Cool stuff: Different Work | Your Big Adventure | The Fish Pond
Why are you actually working on this project? How did you end up here? What do you add to the team? Any clue on why you were selected?
When the project is finished, what do you want to add to your resume? What additional skills have you required? What do you want your LinkedIn referrals say about you? How are you changed when the project is finished? What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
Relationship With The Project.
I talk a lot about a project being a Big Adventure, or a journey. A project is also a small episode in the personal journey of many individuals. Viewing what you do today in the context of a larger path will help you explore your relationship with the current project. Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to do things in the first place?
Relationship With Team.
It also addresses the relationships with your team members. They know a little more about your background. They see how you add to the diversity of the group. And it makes us all look more human.
From the many perspectives you can look at the project, the Map Of You will literally put you at the center. It is a tool to explore the relationship between what you do today and your personal journey (past and future).
Draw an empty map which basically looks like a bow tie. Put “NOW” in the center and “PAST” and “FUTURE” on both sides. Ask the participant to write keywords that answer questions as formulated in the first two paragraphs of this post.
This can be done as an individual exercise or as a group exercise.
Other Maps.
The Map Of You is part of a change/project management strategy focused on culture and using an “adventure travel” metaphor. For more maps and exercise, visit my list of Shrinkonian exercises.
if you indicate what is input and output on both sides ithink can give some stages of journy
Hey Ibrahim, you could view it is input-output if you want. There is no real “good-or-bad” use of the exercise. Thanks for the idea.
Bas, short, but a concise post. I am thinking of expanding the Map of You to the Wheel Map of You. I have a fairly good idea how to do it
Hmmm. The wheel he? Curious.
Very similar image to what Richard Moss calls the Mandala of Being. Great minds just converge. You can find an image of this simple mandala here : http://www.omplace.com/newsroom/photos/mandala_diagram.jpg
I learn about this during a NLP workshop my wife and I took with Robert Dilts, in Montreal. He had us draw an imaginary circle, in the center of which we place ourself (right into the NOW). We imagine having the future in front of us, the pass in the back, our relation with ourself (map of you) on the left and our relation with others (the project) on the right. We would then try to travel by visualisation into these 4 dimensions and see how they were affecting positively or negatively our well being NOW.
Robert Dilts said that he translated this individual exercise into a group/team exercise to get team members to share concerns and good feeling about the project/the team/the enterprise, themselves individually, the past as experienced on similar projects or with a similar team, and the future as they see it for the project/the enterprise. The team would then try to deal with the concerns presented and make the most of the good feelings expressed…in order to feel good and competent as individuals and as a team as they evolve in the NOW, the only place where something happens !
Hey Claude, thanks for this reference! I didn’t know this type of mandala (i know the basic shape if it though). This might even be a better exercise.:)
It is a powerful thing to focus on now and see how it relates to other dimensions. That is for sure. Hmmm. I need to find time to get into this NLP stuff
here is a more complete representation of the mandala and its significance
http://ear-thschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/mandalaofbeing-300×271.jpg
Yeah, hope you find some time Bas! NLP rocks
[...] Bas de Baar contemplates a “map of you,” depicting your past, present (in the context of your relationships with the team and the project), and future. [...]