Intentional silence Intentional silence consists of a pause, usually lasting no more than a few seconds, to give speakers that brief extra quiet time to discover what they want to say. Stay focused on the speaker. Say nothing and do not nod or shake your head. Just stay relaxed and pay attention. If necessary, hold up your hand to keep others from breaking the silence. Sometimes everyone in the group is confused, agitated or having trouble focusing. At such time, silence may be very helpful. For example: “Let’s take a minute of silence to think what this means to each of us.” Brainstorming Brainstorming involves a period of free thinking, which is used to articulate ideas, followed by more rigorous discussion of these ideas. Brainstorming brings new ideas about how to tackle a problem, as the free-thinking atmosphere encourages creativity. Sometimes it can reduce conflict, as it helps participants to see other points of view and possibly change their own perspective on problems. It can also bring humour and help break the ice. Brainstorming is useful to gather a lot of ideas, prior to scenario analyses, problem-solving, decision-making or planning. Tool 5: Stakeholder Mapping When to use Purpose Time Resources Stage 2 Identifies who should be part of a HRCLD activity – internal and external to the community Various For record keeping, large paper if displaying Stakeholder mapping involves developing a ‘representation’ of community people and key externals and then organising them into groups. The benefit of a stakeholder map is to help you understand the level of interest and influence of the people you are working with and how and when to connect with them. Stakeholder maps come in various forms including those that are quite complicated. However, you may find the table below useful. Template Low interest High interest High influence These people have little to lose or gain from the HRCLD activity, but their actions could affect the achievement of the community’s outcomes. These people have the most to lose or gain from the HRCLD activity and their actions could affect the achievement of the community’s outcomes. Low influence These people have little to lose or gain from the HRCLD activity and their actions have little impact on achievement of the community’s outcomes. These people have the most to lose or gain from the HRCLD activity, but their actions have little impact on achievement of the community’s outcomes. APF HRCLD Guide 73