What are stakeholder maps and why to use them

About the basics of stakeholder mapping: what it is, what value it provides and how it can be used in an organization.

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Transcript

METHODS. STAKEHOLDER MAPS

What is a stakeholder?
In order to do that we have to understand what a stakeholder is.
A stakeholder is a person, organization or aspect that has a certain interest in or relationship to a specific topic or business. For example an employee could be a stakeholder, government, or even something like a digital platform. It is a type of system map that focuses specifically on the Who. You can expand on stakeholder maps with value network maps and ecosystem maps. We have examples of those maps in our learning resources.

How can you use this in your organization?
Stakeholder maps can be used to understand who is involved in a project or organization, and how these people, organizations and aspects are connected.

Stakeholder maps provide four different types of value.

1. Zoom In and Focus:
You could use the tool to evaluate your competitors from your customer’s perspective. Or you could illustrate who the external stakeholders are that influence your business.

2. Zoom Out
Depending on how you use them, stakeholder maps can also help you to zoom out and see who might need to include, or what opportunities or risks you might have overlooked.

3. Designing Resilient Systems, products or services
With a stakeholder map you can easily identify relationships or partnerships that could be formed so that your organization leverages several parts of a system and does not rely just on one.

4. Communicate
Lastly, it can help you communicate to your team and other stakeholders complex information, problems or systems.

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