Identifying the Internal and External Stakeholders, the Level of Organizational and Community Engagement, and the Target Champions

Overview

The third book chapter covers an often-overlooked aspect of sustainability and resilience planning, stakeholder identification, and the level of staff and community engagement, including designs necessary to implementing the strategies and initiatives. A sequence of the appropriate steps in identifying internal and external stakeholders for organizational sustainability and resilience planning is explained.  Similar to the process of mapping out the sustainability and resilience planning, stakeholder engagement process is multilayered, and it involves different stakeholders, internal and external.   Internal stakeholders include the elected and appointed officials, staff, and part-time employees. External stakeholders are residents, community members, partners, nonprofit and business organizations and their representatives, boards and task forces, vendors, contractors, regional, state, and national organizations. The initial step to sustainability and resilience planning is to include staff, define roles and responsibilities, and identify target champions. The sustainability and resilience planning process may be used as an opportunity to empower employees to own the designated targets, promote leadership and accountability, and further the collaboration between departments.

“Cities are fantastically dynamic places, and this is strikingly true of their successful parts, which offer a fertile ground for the plans of thousands of people.” Page 14, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs, J. (1961). New York, NY: Vintage Books.