#23 Mapping: the engine your workshop runs on

Mapping is how you get all of your collaborators on the same page, speaking the same language and ready to work together productively. It's how you build the shared picture that the rest of the workshop runs on top of.This is the first of four deep-dives into the workshop activity types — Dream, Map, Distil, Prioritise — picking up from issue #7 (the four types) and issue #22 (the Butterfly that links them).I get into why mapping has to be an active thing the group does together rather than something presented at them, what the spectrum of mapping tools actually looks like (from immersive service safaris at one end to a quietly-handled empathy map template at the other), the three ways it most often goes sideways (rabbit-holing, treating an outlier as gospel, and pretending the gaps in the map don't exist), and how you know when you've done enough. There's a pre-mapping checklist at the end you can steal.We cover:[~00:00] Opening — what Map is actually for[~02:00] Why you do it together — cognition, memory, and the collective notebook[~04:30] What it looks like in practice — the spectrum from service safari to empathy map[~07:00] Three things to watch out for — rabbit-holing, mole-hills into mountains, missing gaps[~09:30] Doing just enough mapping — knowing when to stop, and the playback ritual[~11:30] A checklist to take into your next mapping phaseLinksService safari — https://servicedesigntools.org/tools/service-safari Empathy mapping (Nielsen Norman Group) — https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/issue #7 — The four things you can do in a workshopissue #22 — The Butterfly Process [paste Substack URL at publish] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit facilitationstudio.substack.com