10 Identifying, Inviting, and Listening to Stakeholders

Engaging with stakeholders is one of my most cherished parts of community change work because it is the most meaningful and the most personal. It gets me out of my office, away from conference rooms, and into coffee shops or libraries. It can also be one of the most challenging parts because of the time it often takes for meaningful engagement. However, the outcome will always be better. Always. This is true because community stakeholders hold the key to unlocking the solutions to the problems that impact them. This should make sense, but unfortunately community stakeholders historically often weren’t viewed as experts. Liedetka, Salzman, and Azer (2017) remind us that change-makers would often engage with the community only once a solution or solutions were planned out and only to receive validation. This is not true engagement or brainstorming. The mindset behind this was that expertise was held by academics or people in positions of political power and that problems could be solved through very careful analysis of the data. The impact of this is that the next time engagement happens, the intent and authenticity of the person initiating the engagement (social worker, public health professional, community correctional officer, etc.) will likely be questioned and it will be even harder to establish trust. This may not feel valid or fair to the person doing the engagement, but if you take a step back and assess the historical perspective, it is very fair.

Instead, contemporary theories of change-making celebrate the wisdom of the community, particularly people who are most directly impacted by an issue or the people who are unlikely to be engaged in traditional ways but who would have thoughtful opinions on the problem.  The process of authentic engagement leads to the democratizing of problem-solving and innovation, which results in solutions that are more likely to have buy-in and are more likely to be effective. Both systems thinking and design thinking not only emphasize authentic engagement but also reinforce the idea of engaging diverse stakeholders at the beginning of a problem. This will help ‘produce a richer picture’ of the system that is being analyzed in the problem-solving (pg 92). With design thinking, everyone is involved in the innovation, which is one of the primary principles of this newer model of change-making. The diversity of the discussion will result in better solutions.

Identifying the Stakeholders

A stakeholder in community change work is someone who has a vested interest in a problem, often because they are directly impacted by it.  Basically, they have a ‘stake’ in the problem and in the positive resolution of the problem. They likely have a story to share, opinions that have formed, and ideas for how to address the problem. Some people tend to equate a stakeholder with formal political power, like the mayor of a community or the school board, but the stakeholders are so much more diverse in perspective.

Let’s take the issue of youth mental health, which is currently in a state of crisis. The stakeholders on this topic should include:

• youth who have been mentally well and those who have been struggling
• youth who are more likely to be at risk of mental health struggles, including those who are or beginning to identify as LGBTQ+
• parents of these youth
• sibling and friends
• teachers and school administrators
• school counselors and school social workers
• therapists
• pediatricians
• youth social service agency staff and youth advocates
• community leaders
• certified peer support specialists, often working in mental health substance use

The stakeholder list should be diverse in perspective, always include people personally impacted by the issue that is being examined, and always include people who are personally invested in an outcome or resolution of an issue.

 Inviting the Stakeholders

Once the stakeholders have been identified, the next step is to determine the most effective way to engage with them. This typically includes the step of inviting them to a conversation. This is a very, very important step which requires thoughtfulness and patience.

Before you can invite someone to a conversation you need to determine the best way to engage with them in an authentic way that is respectful and likely to foster trust. This should include thinking about the natural ways of engaging with the stakeholders that would increase their comfort and sense of welcome, and therefore increase their likelihood of participation. If you invite them to a meeting, are they likely to come? Put another way: if you were invited to a meeting by someone you had never heard of before and possibly questioned their motivation—would you attend?  Hopefully, the answer is “maybe,” depending on how they invited you.

There are many considerations of effective invitation, including:

• Extent the stakeholder will feel welcomed:  As Marnita’s Table reminds us, we can create a space that is welcoming and inclusive—not just say that it is important. Is the person going to be in a space that is physically welcoming to them? Are they going to be in a space that would likely include other people with similarities to them?
• Extent participation is a burden:  Should you provide transportation, pay for transportation, or perhaps select a place that is particularly convenient for them? Is engaging with you going to cost them anything? If so, you should compensate them for this cost if possible.
• Considering accessibility:  Are you identifying a space that is physically accessible? Is the time convenient? If the meeting is virtual, does the person have access to the Internet?
• Convenience of engagement:  Could you talk on the phone instead of an in-person meeting? Would they appreciate a virtual conversation, using something like Zoom? Would they like to meet at a coffee shop or at their own home? Would they like to bring a friend or child, or be in a group?
• Benefit to the stakeholder:  In what ways will they benefit from the engagement? What is in it for them, either in the short term or long term?

Listening to Stakeholders

When you are successful in inviting stakeholders to a conversation about an issue—whether to an individual phone call, community meeting, virtual focus group, or other method—you need to plan for how you are going to listen and document what you hear. People deserve to have their time to be used in a valuable way, so you need to be prepared to listen.

Preparing to Listen

One aspect of preparing to listen to stakeholders is to identify the goal of the stakeholder conversations and which questions are likely going to help you achieve that goal. Typically, you will want to understand their experience or how they are impacted by an issue, as well as their ideas for solving it. Those are likely also the things they are going to want to share. People are less likely to want to just talk about issues without sharing ideas.

So, have only a few questions to ask and make most of them open-ended so that the answer could include a story, ideas, examples, or other descriptive ways of communicating. Samples of helpful questions are shared in the next chapter.

Preparing to Document

You also should be prepared to document what you are learning without being too intrusive or impersonal. This likely would include just bringing a notebook with you or having one handy. I discourage audio taping the conversation and instead, focus on listening and handwriting notes. This is also explained in more detail in the next section. Since stakeholders deserve to have their time used in a valuable way, you need to ensure that you are not just enjoying the conversation you are having with them but actually taking notes so that the information can be used after the conversation. Most of us are unable to remember an entire conversation after it occurs, so it is best to document during it.  And, it demonstrates to the person that what they are saying has meaning and value. It also presents an opportunity for you to ask them to validate what you are writing down.

Returning to the example of youth mental health and well-being; just imagine how rich the insight would be if we were able to hear about the current reality regarding mental health and well-being from each stakeholder group on our list. The reality would likely include stories about the factors that contribute to someone’s positive mental health, stories about struggles to access traditional care for mental illness, stories about seeking crisis care—what worked and what didn’t work, as well as what it is like to be a part of delivering mental health care and observing the development of mental well-being. All of this is important.