Personal maps

How well do you know your colleagues? How easy is it for your teammates to communicate with each other? What about trust within the team?

If you have difficulty answering any of the questions, then it might be helpful to build personal maps of each other.

Personal Map is a practice from Management 3.0 designed to improve team interaction. It's a great way to find out what motivates everyone involved. It also allows people to develop empathy and meaningful connections with each other.

Knowing more about each other helps people trust their colleagues more, strengthening the team.

1. Before starting the exercise, define a list of categories. Choose categories according to the type of group — for example, home, education, work, hobbies, family, friends, goals, and values.
2. Give each person a blank sheet of paper.
3. Write the person's name in the middle of the sheet and build a map around it.

• Each person makes a map of himself. Subsequently, people exchange their cards and present them. Then the team guesses whose card it is.
• Creating cards in pairs. People pair up and make each other's cards in an interview format.
• Write the person's name and make a card about them during the week. During a coffee or lunch break, chat with a colleague asking questions to complete the card. But be careful not to simplify the task by asking questions like "What are your hobbies?"
• "Test" with personal cards. After you've done everyone's cards in the team, try a little fun test. Ask each other questions related to the cards and reward each correct answer with some reward.
• Online Map. If you have a team that spends a limited amount of time together, you can do personal map exercises remotely, for example, with a video call and an online board like Miro.

1. When discussing maps, it is better to have each team member present someone else's map. This approach naturally provokes questions, discussions, moments of connection and understanding between people on your team.
2. In the interview format, you can allow 10 minutes each way and another three minutes for introducing each other's cards.

Be aware that personal cards are not a one-time exercise; they develop as life goes on!