Lesson5 Exercise_AssetMap - IHI



Leadership & Organizing for Change

IHI Open School Change Agent Network

Your Organizing Sentence

“I am organizing (WHO — leadership & constituency) to do (WHAT — measurable aim) by (HOW — tactics) because (WHY — motivating vision) by (WHEN—timeline).”

Lesson 4 Exercise: Mapping Stakeholders and Assets

Instructions:

If you are working individually, start at Step 3.

If you are working as a team, start at Step 1.

Step 1: Create a collaborative workspace.

Tape a large piece of paper to a wall or easel, or find a dry-erase whiteboard or chalkboard to serve as your drawing surface, and draw the map on Page 5.

Step 2: Collect tools to facilitate collaboration.

Collect five different colors of markers and three different colors of sticky notes.

Step 3: Brainstorm stakeholders.

On a separate sheet of paper, brainstorm and list your stakeholders. Remember to consider stakeholders that fall into all five categories below.

To the extent possible, list stakeholders by their first and last names. If you name an organization, list the names of individuals within the organization to reach out to. If you don’t know anyone by name, identify whom you can ask to find out.

Consider five categories of stakeholders:

o Individuals: classmates, colleagues, volunteer stakeholders, influential decision-makers

o Institutions/government: churches, libraries, schools, transportation, universities, social services, media

o Organizations: health care organizations, public health agencies, community non-profits, local businesses, associations

o Sources of community pride: historical events or attractions, sports teams, cultural events

o Other capital: publically-available data, financial capital such as grant funding for programs

Step 4: Map stakeholders

Review the stakeholder definitions below, then add your stakeholders to the appropriate category on your map, using a different marker color for each category. Remember, some stakeholders may belong in more than one category.

Stakeholder Definitions

Constituents: Constituents are the people at the center of our work, the people whom we bring together. The word constituent is derived from Latin for “stand together.” To improve health and health care, we must bring together a constituency of many stakeholders to collaborate to achieve a common purpose. Constituents are different from “clients” or “customers” – they are a core part of our teams.

Leadership: Our leadership is derived from our constituents. For instance, if we are working to reduce readmission rates, we may want to include a quality improvement director, case manager, chief nursing officer, hospice provider, home health liaison, community service provider, beneficiary, family members, and faith-based leaders.

Supporters: Supporters are people whose interests are not obviously affected by our work but who may find it in their interest to support it. For instance, philanthropic organizations or state hospital associations or government agencies may have interests aligned with our projects and agree to provide resources. (Hint: Don’t forget to add the IHI Open School as a supporter!)

Competition: Our competition are individuals and organizations with whom we share interests, but have different ideas about how to achieve our goals. For example, our competition may target the same constituency as us, or they may seek the same sources of support. They might also face the same opposition, which gives us a good reason to figure out how to work together. How can we turn our competition into our supporters, or into members of our constituency?

Opposition: In pursuing our goals we may find ourselves in conflict with the values and interests of other individuals or organizations. Some hospitals or providers, for example, may be anxious about a community health effort that works to reduce the services that generate their income. How will you anticipate this opposition and design strategies to overcome it?

Stakeholder Map

Step 5: Brainstorm & map stakeholders’ values

Now, consider the choices that various stakeholders make. What does that tell you about their values as individuals, groups, and organizations? (See appendix to distinguish between values, interests assets.)

If you’re in a group, use one color of sticky notes to represent values. List these values on the sticky note, then place next to stakeholders’ names.

If you’re working individually, write these values next to the stakeholder on the diagram.

Step 6: Brainstorm & map stakeholders’ interests

Next, brainstorm stakeholders’ interests – particularly in the context of your project. Put yourself in their shoes. Remember that the same stakeholder may be operating on the basis of conflicting interests. (See appendix.)

In your group, using a different color of sticky notes to represent interests, write these interests on sticky notes and place next to their names.

If working individually, write these interests below the values you identified in Step 5.

Step 7: Brainstorm & map stakeholders’ assets

Think about the specific assets each stakeholder has unique access to. Is it direct access? Indirect access? What decision-making power do they have? What networks can they bring with them? Over whom can they exercise influence? Those resources, networks, and people are all assets.

