Traverse the Breadth

Once you’ve got context (see previous post), go wide on a topic before going deep.

Map out the scope of what this thing could be. It may not be where you are right now, or where you’re going, but identifying how broad this thing is helps see where our thinking could go. Once you’ve labelled or identified the breadth of a topic, you can draw people in to focus on different parts. When tangents are taken by people trying to make sense, you can see where they are on the breadth.

It's like taking a trip from say, London to Paris. The breadth is London… all the way over there to Paris. Draw a line: at one end London, the other Paris. We can get there in many different ways (and that is something for us to discuss, decide and agree on). Say we take a train. Along the breadth is that part out of London when it's all luscious countryside; then going into the tunnel, in the tunnel, coming out the other side, countryside, towns, outer city, Paris, station! That's breadth.

So… which bit are you going to focus on?