Personal Maps, start with what’s important.
Empowerment of any team comes from their relationships, identity construction, and mainly, from how to lay the foundations for trust and empathy among its members. Regarding these issues, it is important to talk about neuroscience. Neuroscience tells us how our brain connections work much more efficiently in situations of trust because our brain is more agile. It processes much more information than when we feel uncomfortable or feel some kind of threat. This is shown by a report presented by “Harvard Business Review” (The Neuroscience of Trust), where it was possible to study the mechanisms that make the human brain trust or not.
In the context of agility and development teams, empowering them presents different and constant challenges. It is very common to find a lot of energy, talent, and commitment that are not so homogeneous, and that are related to motivation, expectations, and a sense of belonging.
I would like to tell you about an experience on this topic.
Months ago, in my role as an agilest, I found an interesting challenge: I had to lead, in its beginnings, a learning and content creation community referring to Agility and education to which a group of 5 professionals dedicated to coaching, agility, and Education belong.
After some meetings about the organization, the agreements in the ways of working, and the future planning of this new initiative, I was faced with the lack of relationship that existed not only as a group of people but also in the need to work as a team.
The situations and context that present these themes were diverse, such as; the one that was a new team, the one that existed differences in knowledge or cultural differences, and above all divergence, caused by subjectivities, lack of empathy, and ignorance of the other.
Where to begin?
With the above scenario, I thought, where to start? How to seek empowerment and empathy for this multidisciplinary team? How to reduce the gaps in socialization proposed by a remote team? I needed at least a first step.
When we want to internalize with members of a team to generate a little more trust based on knowing each other, Personal Maps (https://management30.com/practice/personal-maps/) — Jurgen Appelo in Management 3.0 — is an excellent and simple tool. When using it, I found a way to create interpersonal connections that activate empathy, the curiosity to know the rest of the members of my team. Also, it helps to better communicate between pairs, and converge people in what Jurgen Appelo calls mental closeness.
Personal Maps in Action
In its on-site version, Personal Maps proposes the use of sheets of paper, writing materials, but above all a large blackboard or wall where all the equipment is displayed. In our case, each member of the team was working remotely, so we used an online whiteboard that allowed collaborative work on the same board.
Once the rules of the dynamic and the necessary agreements had closed (something not so trivial) we follow the following steps:
- Each member copied a Personal Maps template, placing the name in the center, and with various concepts proposed around the name (home, education, work, hobbies, family, goals, values). These concepts to be completed can vary greatly depending on the teams and can be an opportunity to explore new conversations.
- The next step was to use a timebox (20 Approx.), For each person to complete their personal map. For this, we used Miro, although there are tools with similar functions such as Mural. This type of tool gave us the possibility to use resources such as drawings, personal photos, images, etc.
- After completing it, it was time to introduce the team. In this instance, it is always of great value for the presentation to be made by someone other than the owner of the Personal Maps, in this way the partner increases curiosity, led by their own interpretations. In our case, we create groups of two people to exchange personal maps. Making this point required a great deal of effort to better understand another person based on the information you had.
- As the last step, we gave visibility to the team of an online board where all the Personal Maps were.
What did we learn?
As a facilitator, I learned how simple sessions could focus on creating a great interest in the people, giving so much value to teams. I Noticed how necessary interpersonal connections are, and how they empower a team.
As a team, we were surprised by the knowledge of the people we work with had common interests, more than we expected. Exposing topics of common interest not only generated confidence in the work environment but also generated extra labor relations.
What‘s Next?
My next experiment with this practice will be, on the one hand, to maintain the previous dynamic, since presenting the partner based on what was completed in Personal Maps, opened spaces for curiosity and in some situations to feel identified. On the other hand, I would like to try to help the team to propose new concepts or categories to present around their description, so that they proactively decide what they want to share. Towards the end of the session, I will investigate a little more about the team, the common aspects and goals that they envision, not from an individual perspective but from a collective point of view.
Personal Maps gave my team a new perspective on how to observe and get closer to other people. It led people to inquire about common characteristics and interests among each member and about expectations and interests, which would then serve us to create an identity and purpose as a team.
Conclusion
Personal Maps is a very powerful tool that brings people closer when you have a divergent team, just by knowing a little about each other.
Always keep the agreements in mind in these sessions and try to create a context where people feel safe to participate and share with their peers. People do not always feel comfortable sharing, try to be the example, start with your presentation and look for spaces for humor.
Finally, I encourage you to be able to use Personal Maps, live the experience for yourself, and do not forget that you can innovate and improve on different sessions while maintaining the essence of it.