Carta Nova Consulting - Question Mapping

Strategy
Communications
Organizational Development

4888 NW Bethany Blvd.
Suite K5, #256
Portland, Oregon 97229
503-201-7020
rick@cartanovaconsulting.com

Question Mapping

Purpose

Question Mapping is a tool for framing issues that seeks to both deepen understanding and provide a blueprint for moving forward. It is a process for gaining clarity regarding the central issue while identifying related issues and their respective relationships. It illuminates broad themes and incorporates specific questions, enabling those engaged in collective efforts to make sense of the full context of an issue. The resulting question maps offer multiple avenues for action as well as expanded opportunities for participation, thereby increasing the probability of success.

Premises

Question Mapping begins with the simple premise that a clear and shared definition of an issue is essential to collective efforts to address it.

The second premise inherent in Question Mapping is that any reasonably complex issue exists not in isolation but within a web of related issues each of which contributes to framing the central issue.

Lastly, Question Mapping is rooted in the generative power of questions. Questions stimulate thinking, promote conversation, and provide direction for further inquiry.

Process

The departure point for Question Mapping is a working version of the central issue in the form of a question. Four steps or stages follow within the context of the Question Mapping grid. View image

Articulating the central issue
Participants craft and present their individual versions of the central issue.
Achieving consensus on the central issue
The group engages in dialogue to reach agreement on the central issue. View image
Developing the full context
Participants generate additional questions which are placed on the Question Map relative to the central issue. View image
Determining next steps
The group reviews the collection of questions and identifies priorities as well as the scope and assignment of work. View image

In its final form a Question Map provides an explicit representation of the shared response to the two fundamental questions underlying all group efforts: What exactly is the issue and where do we go from here?

Publications

Adapting Question Mapping, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Vol 19(3), Spring 2009.

Presentations

Question Mapping as a New Methodology for Organizing and Making Sense of Dialogue. Panel presentation, American Evaluation Association conference.

Nonprofit Organizations and Leadership at the Crossroads: Question Mapping to Help Guide a Community's Shared Futures. Panel presentation, ARNOVA conference.

Selected Clients

Institute for Nonprofit Management, Portland State University

Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

Quotes

The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our thinking. The quality of our thinking, in turn, is determined by the quality of our questions, for questions are the engine, the driving force behind thinking.

-- Linda Elder and Richard Paul, The Foundation for Critical Thinking

A problem adequately stated is a problem well on its way to being solved.

-- Buckminster Fuller

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up someplace else.

-- Yogi Berra

© 2010 Carta Nova Consulting