Mapping Interactions is about seeing the flow of conversation in a group, to identify the dominant and quiet parties, and to use this for discussion and improvement.
It is a surprisingly rewarding activity, but you need a significant period of time which is not going to require any serious input from you as a facilitator.
To begin with you need a map of the meeting room, with each person identified/located within it.
As the conversation begins, place your pencil in front of the map icon of the first person to speak. When someone else speaks, move your pen across the map to the icon of that person, and so on … criss-crossing the map with pen lines as the conversation changes.
If people talk for longer than 30 seconds, make a note of how long they are speaking for, and write each of these times behind their icon. Similarly, if people attempt to engage in the conversation but fail (e.g. somebody else talks over them) place a dot near their icon where it won’t get overwritten by a line.
As the conversation ensues your map will become a bit of a mess, and you will need to discipline yourself to keep focused on the map and not get so drawn into the conversation that you miss mapping bits of it. As you get better at it, you will easily be able to see the degree of dominance in the meeting, and also the degree of people not engaging in that.
At some point, if it will be productive, show your map to the group, and ask them what they make of it. Ask them if they are happy that the map represents a healthy discussion which is getting the best from its membership, and if they are not, ask them what they want to do about it.
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