THE DELIVERY BOOK
Decide who will respond to the problem
Some people are able to have more of an impact on users than others. Deciding who is best placed to respond to a problem and getting their agreement to act are the most influential factors on whether a user will experience any change and how effective that change is.
When to do it
Do this after you have mapped your users and stakeholders (see chapter: identify users and stakeholders).
How to do it
You should:
map users and stakeholders that have an interest in the problem
analyse degrees of separation between stakeholders and the user
consider the types of actions that could be taken by you and your stakeholders
estimate their impact on the user and the problem
consider the stakeholders ability and motivation to collaborate on solving the problem
choose the best approach and seek agreement with the owner of the work such as the senior responsible officer
plan how and when to persuade people to address the problem
Try this activity
This activity will help you identify who could respond to the problem (actors). It will give you a map of potential actors and analysis of whether they might collaborate.
Time, space and materials
45 minutes
your user and stakeholder map (see the chapter: identify users and stakeholders)
any space with a wall, sticky notes, paper, pens and some tape or some large (flipchart-sized) paper for a face-to-face event
or for a remote event use a video conference and online whiteboard that will take the place of the wall and enable participants to add and move online ‘sticky notes’
Preparation
draw or use tape to make a vertical line on the wall that is at least one metre long
at the bottom of the line, write ‘user’
at the middle of the line, write ‘you’
People to include
subject matter experts
the owner, such as the senior responsible owner
any number of people
a facilitator to provide the instructions
Instructions
The purpose of this activity is to identify who is best placed to respond to the problem and assess how likely it is that they will do so.
Add a sticky note for each of the users that you have identified to the bottom of the vertical line. Add a sticky note with your own name or team name to the middle of the line. This line shows closeness or proximity to the user. Some people or organisations have a direct relationship with the user. Others will influence the user indirectly. You are going to create a map showing ‘degrees of separation’.
Choose stakeholders that could take action to change the user’s behaviour and contribute to solving the problem. For every stakeholder that you choose, add a sticky note to the line. Order the stakeholders to show degrees of separation from the user. People that work directly with the user should be in the first layer, and so on. You and your team might be in the first layer from the user, or there may be one or more layers between you and the user. You are aiming to create 4 to 7 layers. Add the sticky notes now, look where other people have placed their sticky notes, discuss and agree the positioning with each other. You have 10 minutes.
Write down actions that each stakeholder could take. Keep the description short, like ‘make reporting easier’. Write your actions on sticky notes and stick them next to the stakeholder name. You have 10 minutes.
Assign people to different parts of the map so that everyone has an equal number of stakeholders to work on. Everyone should now read all their stakeholder’s actions. Group together similar ones. If you need to make the action clearer, write a new sticky note. You have 2 minutes.
Each person should tell everyone else what actions have been suggested. You have 1 minute each.
Vote on the actions that will have the greatest impact on your problem. Everyone gets 5 votes. Put your votes in one place or share them around, it is up to you. Vote by marking the sticky note with a big dot. Everyone should think about how they are going to vote for one minute, then all vote at the same time.
Take the prioritised actions and put them on another part of the wall in order of popularity. Create 2 columns next to the action: ability and motivation.
Everyone now gets to score the actions. First, ability meaning can the stakeholder take the action. Second, motivation meaning does the stakeholder want to take the action. Score each category from 1 to 5. 1 is low. 5 is high. Write each score on a separate sticky note. Work alone and keep the score to yourself for now. We will put them up on the wall later. You have 2 minutes.
Everyone should now put their scores on the wall. Select one person to add up the scores. Discuss the outcome.
You now have a prioritised map of where action could be taken and analysis of how feasible it is that stakeholders will collaborate.
Tips
when considering actions, think about how the stakeholder could solve the problem, what they offer, and what existing things could be re-used
think about ways the government can try to change things, including policy and standards, commissioning, funding, and stewardship
think about ways to make existing things better by improving how people, processes and technology work together
consider how you can coordinate stakeholders in the same layer, so that you avoid creating or perpetuating silos
consider what would happen if you did nothing
when considering ability, think about capability, capacity, and dependencies
when considering motivation, think about how a stakeholder’s values, goals and ambitions align to yours
ask what action you or your team could take to increase the ability or motivation of stakeholders
Next steps
do the activity, Shape your delivery network, to help inform your decision on who should respond
seek strategic guidance from the owner of the work. It’s likely that they will determine who should take the work forward
Further reading
Find out more about this topic by searching the internet for:
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Liberating structures: Panarchy
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United Nation: MIRA assessment tool
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Jennifer Dunne: Food Webs & ArchaeoEcology
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Wikipedia: six degrees of Kevin Bacon