National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools

Hi everyone,
I am working with a group in my agency in creating evidence planning framework, and a piece of this that we are in need of is a tool to assess stakeholder perspectives. I'm having difficulty locating these! We have found one but it is extremely lengthy. Any ideas?

Hi Novella,

Thanks for starting this new discussion topic!

I have a few ideas in terms of tools that can be used to assess stakeholder perspectives, but I first wanted to find out a few more details from you.

Would you be able to explain what you mean by an “evidence planning framework”? Also, I’m curious what tool you have already come across to assess stakeholder perspectives. Would you be able to share the reference?

There are tools available to do a stakeholder analysis and also to ‘map’ stakeholders. Are you interested in doing a stakeholder analysis? That is, identifying groups that have an interest in your issue and sorting them according to their impact on the issue?

Hi Kirsten,
Thanks for your reply. The framework is for the agency in terms of the program cycle - from identifying an issue until evaluation. We're interested in user-friendly tools for staff to systematically gather stakeholder perspectives. The tool we have currently found is:

http://www.geoconnections.org/publications/Key_documents/UNA_UCD_Guide_V4_eng.pdf

Hi Novella,

Thanks for sharing a link to the tool you have found!

There is a resource that I could point you to that may be useful for assessing stakeholder perspectives, it is the International Development Research Centre (2008) “The Knowledge Translation Toolkit (Bridging the Know–Do Gap: A Resource for Researchers)” and specifically, Chapter 4 “Context Mapping”. Within this chapter they describe how to carry out a ‘stakeholder analysis’ which seeks to gather and organize information on the interests, behaviour, intentions and influence of different stakeholders in relation to a specific issue. Steps include: creating a stakeholder table, assessing each stakeholder's importance and influence, and identifying risks and assumptions. Our summary statement of this resource is currently being translated and will soon be added to our registry of methods and tools.

Here is a direct link to this toolkit:

The Knowledge Translation Toolkit

(http://publicwebsite.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Pages/IDRCBookDetails.aspx?PublicationID=851)

On page 57, this resource also provides a list of additional resources and tools for stakeholder analysis that I think could be quite useful.

Is this the kind of tool that your group was looking for?

Thanks for this Kirsten. I also noticed in the NCCMT newsletter yesterday, that the RNAO toolkit has a tool for stakeholder assessment. I'll bring these both back to the group for discussion!

Yes, RNAO's Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines resource has a chapter dedicated to identifying, analyzing and engaging your stakeholders (ch. 2). This chapter also provides step-by-step instructions for conducting a stakeholder analysis.

Once your group has a chance to discuss these tools, it would be great to hear their feedback! Feel free to return to the forum to share your thoughts and ideas.