urban area and ecosystem) or an online whiteboard tool (e.g. Miro or Mural) for remote sessions. 

Activity steps: 

Check the Stakeholder prioritisation guidance provided in the PDF document to download beside here. 

• Review your stakeholder map and database, work from the ‘Importance & Influence’ column (no matter how much this is populated at this stage)
• To prioritise your stakeholders map them in the Matrix provided according to four areas:
  • Manage Closely
  • Keep Satisfied
  • Keep Informed
  • Monitor

Following steps:

• Plan when and how to reach out and engage stakeholders with your HUB intervention (as part of your roadmap) – This will make up your Outreach and Engagement plans
• Create strong narratives to engage each stakeholder
• Think about how you will address barriers and shape opportunities in your ecosystem 
• Think about how you might engage future actors – for future ‘formal’ value exchange (such as: monetary, assets, knowledge, skills) and future ‘soft’ value exchange (such as: communication, networking) 

• Consider creating an intervention-specific ‘Stakeholder matrix’ – You might want to create different ones – one for internal stakeholders (within your organisation / company or HUB-IN) and one for external stakeholders (you might need to partner with (in order) to implement and develop your HUB successfully