Published
The concept of maps and mapping as a means of providing a physical representation of projects, change or systems has come up twice on separate occasions this week. The first time was in the fascinating call I had with Tom Inns, who is an extraordinary design facilitator I first met when I had the pleasure of publishing a two-volume collection on Designing for the 21st Century, way back in 2007. Tom took the time during the call to talk to me about eco-system mapping, more about that later.
The second time was during the Sponsorship Network meeting on Sponsors’ Lifehacks, when Transport for London’s Chris Moores emphasized the importance of using maps, of showing people the project.
All of which prompted me to devote this blog to maps and mapping.
Blueprints and technical maps
I guess that for many in infrastructure, maps are synonymous with architectural blueprints and increasingly with BIM and the world of Digital Twins. This example from the HS2 Learning Legacy explains how in that project, they have been introducing digital information from investigations into the geology of the ground conditions into their BIM maps. What’s intriguing in this case is the way the engineers using the mapping in the future to be able to predict geological obstructions to the construction.
This second example, also from HS2 again uses a representation of a real geographical space but this time uses it to map the potential environmental impacts of the construction work. The authors of the piece explain very clearly the benefit of the process, which is to help translate the arcane and technical language of the Environmental Statements into something everyone can understand, as cited below, essentially to help people ‘see the wood for the trees’:
The drawback of the increased level of detail required in modern EIAs is that information can be hard to locate, particularly for readers who are not technical specialists. This includes both external stakeholders such as local community groups, and internal stakeholders such as designers and contractors working on the project. These internal stakeholders need to navigate the ES text to identify environmental impacts and environmental significant effects to design and carry out works with due consideration of the key issues and constraints.
Wayfinding and navigation
The earliest form of map that many of us will have come across are the Road Map, Atlas or A-Z Street Guide that we used to use to help us get to a destination. From some projects, in this case the 2012 Olympics, maps and wayfinding are a critical part of the user experience, and the success of the project. With so many people coming to the Olympic Park maps were critical to guide them and make their travel as easy, quick and safe as possible.
Process Maps and Decision Trees
Project managers will be very familiar with the kinds of maps that are designed to plan and organise people, time and resources, for example GANTT and PERT charts or, in my example from Crossrail, Work Breakdown Structures. Whereas some of the maps I have already alluded too are essentially about helping give the BIG picture, these process
maps and charts are about breaking down something huge into manageable chunks or work, time or resource and understanding the order of each element and the correlation from one element to others before and after it. These forms of maps now may reference geography but they are no longer maps in the traditional sense.
Benefits Maps are a more recent form of process map that have emerged on the scene and are designed to allow you to map the relationship between activities, outputs, outcomes and benefits as a means of understanding, managing and maximising the value that your project delivers. By way of example, I have chosen the IPA’s Guide to Effective Benefits Management in Major Projects from 2017.
Network Maps and Stakeholder Maps
You will likely be familiar with Stakeholder Maps, designed to allow you to represent the stakeholders within a project. These can be used to identify all of those benefitting from, impacted by and/or involved in the delivery of the project, and the relationship between them. The map may include representational data such as scale or colour to add information about the size, significance or even the mindset of different stakeholders.
Sometimes however, this form of map may be reduced to the form of a Venn Diagram, simply for the purpose of allocating stakeholders to specific groups. The Stakeholder Salience Model is one approach to Stakeholder Mapping that I favour and which lends itself to this simple approach.
Network maps may go down to the level of individual employees or actors within a given network. They may be used not simply to map the relationship between individuals but can also represent the level or frequency of interaction (and by extension the depth and quality of that relationship). One of the most interesting stories of network mapping I use is that of the Carta Organisation and its attempts to map the Shadow Organisational Chart, which illustrated just who were most influential in the organisation, rather than simply those who had status (The Organisation Chart)
Ecosystem Maps
Which brings me back to Tom Inns and the process of Ecosystem Mapping. Increasingly we are understanding our major projects as complex ecosystems and endeavouring to manage them as such. Dave Parkin used exactly this language in our recent Systems Thinking podcast, when he was describing Hynet. But in order to do that, we need to start with some understanding or the nature or that system and the key elements that define and drive it. Tom has used Ecosystem Mapping in the context of Home Care to understand how a complex system like domiciliary care has grown and developed or how a huge city like Glasgow creates a sense of place to the people who live, work or simply visit the city.
How to Use Maps
Anyone who has ever scribbled directions on the back of a napkin knows that map use is not limited to designers and architects. Of course, if your map needs to be geographically correct and to scale, or needs to include scientific or technical datapoints, then creating it will need a professional. But maps that are representational, that offer an analogy or a metaphor for a place, a system or a project are within the reach of all of us.
They can be a wonderful medium for conveying meaning. We often put far too much store in the value of words. So, if you are going to create a map, just remember:
- Choose an appropriate format, one that is within your capabilities to create and, just as importantly, one that resonates with your stakeholder(s) and the way that they see the world
- Understand the constraints as well as the potential your map and make sure your users do the same. A representational map, just like a metaphor or a theoretical model is never accurate, complete or true. Make sure you never fall into the trap of treating the map as reality
- Maps of this kind, just like projects are time-bound. Be careful to add a date to any map so that anyone who finds it in years to come can accommodate everything that has happened since in their reading of it. And if is important or official, build in a timescale for revision and ideally a feedback process to enable those revisions.
- Maps are for sharing. Even a map of a something entirely unrelated to your project can be a source of insight. Don’t believe me, look at the Ecosystem Maps that Tom shares in his LinkedIn feeds and tell me that they don’t spark immediate ideas.
Jonathan Norman, Knowledge Manager