By Robert E. Horn (Stanford University and MacroVU, Inc.) and Robert Weber (Strategy Kinetics, LLC)
This is another a series of "blogicles" on how Mess Mapping™ and Resolution Scenario Mapping processes can be used to represent, analyze, evaluate Wicked Problems and then to choose actions that ameliorate the Wicked Problem at hand. Have outlined the Mess Mapping process, we now turn our attention to Resolution Mapping™.
Here are a few terms with meanings specific to Resolution Mapping (equivalently Scenario Mapping). We will elaborate in subsequent installments:
- Endstate: a 1 or 2 page internally consistent description of an extreme, but plausible future of a Wicked Problem, industry, organization, market, etc. A set of 3-6 divergent Endstates that span the outcome space. The time horizon of the Endstates will depend on the Wicked Problem addressed.
- Event: a hypothetical occurrence at a specific point in the future. Events have to be observable; one has to be able to determine whether the Event has occurred or not.
- Scenario: a narrative describing the actors, drivers, motives, and key events that lead logically from the present to a particular outcome or Endstate. A Scenario answers the question, how did the world evolve from today to this specific Endstate?
- Conventional Wisdom Scenario: a scenario representing the initial beliefs of participants at the outset of a Resolution Mapping workshop process. If you want to change how people think you first have to show them how they think.
- Endstate System: A graphical or Visual Language representation of how Endstates might be related to each other, for instance, evolving over time.
Notes:
This series of blogicles has been jointly authored; our names appear in alphabetical order.
Mess Mapping and Mess Map are trademarks of MacroVU, Inc.
Resolution Mapping is a trademark of Strategy Kinetics, LLC.
