an asset mapping framework

i’ve been through a couple of network-building and asset mapping processes and this is a composite process that i hope feels quite simple and straightforward. i’m writing it out to be shared so i’m gonna try to keep the instructions brief. i may share more narrative or experience with it at the end or later.

once the group of participants is gathered:

1. brainstorm the conditions of the world/context about which you care enough to be mapping your assets. make a list that is as specific as you can be in a reasonable amount time. what is happening that concerns you? what is happening that excites you?
2. brainstorm relevant actors each participant knows for each of the four categories below, namely as they relate to the characteristics of the world you previously brainstormed:
   • individuals
   • groups/organizations
   • institutions
   • networks do this as individuals. you can use individual pen and paper or post-its. you can color code the post-its if useful. document who in your group knows each actor on post-its or by initialing near the actors.
3. begin to share with each other who you each wrote down. you can do this (1) participant by participant, (2) by picking a world characteristic, or (3) any other way that feels right to folks in your group. document this step as a map in some way that makes sense to your group. know that it will be an imperfect visual representation of the truth.

two notes:

• a common pattern i’ve witnessed is that people, during or immediately after the mapping part, recognize where connections should be made nearly immediately. i think this is because many people just have an innate instinct to make connections where they could be valuable
• it can be tempting to draw, and redraw the map during the process. sometimes that’s worth it, especially if you’re early on in step 3 and you realize a big possible upgrade to your visualization. sometimes it takes more effort and time than is useful to redraw it and then you lose time missing the most valuable part of the conversation: the naming of who knows who and how.

ok. there’s more to share about this later but for now, imma just leave this over here…

words / writing / post-processing
362w / ?min / 2min