The 10 types of learning maps

What if you could align your entire organization with one piece of art?

That essentially is what a learning map is. I call them Learning Visuals 
which is my brand of the form.

Let me explain briefly what they are and what they do.

A learning visual or learning map engages employees around the critical 
business issues of their company. The CEO, CLO, HR Leader or any 
division chiefs are usually the buyers.

An engagement usually involves a small learning group that is taken 
through a learning flow, via a large poster sitting on the table, and a
dialogue script with cards, that will address major issues. The visual 
itself is an important part of the engagement. It is very effective 
at giving a representation of where the business sits currently factored 
against its history and where its going in the future. (That's called a 
Big Picture map). It level sets the learning experience so young 
employees or new employees understand the same things as 
veterans of the company who may have been there 20 to 30 years.

The critical thinking is achieved by using cards and exercises that 
are peripheral to the map. The visual, which can be a metaphor, or a strung 
together series of metaphors, tells the story.

Usually an engagement is 60 to 90 minutes long. It may be 
conducted in conference rooms in a rolling implementation 
over time, or a "big bang" implementation where 500 people 
are in a ballroom with 50 tables, ten people to each table.

Sometimes video is combined with the experience, or  breakout sessions.
And in a big bang rollout—the leader often sets up the learning
with a speech. Sometimes there is a lot of surrounding hoopla. Or
the whole thing might be in the context of a conference or an offsite
meeting of the company.

There are other hybrid engagements that include a learning 
map in tandem with other methodologies, such as World Cafe 
dialogue, discussion circles, physical learning through outside activities, etc.

In the series of blogs I will cover the ten types of maps. there 
may be others, but this covers a wide enough gamut for readers 
of this blog, so they may understand the various types of a learning
map or learning visual (by the way there are approx. ten
companies in the world that do learning maps under various names. 
Please contact me and I will give you websites and a profile of each, 
so you can hire the right company for you to do your learning map project 
them to do your learning map project.

My aim is to bring awareness around the methodology, and offer a source 
of information for those that want to utilize this excellent approach.

our first type of map is an Onboarding and Induction application:

1. Onboarding and Induction map

WHAT IS AN ONBOARDING AND INDUCTION MAP?

The success of finding, keeping and growing a strategy is dependent 
on your  employees getting the right start. Understanding their role, the 
contribution that they can make and exploring the synergies between 
divisions is critical to ensuring new recruits hit the ground running in 
their first days.

The aim of this map is to introduce the business (usually for new employees) 
and at the same time allow them to see themselves in the the visual, and their 
important roles in the business.

An Onboarding and Induction Map is typically an environment map.  This map 
could show businesses, business units, departments, functional areas, customer 
types and even competitors in a ‘town’ type setting.  In addition to this structural 
representation of a business, one can introduce characters and roles and show 
them interacting in accordance with the company and the accepted norms of the 
organization or vice versa. The learning experience is about making links and 
seeing how everything fits together. For example, demonstrating the biggest 
buildings as the biggest company or department in the business group, following
 the purchase to payment cycle through the ‘world’ of the client, looking at 
process steps or the relationship between any entities or characters.

Always consider what you would like to achieve using a map. Typically, 
such a map would include the following learning objectives:

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

•  Link to individual behaviors introduce ‘what we do’

•  Understand history and brand

•  Understand corporate structure

•  Understand enterprise language

• Identify roles and responsibilities

IMPACT TO THE BUSINESS

The impact that this type of learning map can make on a business is valuable. 
Here are some :

•  Reduce employee turnover

•  Improve employee survey results

•  Reduce on-boarding cost

•  Optimize individual performance faster

Here at this link you can see an actual Onboarding and Induction map—at an early stage of development:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gnabiy7jzkmll58/LumberCompany.png

Next blog will cover the 2nd map application: Brand Engagement.

Bill Hinsch is the original learning map artist in America, and utilizes

 the map as one tool for various visualization methodoigies at 

Learning Visuals, www.learningvisuals.com