Dialog Mapping Overview:
A high-level introduction to what it is, what happens, and how it works in real-world organizational settings.
Change is constant and universal, and the problems and pain that accompany it are real, and as varied as the people and organizations encountering it. Avoidance isn't an option. The question is not how to avoid it, but how to deal with it. Dialog mapping provides tools for asking the right - and the most powerful - questions, and getting to answers quickly
Read it
Hear it!
(Ms. Audrey Eclairez)
Visual Analytics
Seeing things
'No . . . words . . . '
-Dr. Ellie Arroway ("Contact")
I admit to being something of a dweeb. Analysis is fascinating to me. I actually read the failure analysis of the Mars crashes - and found it interesting! What causes 'problems'? Why do people do the things they do?
Once upon a time I was in a tornado and ran across the street to an old school to take cover with neighbors in the basement.
The glass door was broken to allow us to enter, and one young lady, wearing sandals, looked at the broken glass. Then to my dumfoundment (to this day I think of this), she took a step backwards, removed her sandals, and then walked quickly through the broken glass. Naturally, her feet were cut up quite a bit. There wasn't time to discuss it, with the storm bearing down on us. But later, as she hobbled back up the stairs she complained about the jerk who caused all the broken glass! (That person was me, by the way.)
I think that the odd behavior of an otherwise 'normal' individual in a very intense situation may have been what hooked me on analysis.
Over my work life, I've seen any number of things logical - and some most illogical.
But in recent years computer technology has evolved to provide powerful tools to take complex situations, and render them in a conversational real-time mode, and in a visual context that leads people to radically alter the way they percieve the problem and formulate solutions.
Over the past couple of years, in addition to the usual writing and graphing tools available in suites like MS/Office and OpenOffice, I have made business use of tools like Austhink's Rationale, and decision support from Expert Choice, both of which I found to be very powerful, each in its own way.
But the tool I have worked with most, and come to appreciate most (if for no other reason than the worldwide community), is Compendium dialog mapping.
It's not a steno pad, and it's not a video game. Using Compendium meaningfully requires a lot of preparation and a high degree of focus during an event (which, with newer releases could be happening all around the world, all at once).
And in one early experience I discovered the downstream benefit of finding out beforehand who will be the recipient or 'consumer' of the result: right- or left-brained consumers will see the same things very differently, so you can take that calibration under advisement as you prepare and stear the dialog.
And in my experience there are also some change-averse organizations where its just as well to keep powerful tools like this in their sheath. I could go on - but that's another post.
Instead, on this page I will outline a few examples of successful dialog mapping experiences.
These are all very rich tools. Compendium includes a solid underlying database, that (if setup correctly) opens even more potentials for linking and reporting.
In capable hands (like mine) it can pull back the covers on very complex problems and flows, and lead an entire team to a series of discoveries about the problems, the potential solutions - and themselves.
REACH OUT, and use this powerful tool on the road to change.
Visual modeling, powerful results!
I was on assignment with the task of documenting system processes that were created and maintained by a very smart, highly motivated, energetic person who - up to that point - carried all of the knowledge and all of the information (note: there's a distinction) around in her head.
There were outages that were growing in complexity and exposure. What was needed was finding the root cause, and a solution.
DIALOG MAPPING proved amazing in providing a visual canvas, and a brush to paint the picture of her thought processes and the underlying design.
It was stunning to see the process unfold. She began seated next to me, looking at the projector screen. As she began to see it take shape, she began walking around the room talking, as I asked questions and tracked her thoughts in Compendium on the projection screen! Out of that flow, the problem and the underlying problems were revealed, as were real (and multiple) solutions to nagging problems.
In the span of a few hours we had thoroughly layed out the environment, and from that the problems began to almost 'speak for themselves'.
We adjourned for the day, and overnight I refined the maps, moving things to layers and connecting the dots. The next morning we reconvened and finished the process, with a document that clearly described the real problems and included a ranking of several possible solutions, which was presented to the management team. Out of that exercise, steps were taken to alleviate the underlying causes and the environment ran much more smoothly and without disruption.