Develop a Stakeholder Map for This Semester's Sponsored Project
Initial Publication Date: March 3, 2022
Summary
Students create a single Stakeholder Map (using Mural.co) for the whole team based on information from this semester's project sponsor and based on insights from interviews that they have conducted.
CollapseLearning Goals
- Concepts: Complex systems
- Content: Stakeholder mapping
- This particular course-specific activity did not rely on data from environmental disciplines
- The main higher-order thinking skill I believe the exercise develops is systems thinking
- Content: Stakeholder mapping
- This particular course-specific activity did not rely on data from environmental disciplines
- The main higher-order thinking skill I believe the exercise develops is systems thinking
Context for Use
Educational Level: Graduate (M.S.)
Class Size: 17
Institution Type: University
Type of Activity: Classroom Activity; Project
How much Time is Needed: 2+ hrs
Technical Skills Needed: Familiarity with an online whiteboard tool such as Mural.co
Disciplinary Skills Needed: Familiarity with stakeholder mapping; a basic understanding of complex systems theory; interviewing skills
How is the activity situated in the course?: The activity takes place early in the semester as it provides a good foundation for helping students to develop an awareness of all of the relevant stakeholders in the project
Adaptation to Other Settings: Easy, especially after students have completed the common exercise
Class Size: 17
Institution Type: University
Type of Activity: Classroom Activity; Project
How much Time is Needed: 2+ hrs
Technical Skills Needed: Familiarity with an online whiteboard tool such as Mural.co
Disciplinary Skills Needed: Familiarity with stakeholder mapping; a basic understanding of complex systems theory; interviewing skills
How is the activity situated in the course?: The activity takes place early in the semester as it provides a good foundation for helping students to develop an awareness of all of the relevant stakeholders in the project
Adaptation to Other Settings: Easy, especially after students have completed the common exercise
Description and Teaching Materials
Goal:
Using Mural, create a single Stakeholder Map mural for the whole team based on information from this semester's project sponsor and insights from the interviews that you have conducted thus far.
Instructions:
- Begin with individual brainstorming (set a timer). Who are the relevant stakeholders? How do they interact with one another? If you don't know something (e.g., how they interact), add a "?" post-it.
- Then, work together to develop a map for the whole team.
Teaching Notes and Tips
I found that one of the teams did not follow the instructions to work individually to produce their own maps before working together to produce a single team map. Instead, they nominated one individual to record all of the team's ideas about the various stakeholders, and also used a stakeholder map template from Mural (Mural.co) that had a predefined structure with blank areas in which stakeholders could be added. I believe this was problematic for the exercise because I believe that having students create maps individually generally helps the teams avoid a certain amount of "groupthink," and that using a template with a predefined structure encourages participants to make their mental model of the problem conform to the constraints of the template. In the future, I think it will be important to clarify that it's critically important that everyone work individually first, and also clarify that they should use a blank mural or whiteboard rather than a mind map template that imposes a predefined structure on their ideation.
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Assessment
A modified version of the rubric used for the common exercise will be used to assess the degree to which student teams identified relevant stakeholders and the interactions between those stakeholders.