The versatility of Personal Maps
Much has already been written about Personal Maps and its effectiveness. So, when I wanted to share my experience, I was wondering what would be worth sharing. That is when I recalled my experiences with Personal Maps, and something that immediately struck my mind was the versatility of the exercise. But before we dive deep into my experience, let us briefly explore Personal Maps.
A Personal Map is a mind map technique that provides context (in terms of home, family, education, goals, values, etc.) to people, and helps to interact and get to know each other better.
Moving on to my experience with Personal Maps, I have had the chance to use this exercise in various settings, and in every situation, this has been a big hit. You may have read about the application of this exercise with teams. However, not much different but I would like to share the different scenarios in which I used this tool effectively.
Scenario I
I along with some of my friends (from different walks of life) was planning to form a weekend travel group. The idea was to form a small group of people who are excited to explore new places, do a short hike and travel back. We believed this would help us better manage our day-to-day stress by being close to nature.
In our first meeting, everyone was tight, a few exchanged short greetings, but most of us were quiet. It was evident that something had to be done. So, we decided to experiment with something that would help us open up. Coincidentally, I was reading “Management 3.0.” by Jurgen Appelo at that time, and the philosophy of Personal Maps came to my mind.
I briefly shared my knowledge of Personal Maps to the group, and in the follow-up session, we agreed to do an activity on Personal Maps. However, one of the challenges was how to scale the exercise to trigger the interaction among the group. So, what we did was, we divided all the group members into pairs keeping in mind to form a pair with individuals who had less prior interaction. Individuals in a pair had to prepare a personal map of their partners. Before starting the activity, I reiterated the philosophy of Personal Maps and showed the sample made by Jurgen Appelo to the group.
We allotted 30 minutes to prepare the personal map of our partner. After the 30 minutes, based on the prepared personal map, everyone had to share a few things about their partners such as the similarities, and things they found interesting. At the end of the 2–3 minutes presentation by each, other group members could put their questions or share anything interesting but were missed during the presentation.
The session was a lot of fun. After a few minutes of the start of the activity, the room was buzzing. People were engaged in their conversation, and the final sharing session was precious to get to know about each other and carry that forward to create a deeper bonding.
I believe the experiment was successful, and after that, I have used this exercise in various settings with agile teams, teams of managers, coworkers, and students.
Scenario II
The second scenario that I want to share is conducting this exercise with a group of managers after the restructuring of the unit. As you know, organizational restructuring can be tricky and stressful for all of us and especially to the managers.
After the restructuring, we organized a two-days offsite-planning meeting for all the managers. Before the start of the meeting, we could sense some nervous energy in the air. So, we decided to conduct a personal map exercise involving all the managers.
We followed all the procedures of a Personal Maps activity. Within the first quarter of the session, the managers were letting their guard down. They were laughing, enjoying, and basically having a good time. The final presentation was phenomenal with individuals excited to share the many details of their interaction.
All in all, by the end of the session everyone was ecstatic — bonding and connecting with other managers. Even to this day, we discuss how that small session helped us kick start the process of being the best buddies now.
Scenario III
The third scenario is even more different. I teach a course named “Software Project Management” to Master’s students. One of the vital parts of managing a project is managing people. The course is in the first trimester, so it is common that students are yet to interact with each other. So, I tried a Personal Maps exercise in my first class. This would serve as an ice-breaker and also help them open up and connect.
The whole session was conducted with the philosophy of Personal Maps kept intact. Once again I experienced that the results of the exercise were terrific. The exercise helped students to open without the fear of being judged. They were able to bond with each other immediately. In retrospect, I realized that the subsequent classes became more interactive with students sharing their opinions, asking questions about the content, and having an amazing interaction among themselves.
To summarize, I have used Personal Maps many times and found it to be versatile. It can be used as an ice-breaker or a more extended session helping to create a deeper bonding among individuals. This exercise has helped me immensely in different scenarios, and I hope that it would be equally helpful to you.
