Political Mapping

1
Political Mapping

• Dr. David Lee
• The University of Southern Mississippi

2
Political Mapping

• A process for identifying and addressing the
  interests of those people or groups who can KILL
  your agenda__ before they pull the trigger.

3
Purposes of the Process

• To identify all those likely to have an interest
  in the change or proposal being initiated.
• To overcome our limited mental capacity to just
  do this intuitively.
• To identify the primary influencers and those who
  influence them.

4

• To determine which of those groups or
  individuals
• Need to be approached for
• support.
• Need to have their concerns
• mitigated.

5

• Will have charges to defend against.
• Should just be ignored.

6
Playing Politics

• Discipline of thoughtfully identifying those who
  will have an interest in your agenda, and
• Determining the significance of their potential
  for impact on your agenda, and then

7

• Making a strategic decision whether you are going
  to
• Engender their support.
• Mitigate their opposition, or
• Selectively ignore them.

8
When Is It Used?

• Develop a political map when undertaking a change
  in direction or starting a major initiative in
  which a number of groups or individuals are
  likely to have an interest.

9
Steps in the Process

• Clearly state the change or initiative to be
  undertaken and place that statement in a circle.
• Begin to identify, in satellite fashion, each of
  the people or groups, who are likely to have an
  interest in the change.

10

• 3. For each satellite created, determine if the
  potential impact of this person or group is High,
  Medium, or Low.

11
Steps in the Process

• 4. For all High and Medium impact satellites,
  create a new set of satellites, indicating the
  specific individuals or groups who need to be
  contacted.

12
Steps in the Process

• 5. For each individual or group who needs to be
  contacted, create an assignment chart, listing
  strategies, time lines, and persons responsible
  for the intervention.

13
EXAMPLE-

• Implement Open Court Reading Program

14
Union
Reading Teachers
Opinion Leaders
Teachers
Media
Principals
Implement open court Reading program
Opinion Leaders
Other Vendors
Parents
Board Members
PTO
Non Supporters
Supporters
15
Other Points

• In creating the first circle of satellites,
  generate 5-15.
• In creating the second circle of satellites,
  generate 15-45.
• The bigger the dogs in the primary circles, the
  more secondary and tertiary satellites will be
  needed.

16

• In determining strategy, decide if you need to
  play offense, defense, neutralize, or take the
  position Were not going to kick that dog.
• Time is a factor the more time spent in
  planning, the less time in implementing.

17
Example
Teachers High
Principals High
Implement Open Court Reading Program
Media Low
Parents Medium
Other Vendors Low
Board Members High
18
Assignment Chart

• Influencer- Strategy- Person Responsible-Time
  Line
• Example Influencer- Board Members
• Strategy- Offense- Meet
• individually to explain.

19

• Person Responsible- Superintendent
• Time Line- Week 1

20
Exercise

• Think about a change your district recently made
  or will be making in the coming year.

21

• Using the worksheets provided, draw the political
  map for this change initiative. Work
  individually or as a team. Determine if each
  influencer will have a high, medium, or low
  impact. For those with a high or medium impact,
  strategize how you might respond- by being on the
  offense, defense, neutralizing, or ignoring.

22
Potential Pitfalls

• Timing of contacts. Could be a problem.
• Got to have right person doing the approach.
• All basic talking points MUST be the same.

23
Exercise

• As a group, write down as many things as you can
  think of to build political capital.
• For 5 minutes, share with other groups what you
  came up with. Each group should have a Top 5.

24
(No Transcript)