Lists are great for shopping. Not great for sensemaking.
Monday, June 3, 2019 at 9:32AM Lists are great for shopping. Not great for sensemaking.
When you’re in a meeting, discussing, generating ideas and solutions, planning details of how things might work, you might write down some key points:
* In a list.
* Like this.
* And this.
* Another point like this.
* And more like this.
While it feels efficient capturing what’s happening - sequentially - it’s not so helpful for making sense, now or later. A vertical list of dot points is challenging to retain, build links in, find common themes or show relationships and connections.
Ditch the list; make a map. You zoom out on Google Maps to see where you are: roads, suburbs and towns become visible. The ‘dots’ of towns are connected, not in a list but in a network.
A network map is one of the foundation tools I use to help people build sensemaking skills. It shows relationships, connections, more detailed information. Lines can be different thicknesses; circles different sizes. This communicates something more than any list can. The quality of the map? It doesn't matter. It's that you made a map - that matters.
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