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VISIONING:
STAKEHOLDER MAPPING
This module focuses on the people who are at the front and center of any maker education program. It guides you to identify and clarify stakeholders, messaging, decision-making power, and reach. You’ll identify and map out your stakeholders, their interests, and their influence. Based on the needs of your program, you will set stakeholder goals.
OBJECTIVE: Visualize the members and groups within your community and how they interact with each other and your organization.
OBJECTIVE: Set goals for engaging with stakeholders.
Who are stakeholders?
Stakeholders are community members who have are connected to your maker education program. Stakeholders are both internal and external to your organization. Examples of stakeholders are youth, educators, staff, volunteers, and donors.
PROGRAM VALUES
What do we mean by
stakeholder mapping?
Stakeholder mapping is the process of visually laying out all the people (stakeholders) involved in a project, program, or idea on a map. In addition to the stakeholders, connections, responsibilities, what role they play, and any important knowledge they may hold are documented on the map. Stakeholder mapping can be used to support the development of community, program development, finding resources, and creating a communications plan.
GETTING STARTED
This module can be completed on your own; however, you’ll have a much richer discussion if this is a collaborative effort with colleagues and partners.
WHO YOU'LL NEED
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Miro, Padlet, or Jamboard and downloaded copies of the Stakeholder Mapping and Stakeholder Goal Setting resources
whiteboard, post-its, chart paper, markers, and a printed copy of the Stakeholder Mapping and Stakeholder Goal Setting resources
VIRTUAL
PHYSICAL
TIME TO COMPLETE
The program values module will take you and your team at least two hours to work through the first time. Remember this is an iterative process - you may need to come back and revise your thinking after you work through other modules.
LET'S PLAN!
PART ONE: Stakeholder Mapping
1. Reflect Individually
Brainstorm a list of stakeholders.
Who in your community has a connection to your maker education program? Who participates in it? Who has barriers to participate in it? Who has an interest in your program? Who are your staff members?
2. Identify Stakeholders with Colleagues
Who are the stakeholders in your organization?
In-person
Use the Maker Ed stakeholder cards to identify the individuals that make your organization effective and to whom you are accountable. Cut out the cards that are relevant to your org (i.e teaching aids or local librarians). If you have stakeholders not listed, use blank cards or post-ists to draft your own (use your brainstorming in step one as a reference.)
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Virtual
Use the Maker Ed Stakeholder Cards resource as a reference. Add stakeholders from page two of the resource and your brainstorm to an online thinking space such as Padlet or Jamboard.
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3. Create a Stakeholder Map with Colleagues
Arrange the cards to map your community and make visible connections, categories, priorities, or dependencies.
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Add notes to your map:
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Identify what particular stakeholders care about (e.g. student engagement, learning outcomes, cultivating community, money, safety, test scores, etc.)
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Identify barriers for participants (e.g. transportation, language, money, feeling unwelcome, topics or project areas that are not interesting, identity of facilitators & other participants, time of offerings, etc.)
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Identify barriers for other stakeholders (e.g. access to staff, ability to influence programming and policy, language, etc.)
4. Identify Key Stakeholders with Colleagues
Take a look at your stakeholder map and choose three key stakeholders who you think are most important to focus on. Choose at least one stakeholder who has barriers to participation that you identified on the map. Also choose a stakeholder who’s voice you need to hear as you continue to design and who is often not heard from.
Reflect on and discuss what they care about, how you can reach them, and what barriers they might have to participation.
Record your thinking in your Collaborative Visioning Journal.
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If you aren’t sure how to choose key stakeholders, use this activity to sort them and find your “targets”. For an example of what this looks like in practice, read through this activity and facilitation guide for stakeholder mapping developed by the U.S. Education Delivery Institute (EDI).
KEY STAKEHOLDER EXAMPLE
TEALS, an organization that promotes sustainable K–12 computer science programs, identifies counselors as key stakeholders in helping to increase the diversity of students enrolling in high school computer science classes. Counselors who understand the content and benefit of a computer science class can better encourage and support students who traditionally don’t take computer science classes to enroll and benefit.
KEY STAKEHOLDER EXAMPLE
At the Bubbler at Madison Public Library (a Making Spaces Hub), Rebecca Millerjohn, the teaching and learning librarian at Madison Public Library, noted that the school librarian was a key stakeholder in her work with schools to develop maker-centered learning efforts. Librarians often work across grade levels and collaborate with teachers throughout the school. They also have more flexible space and time. The school librarians were a central figure in these efforts, and thus were identified as a key stakeholder for implementing maker-centered learning at their sites.
PART TWO: Stakeholder Goal Setting
1. Reflect Individually
Using the three key stakeholders you focused on in part 1 of this module, reflect on
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Which stakeholders do you already know, which stakeholders do you need to build relationships with?
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Who’s voice do you think is key to your program’s next steps?
​Who’s voice isn’t present that needs to be part of the conversation or the work?
2. Set Stakeholder Goals with Colleagues
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Use the Stakeholder Goals resource to set goals collaboratively.
Who do you want to communicate with? What and why do you want to communicate with them?
Formulate sentences around your values, stakeholders, and goals. You can use these prompts:
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I will connect with (stakeholder) in order to (need/goal/hope) which is aligned with (value).
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We are interested in (value). We will connect with (stakeholder) around (need/goal/hope).
Record your thinking in your Collaborative Visioning Journal.
