Red Stripe - Mapping the Process

Talking of The Economist's Project Red Stripe I was really struck by the maps that the team produced of their first week on the job.

As they noted at the time, three of them were 'geographic', in that they plotted where the team had been physically (one used Google Earth, one used Google Maps and one used tracing paper and conventional maps - stressing the benefits of old technology).

The other three were different. Ludwig used some 'dynamic mind-mapping' software called Brain to represent the areas that the project team had been working on. Joanna (the only Feeler in a team with five other Thinkers according to their recent Myers-Briggs initiation: 15:0 to Myers-Briggs) mapped, amongst other things, her feelings - which included hesitation, trepidation and excitement.

Tom had also sorts of stuff going on including - and here's my point - Inferno under the desks. You had to crawl under the desks and lie on the trailing sockets to read the contents of Inferno. Here were to be found :

• Failure
• No fun
• Hell
• Judging
• No hope
• Jealousy
• Blame
• Undeliverables
• Bitterness
• Disloyalty

Gerard Egan and Bill Tate (every organization should be using Tate's audit) have both written about managing and auditing the shadow side of the organisation - but no-one else has paid it much attention. (Although, of course, it lurks under every stone in conversations about corporate governance, business ethics and the like.) And here it was, being manifested before my eyes.

I think that every work group, project or process team, department or small business should have its own version of Inferno posted somewhere significant - just to remind themselves of the things they don't get to talk about. The contents should be as specific as possible - not just greed or ambition of lust, but clear examples of these shadowy 'behaviours' in action.

So there's my first recommendation from observing Red Stripe. Should I have kept it for the book? I don't think so - there are going to be many, many more.