Who’s Who

This tool supports you to identify the people who are at the heart of your project. It helps you take into account everyone who significantly impacts a decision, or could be affected by it.

Identifying who has various levels of input and interest in your projects can help with decisions and can help you to communicate with those significant people and manage their expectations.

Group Size: 4-40

Time frame: 30-60 mins

Materials: Whiteboard or butcher's paper, post-it notes, coloured pens or sticky dots

• Step 1: Create a Matrix

  On a whiteboard or flipchart draw a 2 x 2 Matrix with Influence and Interest on the axes, as above.

  (Y Axis) INFLUENCE: a person or organisation’s level of influence in your community — how much they can direct or influence a project and other people.

  (X Axis) INTEREST: the degree to which a person or organisation will be affected by your project.

• Step 2: Identify Who is Who

  Create a list of people (it can be short or long), groups or organisations by answering the following questions:

  • Who will be impacted by your project?

  • Who will be responsible or accountable for the project?

  • Who will have decision authority on the project?

  • Who can support or obstruct the project?

  • Who has been involved in a project like this before?

  Examples of people:

  • Participants

  • Neighbours

  • Students

  • Government

  • Interest groups

  • Key advisors / supporters

  • Partners

  • Suppliers

  • The press / media

  • Funders

• Step 3: Know your priorities

  Now mark 4 pieces of paper with the following headers to create 4 Lists:

  • High influence, high interest people

  • High influence, low interest people

  • Low influence, highly interested people

  • Low influence, low interest people

  Add each of the people/groups/organisations from Step 2 to one of the lists, based on their influence and interest (see Step 1 for definitions of influence and interest). 

  Now position each person/group/organisation on the Matrix (Step 1) based on the list they appear in and the extent of the influence and interest (see image below).

• Step 4: Clarify Communications

  Below is a guide to how to communicate with the people/groups/organisations on each list:

  • High influence, high interest people (Engage Closely): Keep these people fully engaged, make an effort to create opportunities for them to participate and have positive experiences of you and your project.

  • High influence, low interest people (Keep Connected): Put enough effort in with these people to keep them up to date, but not so much that they disengage over too much information.

  • Low influence, highly interested people (Keep Informed): Keep these people adequately informed, communicate with them to ensure that no key issues are emerging. People in this category can be very helpful in supporting you.

  • Low influence, low interest people (Monitor): Monitor these people as they may become more interested or more influential, but don’t disengage them by overly communicating.

  For example: Your project participants are likely to have high influence over your projects and high interest in them. Though, interest groups may have high interest in your projects but won’t have influence over them.

• Step 5: Identify Supporters, Critics and Neutrals

  Now, for each person/group/organisation on your list answer the following questions:

  • What motivates them most of all about your project?

  • What is their current opinion of your work?

  • What might you do to create or maintain their support for your project?

  These questions will help you identify if they are currently:

  • Advocates & supporters (Green) 

  • Critics (Red)

  • Neutral (Orange)

  Put a coloured dot next to their name on the Matrix (see below image).

You can now clearly see which relationships to prioritise. e.g. any critics who need to become Supporters. In the example image, Person D has high interest and high influence in the project but is currently a critic.

Consider if you are communicating effectively with people at the moment. Identify any actions you could take to get the most from your supporters, and how you could win over any critics.

Created by Amity. Inspired by Hyper Island.

For more tools and support with your volunteering work you can join the In Our Nature Learning Hub. The In Our Nature Learning Hub is an invitation to slow down, spend some time with yourself, and get a fresh perspective so that you can bring your best to your community and our planet. The Learning Hub is completely free for you to access at any point in your community (climate) volunteering journey and is open for everyone.