We are almost half way through the current Issue Mapping Webinar Series and I'm happy to report the course is going very well.  There are 10 people in the class and we are starting to cover topics that I've been wanting to teach for a long time but they could not be squeezed into the 2-day Dialogue Mapping Workshop.  Now with 5 3-hour sessions plus homework and other interactions between classes there's room to get into such juicy topics as recognizing and working with IBIS structural patterns in issue maps and map management (the art of gracefully weaving multiple maps together as a project grows).

The next class starts August 20th -- http://www.cognexus.org/issue_mapping_webinar_series.htm -- and I encourage you to sign up for it, even and especially if you have completed the 2-day Dialogue Mapping Workshop.  (There's a discount that ends Wednesday so check it out before then if your're interested.)

Thoughts about making Deep Structure visible ...

People in organizations inhabit a set of conversations about their collective work, but they don't have any way to visualize and design the structure of those conversations. As a result the conversations are much less effective and coherent than they could be. What is missing is the ability to discern and visualize deep structure.

Just as buildings have a surface structure (walls, floors, doors, windows, etc.) with which the inhabitants casually interact, buildings also have a deep structure (wiring, plumbing, loads, ductwork, etc.) which determines how functional they are. Similarly, conversations have a surface stucture­the sequence of sentences being made by the participants over time­and a deep structure­the underlying logical connections between the ideas being expressed.

When you have access to the deep structure of an issue you can literally see how the pieces fit together. You can instantly see if an idea is new, redundant, or a shift in topic. You can see the questions that are being asked … and the ones that are missing. You can spot the proposals that make the most sense, and those that are weak, ill founded, or have hidden consequences.

Dialogue Mapping and Issue Mapping are techniques for getting at the deep structure of the conversations we inhabit. The process gives individuals, groups, and organizations a coherent container for the important and complex multi-stakeholder conversations that are so often stalled or avoided. Having a coherent container leads naturally to shared understanding and effective action while making sense of conflicting points of view and contradictory information. It nurtures the human spirit by encouraging listening, transparency, and rationality.

Our next Issue Mapping Webinar Series is a series of 5 classes that begin at 4:00PM Pacific time on August 20th. While giving participants specific tools and practical experience with Issue mapping, it will address these overarching ideas around deep structure and strong containers.  http://www.cognexus.org/issue_mapping_webinar_series.htm

Jeff

Dr. Jeff Conklin
CogNexus Institute ... Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems
http://cognexus.org   Phone: +1-707-256-3425  Fax: +1-707-256-3903
1037 Juarez St., Napa, CA  94559    USA