The area served by the HRP is usually defined by political boundaries (town, city, county), business districts or police service sectors. RHI has experimented with different sizes of the HRP, and has found the best model to be at most 20 stakeholders with diverse representation by perspective (see Starting Section) and by role. Generally, there will be three primary role classifications among the HRP:

Influentials: These are individuals who generally look at the big picture, are often in the forefront of identifying trends or emerging issues, and who have access to authority, resources and a broad network of individuals they can recruit.

Strategic: These individuals understand the relationships among systems and can analyze and formulate broad strategies. They are like influentials but may not be political or have the same level of access to authority and resources.

Tactical: These individuals are the problem solvers. They can draw from experience and develop specific tactics to accomplish the broader goals defined by the influentials and strategists.