Overview, Learning Objectives, Reading Assignments, and Resources
Module 4: How to Conduct a Stakeholder Assessment and Why it Is Important
As a value champion it is important to identify stakeholders who will be impacted by efforts to reduce the use of a service and approaches to engage them.
Overview
The purpose of this module is to introduce the concept of a stakeholder, explain why identifying and engaging them is important, and present approaches for doing so. Any effort to reduce the use of a service impacts multiple stakeholders across an organization. Stakeholders can impede or facilitate your work as a value champion, therefore it is important to understand who those stakeholders are, how efforts to reduce a service will impact them, and approaches to engaging them in your work to increase the likelihood of reducing the use of an overused service.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the reasons why a stakeholder analysis is beneficial when considering a project in high value healthcare.
- Describe some common stakeholder positions.
- Develop a strategy to identify stakeholders in the planning stage of a project.
Reading Assignments
How to Manage and Influence Internal Stakeholders
This article is behind a paywall but you can often read it as one of your limited "free" articles. Check with your clinic or institution for access.
This article was written from the perspective of someone who is a “buyer” for their organization. Whenever you see the word “buyer” substitute the phrase “clinical champion” (you!). The 5 tips to identify, manage and influence stakeholders within your clinical setting will then make a lot more sense!
- Citation: Jonathan Webb, How to Manage and Influence Internal Stakeholders, Forbes, Dec 27, 2017.
Five Questions to Identify Key Stakeholders
This article is behind a paywall. HBR will allow you one "free" article a month. Check with your clinic or institution for access.
The list of potential stakeholders from the large practice of brain and spine surgeons is particularly interesting in this article. It also provides an example of how you need to expand your beyond your usual clinical silo if you are to successfully identify important stakeholders.
- Citation: Graham Kenny, Five Questions to Identify Key Stakeholders, Harvard Business Review, Mar 6, 2014.
Identifying and Determining Involvement of Stakeholders
The list of questions for potential stakeholders is especially helpful. The answers to the questions will inform your decisions about which stakeholders you should expend more effort to engage with.
- Citation: Identifying and Determining Involvement of Stakeholders, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Resources
TAO Webinar: What is a Stakeholder Assessment and Why is it Important?
This video provides a practical “how to” guide of creating a ‘power mapping’ grid of stakeholders and how such a grid can be used to plan your engagement strategies.
This is a step-by-step guide with a worksheet to use when identifying stakeholders, a suggested mapping grid and an example of a stakeholder log to track your engagement with them.
- Imperial College London