Families, teachers, and communities all have varying perspectives on what the school year can and should hold for students. School leaders need to balance these voices in decision-making through effective and authentic stakeholder engagement. Stakeholder engagement is essential for school leaders confronting change and uncertainty. And yet there are better and worse ways for school leaders to engage stakeholders in their decision-making processes: It’s far too easy to neglect important groups, spend too much time with some groups and not enough with others, or fail to take into account how past decisions and community context may affect the perception of leadership decisions. “A School Leader’s Guide to Effective Stakeholder Engagement” [LINK TK] can help school leaders avoid these pitfalls. This slide deck provides an overview of stakeholder engagement and easy-to-understand steps, and a linked workbook (on slide 5) provides a resource to support school leaders as they implement their approach.

1. Summer 2020
A School Leader’s Guide to Effective
Stakeholder Engagement
By Katie Rouse

2. 2
Orientation to this document
Schools can be remarkably vibrant communities, especially when they are
grounded in the input and perspective from parents, teachers, community
members, and students. Ongoing and proactive engagement with school
stakeholders is also critical to sustaining success over time.
School leaders often wrestle with decisions that will affect their community,
such as whether to open another school, change the school calendar, or begin
a leadership transition. Sometimes, as has been the case in responding to the
coronavirus pandemic, school leaders must confront changes and uncertainties
that are beyond their control. In all of these instances, effective stakeholder
engagement is essential.
This deck offers some simple tools for school leaders to use as they steer their
organizations through change.

3. 3
Who are my stakeholders, and what is stakeholder
engagement?
Effective stakeholder engagement:
• Builds relationships or trust
• Tailors communication to the needs and
interests of individuals/groups
• Uses a variety of methods to reach
audiences
• Surfaces and directly addresses
incoming hopes, concerns, and
commitments
• Enables successful implementation of an
organizational change or strategic plan
Stakeholder engagement is the process of identifying the needs and
expectations of the communities that support or benefit from your organization.
Stakeholders may include:
• Students enrolled in the school and their
families
• Community groups that partner with the
school and/or have helped the school build
relationships in the community
• Teachers and others who work at the
school
• Board members who govern the school
and represent the school to local influencers
• Funders who have invested (or could
invest) in the school’s success

4. 4
Thoughtful and effective stakeholder engagement follows
three simple steps
3) Plan for
stakeholder
engagement
2) Map the gap
between current
and desired
stakeholder
support
1) Identify your
stakeholders

5. 5
Identify stakeholders
Map the gap between
current and desired
stakeholder support
Plan for stakeholder
engagement
Key
Activities
List critical stakeholders
and what is fueling their
enthusiasm for and/or
resistance to the
changes planned
Map where stakeholders
are, where you hope they
might be, and the gap
that must be bridged to
earn their support
Define how and when to
engage each key
stakeholder group
Rationale
Defines and provides
context around priority
stakeholders
Clarifies how challenging
it will be for each group
to align
Identifies the right
activities to reach each
stakeholder group,
tailored to unique needs,
hopes, and goals
A simple and thoughtful engagement process helps support
effective change
Linked HERE is an Excel tool that you can use to map and plan for your
community
Step
1
Step
2
Step
3

6. 6
First, identify your stakeholder groups
● Are these the right groups? Who else would you add?
● How would you break groups down into subgroups (e.g., tenured/new staff;
families of younger/older students)?
Identify your stakeholders
Students Families Staff Board
Community
Partners
Other groups (e.g., sponsor or authorizer, philanthropy, local political leadership)?
Step 1

7. 7
Next, consider stakeholders’ perspectives
For each stakeholder group, consider:
● How will they perceive your potential changes in the school community?
● How might they strengthen and improve the plan for change?
● What perspectives, hopes, fears, or past experiences could fuel support or
resistance?
Define the vision for the change and potential
barriers to success
Step 2

8. 8
Finally, plan for engagement
Plan for engagement
• What existing dynamics should inform your approach?
– History of outreach and relationship-building with this group?
– Power dynamics to navigate or be mindful of?
• What is the purpose of engaging this group?
– To seek input to strengthen and refine the emerging plan?
– To inform or provide updates on process?
– Something else?
• How frequently will you engage this group?
– Regularly (e.g., weekly, daily)?
– At the Beginning, Middle, and End of the planning process?
– At the end only?
• How will you engage them? (e.g., weekly in-person updates, quarterly email updates)
For each stakeholder group, consider:
Step 3

9. 9
As you plan for engagement, consider how critical
stakeholder investment is to success
Levelofexistingsupportforchange
Importance to success of change or plan
Low support for change and critical
importance to success:
Engage early, often, and
deeply
Low support for change and not
deeply critical to successful
implementation:
Inform early, at middle,
and at end of plan
High support or commitment to
change and critical to success:
Engage throughout
High support or commitment to
change and not critical to successful
implementation:
Inform at beginning and
end

10. 10
Consider constraints on time and resources when tailoring
your approach
• Tailor the approach based on level of engagement needed:
– If you don’t need significant buy-in from a person/group, consider
including them only in broad communications
– If a group is highly resistant, consider using more tailored, 1-on-1 time
with individuals/small groups as needed
– For groups with enthusiasm for your plans, find opportunities for them to
interact with others to share this
• Be strategic about investments of limited time and resources (more
stakeholder engagement is usually good, but it must also be feasible for
you/your team)
• Don’t underestimate the importance of stakeholder engagement or the
time required to do it well
Tips for successful engagement from school leaders

11. 11
Author and Acknowledgments
Katie Rouse is a senior associate partner on the Strategic Advising team at
Bellwether Education Partners. She can be reached at
katie.rouse@bellwethereducation.org
Bellwether thanks the Walton Family Foundation for their financial support of this deck. Any
errors in fact or analysis are the responsibility of the author alone.