Stakeholder Reciprocation Tool

The typical stakeholder mapping tools rank individuals or different parties involved based on their power and influence, a hierarchical approach to service design. These hierarchical ways of thinking and designing, in my opinion, are over-amplifying individualistic and competitive mindsets, and in some cases, they have led to dysfunctional feedback loops in social systems. I argue that these mindsets are inherently detaching and are not in tune with nature and the ecosystem to which we belong. Mainly because most species on the planet interact based on mutualism, which helps nature regenerate and sustain itself. For instance, bees pollinate flowers and feed off them; we breathe and turn oxygen into carbon dioxide, and the trees receive them and turn them into oxygen for us, see more wonders here. Nature is an incredible source of healing if we let it inspire us!

Clownfish and anemones protect each other from predators /Photograph by Mikael Kvist/ Moment/Getty Images

I started to wonder how I could design an organization that encourages mutualism (Cultivating Reciprocity project) to compensate for individualistic and competitive mindsets that cause dysfunctional feedback loops. Therefore, I needed to design the required and appropriate tools that would not implicitly encourage otherwise. And this Stakeholder Reciprocation Tool is the result; please let me know if you have any comments, objections, or suggestions. It is always appreciated!

Many known stakeholder mapping tools prioritize people based on the impact of their power. Instead we can consider what they need from the service, how the service could provide it for them and how they could contribute to the service.

I designed this tool to help us:

• Identify all the entities that could have an influence on this organization or be impacted by this organization

• Recognize their needs and potential contributions

• Design for reciprocal interactions.

Instructions

1. Start by listing any possible stakeholder in your organization.

2. Group them into different categories.

3. Assign each category a hue and write them on sticky notes or a shape in online tools as nodes.

4. Connect the nodes.

5. Use the attached triangles of each node to divide their needs and potential/known contributions.

1. Choose a lighter/darker shade of each node's hue to to colour a triangle attached to the node (for Needs).

2. Choose another lighter/darker shade of each node's hue to to colour the other triangle attached to the node (for Contributions).

6. Choose a colour or and se the inner polygon to mix and match needs and contributions and design reciprocal interactions.

You can either draw a big enough polygon to write down all the needs and contributions in the relative section or just use the polygon as your colour guide and do the listing and mix and matching on the side.

I hope this tool can help you find new opportunities for collaboration and reciprocity, and even connecting various stakeholders to form other reciprocal relationships through your organization.

Let me know what you think!