Abstract
Wardley Mapping is a self-taught strategy. Popularized by its inventor, Simon Wardley, Wardley Mapping uses visual models to prompt important strategic conversations and decisions.
Today, Wardley Mapping finds plenty of use in personal, organizational, and even national contexts to create purposeful designs, facilitate transformation, and even save lives. While Simon Wardley has written a free book, sometimes getting started with Wardley Mapping remains a challenge.
In this workshop, Ben Mosior invites us to join him along an unconventional but well-tested path through the Wardley Mapping material. Along the way, we will learn about the purpose of organization, make our own Wardley Maps, and even get some practice with strategic thinking.
Target Audience
This 3-hour workshop does not require any prior experience with Wardley Mapping, and it’s particularly useful for:
- Everyday people who don’t want to be leaders but must be, out of necessity;
- Anyone who makes (or aspires to make) decisions that must endure the test of time;
- Anyone in a leadership position who feels like an imposter when it comes to strategy work.
Program
Tomorrow, countless everyday people will wander into moments of potential leadership, where clear thinking and right action would make all the difference. Sadly, they won’t notice the opportunity. And if they do notice, they won’t answer the call, because they “aren’t leaders” or “don’t know what to do.”
Wardley Mapping isn’t a magic solution but an invitation. With a few basic skills, everyday people can learn to see opportunity, design purposeful action, and leverage what they have to great effect.
This three-hour experience follows the shortest path to value through the Wardley Mapping body of knowledge. You’ll get hands-on practice, make your first Wardley Map, and learn to find hidden opportunities through strategic thinking.
Topics
A formal, rapid introduction to Wardley Mapping. Along the way, we’ll cover:
- The purpose of organization
- What is Wardley Mapping?
- The Five Minute Wardley Map:
– Lists: How to identify Users, Needs, and Capabilities;
– Value Chains: How to identify dependency relationships;
– Wardley Maps: How to identify the impact of market forces on our situation. - The Strategic Thinking Process:
– Cultivating Options: A basic process for using Wardley Maps for strategic thinking;
– Finding Even More Options: How to iterate and improve upon a Wardley Map and expand our questions;
– Overcoming common obstacles - A more formal path into Wardley Mapping
- Plenty of time for Q&A and discussion!
Learning Objectives – What are we gonna learn?
Participants will leave with the ability to:
- Define the basic parts of a strategic “situation” (i.e., users, needs, capabilities).
- Define how the parts work together to create value and meet needs (i.e., value chains)
- Describe the system-wide implications of market forces (i.e., evolution and Wardley Maps).
- Engage in a basic strategic thinking process to discover potential opportunities (e.g., build, buy, or outsource).
Expect to get your hands dirty
Expect small group discussions, short lectures and demonstrations, full group discussions as needed, and quite a bit of private individual work. (No toy examples or hypotheticals. You will explore your real-world situation with Wardley Mapping using pencil and paper at home. You will not be obligated to share what you find.) We will also make use Miro and Zoom to create a supportive learning environment.
Why should you buy a ticket?
If you’ve always wanted Wardley Mapping to work for you, or if you’re just curious what it’s all about, this course will deliver!
You will leave with a map, a list of strategic opportunities available to you on that map, and everything you’d need to continue learning Wardley’s approach to strategy if you find it helpful.
Online Workshop – How does it work
The workshop will happen online and in live streaming: the trainer and all other participants will be in a video conference. You’ll be interacting and working together in real-time thanks to a variety of tools you’ll have at your disposal.
The workshop will keep its highly interactive and hands-on spirit despite being online. We’ll also be using analog tools such as pen and paper in some moments of the workshop.
You won’t be sitting at your desk watching slides and videos, and you’ll be engaged in real-time activities for the majority of the time… as if we were in a real classroom!
