CONTEXT MAP DYNAMICS
The context map is an extremely useful tool for aligning a team in the process of defining a future strategy. Its value lies in the fact that it allows collective analysis of developments, from the past to the present, providing a shared view.
OBJECTIVES
Game to align all participants of a workshop or organizational transformation activity
NUMBER OF PLAYERS
From 5 to 10 participants
60 – 120 minutes
OBJECTIVES
By facilitating this shared understanding, the team can identify patterns, opportunities, and risks, thereby making more informed strategic decisions. In addition, the context map serves as a basis for projecting future scenarios, setting priorities, and designing concrete actions that are aligned with the desired outcome.
STEP-BY-STEP APPLICATION
The facilitator has to prepare the activity in advance so that the team can develop ideas:
- Prepare a wall with six large DinA0 or similar sheets, in a format of two rows and three columns.
- On the top centre sheet, draw the organization you are working on. It could be a building or the world, to symbolise a global market.
- On the same sheet, list the forces that may have an impact, such as political factors or the economic climate.
- On the adjacent sheets, describe the forces that come from current trends. Detail the type of trends to be worked on (consumer, global, etc.).
- On the lower sheets, use the space to cover technological factors, customer needs, and uncertainties.
- Present the map to the entire team and explain the objective of completing the entire map with post-it notes. Begin with the current functioning of the organization.
- Continue with the trends. Present the results of the trends considered and continue with the rest of the factors.
At the end, the key ideas are shared with the entire team.
CONCLUSIONS
The context map is a tool that helps everyone on a team start from a shared understanding before they begin working on a problem. Its goal is not to find solutions immediately, but rather to pause, observe, and describe the environment in which the problem exists, as well as its scope.
Through collaborative work, the team incorporates different perspectives to identify the internal and external factors that influence the situation. This process reveals assumptions, constraints and contextual elements that, in many cases, remain implicit or unquestioned.
At the end of the exercise, it is essential to compile and summarise all the information generated in order to construct a shared narrative. Doing so ensures that everyone in the group is ‘on the same page’ and has a common basis, from which to begin working coherently and in alignment on the problem at hand.
Due to its simplicity and power, the context map is particularly useful as an initial exercise when working with multidisciplinary teams that do not usually collaborate with each other and need to coordinate in a workshop or in solving a problem together.