10-2 Who: Defining Group Composition

Another element that must be addressed in the group’s organization stage is “who” will be part of the group. In a collaborative agreement seeking process, it is important to include those stakeholders who are needed to implement a solution as well as those who might have the power to block the implementation of a solution.

As this chart suggests, in pulling a group together it is important to consider not just what interests should be at the table, but who might be the best individual to represent that interest. It may be that a member of an organization is more apt to be respected or trusted by the group or is more temperamentally suited to work in a collaborative process than someone else from that same organization.  The organization needs to select its representative, but it is helpful to have relevant feedback from the neutral assessor, and to choose someone who will work well collaboratively.

Look back at your External Stakeholder Worksheet and any other information you gathered in your assessment work in your Student Assignment blog post 9-0 and related analysis, and pull together a list of the people (or at least the organizations, if you don’t know the people) whom you now would assess need to be part of this collaborative agreement seeking process, given the way the purpose has now been framed.  Post it in the Student Assignment blog post 10-2.  Post comments or questions on the topic below.