THE MAKE THE MAP CHECKLIST
Making the Map uses a checklist to assist us in identifying the relevant components in a ecosystem that play a role in the development of children and youth. The checklist also helps us in overcoming our blind spots and keeping us from jumping to inaccurate conclusions.
Step One. Scan for breakdowns of energy within social, organizational or personal systems, whether due to inattention or interpersonal conflict, that result in a state of sub-optimal “equilibrium.”
Step Two. Scan the five sets of situations for any evidence that they have become sub-optimal.
- Inner Situations--a student’s inner life, cognitively and emotionally.
- Intimate Situations --the family, a religious organization and a medical clinic.
- Local Situations--the organizations in which the developing person participates directly and routinely such as school, clubs, teams and civic groups, among others, where individuals learn and live within a web of first-hand routine relationships.
- The Online Situations--where students “hangout.”
- The Peripheral Situations --the various environments in which the developing person never enters but can exert great influence over them—from their parents jobs to laws and customs.
- Nested Situations. All these situations—inner, intimate, local, online and peripheral—serve as dynamic systems that goes into and out of balance and house within it a number of channels. That is, they are like Russian dolls—situations within situations and systems within systems.
Step Three. Scan for recurrent events—such as a weekly schedule or yearly calendar in a school.
Step Four. Scan for groups that influence its members and/or others.
Step Five. Identify the forces for stability and the forces for change in those domains that might be candidates for changemaking. In so doing, imagine how the domain arrived at its current condition (its origin story and root causes) and the extent of its power.
Step 6. Identify any connections between and among any of these domains, including how they may be “nested.”
Step 7. Name one or more unproductive domains that are good candidates for further analysis (Finding the Gaps) and potential action (Building the App).