People affected
Who experiences the issue directly? Who bears the costs, benefits or risks of the decision?
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Stakeholder Mapping for Trust and Influence
Map formal authority alongside lived experience, relationships and trusted community connections.
By Blaise Itabelo · Updated 26 September 2026
A practical guide for discussion and planning. Adapt it to the people, purpose and authority involved; it is not a validated assessment instrument.
Categories to consider together
Use these prompts together and revisit them as you learn. They are not a fixed sequence.
Decision authority
Who can approve, fund, change or stop the work? What accountability do they carry?
Knowledge and experience
Who understands the history, local context, service system or practical delivery conditions?
Trust and relationships
Who connects people and institutions? Where are relationships strong, strained or missing?
Interest and influence
What matters to each group, and how can it influence the outcome? Do not confuse visibility with legitimacy.
Engagement approach
What contact, participation and follow-up suits each relationship? Update the map as the work develops.
Illustrative application
What this can look like
A programme team adds informal community networks and people who stopped using the service to a map previously dominated by agencies. It changes its listening plan to include those perspectives.
This is a hypothetical planning example, not a claim about a client engagement.
A working note for your project
Copy these headings into your planning document. Record evidence and uncertainty, then agree who will follow up.
- Person or group and relationship to the issue:
- Interests, experience and concerns:
- Authority, influence and trusted connections:
- Appropriate engagement method:
- Relationship owner and next contact:
Before acting: check who has contributed, what is still uncertain, and who has authority to make the next decision.
Connect the guide with practice
These prompts bring together common engagement and planning practices. They are offered as practical working guidance, without a claim that the underlying ideas are unique.