Decision Mapping
Discovering decisions and their nature is part of creating a bottom up approach to knowledge management strategy. Decisions are at the heart of human activity and mapping gives you the basis for lots of other understanding and intervention design.
Decision mapping has high utility in its own right as, done properly, it reveals the true nature of activity in an organization. That can then be contrasted with the formal understanding of the organization, normally represented in a process map with supporting procedures. Contrasting what is with what is thought to be with a representation of reality is a key complexity technique. Presenting that contrast without evaluation is an essential aspect of changing attitudes by enabling descriptive self-awareness. This means allowing decision makers to come to conclusions for themselves by presenting evidence of dissonance; the role of the consultant being to enable this rather than to determine the answer.
This type of mapping is not just of value in knowledge management. It's a key element in complexity based strategy, scaling Agile development, etc.
Decision mapping produces two outputs (i) a series of actions or projects arising from contrasting it with the formal process map and (ii) a set of knowledge objects, things that can be managed, derived from the decision mapping using the ASHEN perspective question.
Contents
Prior knowledge needed
List of concepts and necessary understanding to use the method (it is OK to say none)
Preparation
Factual description of what is needed together with lists of materials and the physical environment needed. Default is physical but see later section
Workflow
The process can be done manually, or more effectively with a simple SenseMaker® deployment. It is described with SenseMaker® but the manual alternative is also indicated stage by stage in the commentary & tips.
| STAGE INSTRUCTION | COMMENTARY & TIPS |
| first instruction | first set of tips |
Do's and Don'ts
Simple bulleted list including common mistakes
Virtual running
Default is to state that it cannot be until we have developed and tested practice. If it can be run virtually then we describe it here.
It is acceptable to add a third column to the workflow if needed
References
Link to other articles on this wiki if they are relevant.
Articles
Specific articles can be referenced here
Blog posts
Link with commentary
Cases
Link to case articles here or third party material
