Stakeholders Archives - Nicole Clark Consulting

19 Jul, 2024

Try This: Narrow Your Partnership Focus

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-07-19T11:48:18-04:00July 19th, 2024|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Community Partnerships, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this activity and let me know how it goes for you.

Inviting organizations to join a partnership requires strategizing on who to invite, articulating the partnership’s value add, each partner knowing their role, and being open to shifts in how partners participate over time.

While a partnership works in service of addressing an emerging community need, how and what gets addressed requires its own strategy. After establishing how to work together, you need something to work on.

This activity is ideal for:

Partnership members with experience in facilitating meetings
Partnership members with experience in engaging communities
Partnership members with experience in data collection and analysis

What you’ll need:

A method for taking notes

The steps:

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29 Feb, 2024

Try This: Get Your Ideal Community Partners On Board

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-02-28T21:57:39-05:00February 29th, 2024|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Community Partnerships, Facilitation, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Engaging the right community partners to join your partnership is crucial to facilitating a process that’s mutually beneficial.

As you plan your introductory partnership meeting, you need to figure out who to invite, and why.

You see the value in working with these organizations, and you want them there to advance your mission.

The WHY behind your ask is important as these potential partners will ask:

What’s in it for me?

If they can’t see their value add to this partnership, they won’t join you. So, be prepared to show them.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for facilitating workshops, meetings, or trainings
Staff with experience in engaging community organizations

What you’ll need:

Your community organization partner invitation list
A method for taking notes

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24 Aug, 2022

Try This: Assess Staff & Board Buy-In

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-08-22T13:24:01-04:00August 24th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Board of Directors, Staff, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this and let me know how it goes for you.

This post is a follow up to What’s in it for Me? Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement, where I shared, “If [the question] “What’s in it for me?” sounds self-serving, it’s because it is. In order to increase engagement, communities and the people driving the actions to produce change should easily see how their involvement leads to the change they wish to see.”

In other words, what you’re asking them to do not only has to make sense, but has to be worth it for them.

In theory, as their leader, what you should say goes, right? These days, this isn’t without a lot of push back.

In an ideal situation, you wouldn’t have to convince staff and board that what you want to happen matters. I’m sure it’s frustration when you experience the push back.

I recently finished a project where I observed that the executive director cared about that the process than staff and partners did.

Well, I could tell they understood the importance of the project and how it could support their work, but there was major hesitancy.

Let’s explore getting your staff, board (and anyone else that’s important to your project) on board.

This activity is ideal for:

Board of directors, staff, and other stakeholders expected to participate in this project

Here’s what you’ll need:

Schedule time for this activity, where you can work with minimal interruption. Make sure to schedule breaks!
Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.). Make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

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16 Feb, 2022

What’s in it for Me?: Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-02-15T09:54:43-05:00February 16th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Stakeholders, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Last fall, I joined an ad-hoc group to strategize around Black maternal health and abortion access. During our initial meeting, one member asked, “How will this be different from what’s currently being done?”

In the marketing and advertising world, there’s the question “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM for short).

“What’s in it for me?” is a tactic to describe (from your perspective) the benefits customers should expect to experience as a result of having the product or service. Getting customers to buy a product or service is one thing. But what keep customers coming back?

“What’s in it for me?” ins’t just a marketing tactic. It’s a barometer for stakeholder engagement. For our involvement, we expect to gain something in return.

“How will this be different from what’s currently being done?” is a variation on “What’s in is for me?” because while we still want to be a part of something that matters, we’re still need to determine if this one thing (in this case, participation in an ad hoc meeting that leads for a result) would be worth our time.

Whether driven by intrinsic drivers (experiencing a sense of accomplishment or a higher sense of self worth) or extrinsic ones (recognition for a job well done or payment is exchange for labor), as each person is different, each person is motivated by different things.

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27 Oct, 2021

Try This: Prioritizing Data Findings

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-10-27T14:58:54-04:00October 27th, 2021|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Data Sense-Making, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this out and let me know how it goes for you.

On the road to becoming grassroots and data driven, it’s tempting to start collecting data as soon as possible to determine your impact.

From funders and program participants to community leaders and policy makers, data you’ve gleaned from focus groups, informant interviews, and surveys juggle voices and perspectives of many stakeholders.

But once you have all this data, what do you do with it? And how do you prioritize these voices?

Here are 3 ways (from easy-to-do to more time-consuming) to prioritize your data findings.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for leading data sense making processes
Anyone interested in participating in data sense making processes
Anyone interested in applying evaluative thinking into their work

Here’s what you need:

Whatever setup you use to capture your ideas (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

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Try This: Narrow Your Partnership Focus

Try This: Get Your Ideal Community Partners On Board

Try This: Assess Staff & Board Buy-In

What’s in it for Me?: Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement

Try This: Prioritizing Data Findings

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