How to make a system map (in the simplest possible way)
You want to make a system map if you are trying to: a. figure out what leads to more or less of what you want to achieve, b. if you are trying to get an overview which removes everything that doesn’t matter, c. you want to make sure you include everything that does matter or d. all of the above.
There is most likely hundreds of ways to do a system map. This is the simplest approach I know and sometimes that’s good enough. If you have never done a system map before its a great place to start.
#1. Start with the goal. This should be a simplification of what you want to achieve. It can only be one thing and it cannot be ambigous.
E.g. “customer buys product x” or something more customer centric like: “customer has a good night sleep” or “small business saves money on energy”
#2. Ask your team: “what leads to more or less of the goal”. The participants add their feedback to the board including each element’s connection to the goal (arrows) and if helpful an indication if the element has a positive or negative influence.
An element can be anything: a process, technology, behavior, policy, team structure etc. We call them a ‘force of influence’ and they can be anything the participants think is relevant / important.
#3. Ask the same question again: “what leads to more or less of x“ for every element on the map. Keep adding “influences” and connections until the team is happy.
#4. Clean it up and identify where you can have influence. A map can become messy during the workshop. After the workshop clean it up by removing what is not significant (using data and / or insights). Then identify where the team can have the most influence.
Congratulations. You have created your first system map .. there is more work to do, but that depends on what you need the map to do. This should have given you a taste if a map and a process like this might provide the value you need. Good luck!
Example: In this partly fictional example the map is showing what leads to more or less of the goal “profitable energy efficiency”, where the more common investments (blue and yellow) are seen in addition to the less common investment (and more complicated to understand) human and leadership components (purple). But where it should be clear that technology alone will only be part of your solution and that there might be benefits to also explore important areas under human motivation and incentives.
