Reply To: Lesson 4 Discussion Question

Managing stakeholder engagement and multiple partnerships is definitely difficult, but it is also critical to the success of much (if not all) of the work I am involved in with my organization. My colleagues and I work to do extensive stakeholder mapping at the beginning of any new project/initiative and work to outline which different roles (e.g., partners, collaborators, advisers, working group members) for stakeholders. Those we identify as potential partners or collaborators include other groups with parallel efforts and/or missions–this allows sharing and pooling of resources and expertise. Those we identify as advisers include prominent individuals with influence in the various stakeholder groups they represent–this helps to ensure the needs of different stakeholders is reflected in our work, and also helps with communicating progress/results from our work back to those stakeholder communities. Early engagement is key to ensuring sustained “buy-in” and prolonged partnerships–stakeholders are more likely to be committed to an effort when they have played an active role in helping to shape a project/program, and as such would be more invested in the long run to success of the effort.