Consider three levels of accessibility to assets:

o Primary Asset: The most accessible assets are those that are located in the neighborhood or community and controlled by those who are members of that neighborhood or community (e.g., local businesses, churches, sports teams, local grant funding).

o Secondary Asset: The next most accessible assets are those that are located in the neighborhood or community, but are controlled by individuals and/or organizations outside the neighborhood or community (e.g., public schools, libraries, chain businesses, radio, TV).

o Potential Asset: The least accessible assets are those that are both located and controlled outside the neighborhood or community (e.g., publically available data, welfare expenditures, federal funding).

In your group, using a different color of sticky notes, list the assets on the sticky notes and place next to the stakeholders’ names. If working individually, write these below the interests identified in Step 6.

Step 8: Use your map to advance your project.

Next week, we invite you to conduct one-to-one meetings with other stakeholders. Your map will serve as a resource as you strategically identify and recruit stakeholders, and as a tool to help you assemble your assets into new relationships, structures, sources of power, and opportunities.

Keep in mind: Your map is not static. It is important for you and your team to revisit your map as your project grows and evolves. For example, after you have engaged in a round of one-to-one meetings, you may want to re-map your stakeholders and assets. Early one-to-one meetings will offer clues about who may be good prospects for leadership roles, or who might be members of more than one group – because, for example, it is possible for opposition to come from within our constituency. It’s also important to keep track of who else is out there that you haven’t yet mapped.

Your map is central to strategizing — i.e. turning the assets that you have into the assets that you need to achieve your project’s measurable aim.

Appendix: Distinguishing Between Values, Interests & Assets

Lead Faculty Kate Hilton offered the following responses to questions raised by a learner.

How do we discern values?

To understand our values, we examine the choices we have made. Our choices correlate to our values. What motivates people? What choices have they made, and why? When we learn others’ values, it allows us to be strategic about how to motivate them to action.

How do we distinguish between values and interests? Why is it important?

I value equality, and I have an interest in ensuring that I get equal pay as a woman. There are a lot of other interests that I might have given my value in equality. I also value my family’s health, and I have an interest in ensuring that my son gets his annual flu vaccine.

Our choices stem from our values and are expressions of our interests. Following the above example, I made a choice to take my son to get his flu vaccine, and that is because I value his health. As another example, I made a choice to host our local emergency medical technician (EMT) at my house to train me and the members of my local moms’ group in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for infants, kids and adults. That is because I value the ability to respond in an emergency, to exercise agency, and to save lives.

What are assets?

Our people – who they are, their talents, skills and experiences – are the most important assets to our work in organizing. Individuals’ skills, decision-making power, knowledge, relationships, funding – these are assets. Knowledge of the local community, sources of community pride, networks – these are assets. The physical and economic resources of a neighborhood or community – these are assets. An organization’s constituency, sources of support, shared interests – these are assets. Our people’s time is perhaps the greatest asset of all.

Can you give an example of how you would conduct a “mutual exchange” analysis?

For instance, when I'm in a one-to-one meeting with another mother, she might mention that she has an interest in helping her child develop better sleep patterns. She values her child's health, her child's sleep, her own sleep, peace, and energy. I might have an interest in speaking with her, too; for instance, I'd like our kids to play together and to connect with her about the things we are learning as new moms. My value is in social connectedness and learning. Given her interest in sleep patterns, I can serve as a resource to her. I have a book that I can lend her on establishing sleep patterns. She has a resource she can offer me: ongoing conversations together and playdates for our kids. We make an exchange. I lend her the book, and we secure the next commitment to get together.

How does this analysis help us in our projects?

This is obviously a simple example (and a revealing one about my current stage in life!), but the idea is that we do this all the time. In organizing, we are just especially intentional about it. Our interest is usually in advancing our project in some way.  The person we are speaking with has assets we need to advance it (or we think they do).  We want to be clear in mapping who has the assets we need –– and learn what their interests and values are –– so we can make potential exchanges with them.

How can we help them meet an interest (driven by their values)? What assets do we (or our project) offer them? As we build relationships, we make mutual exchanges to support our project's purpose. That is why we map values, interest, and assets: because our power comes from our people, from joining with one another and exchanging assets so we can develop the power we need to achieve our measurable aims.

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Constituents

Values:

Interests:

Assets:

Leadership

Values:

Interests:

Assets:

Competition

Values:

Interests:

Assets:

Supporters

Values:

Interests:

Assets:

Opposition

Values:

Interests:

Assets:

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Lesson 4 Exercise

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