Mapping as a Tool for Solving Problems

Who was the greatest medical doctor?   Hippocrates?  Pasteur?  In 2003 a poll named Dr John Snow as the greatest doctor ever.

Who?

In 1854, an outbreak of cholera had claimed 500 lives in London.  This was before the  germ theory of epidemic diseases and the prevailing theory was of ‘miasma’ or ‘bad air’.  Snow believed the cause of a local outbreak was related to the water supply.   In a ground-breaking study, he used a map to show how the deaths were clustered about a street water-pump.  This convinced the authorities to remove the pump handle and the outbreak was contained.

Snow used a map to create a new understanding.  There was nothing new in the data he had, but by mapping it using geographical co-ordinates, he was able to gain a new insight into the problem.

Maps enable you to take a new view of your information.  By using different map axes, you can display the data in different ways.  They display the relationships between the data. Any clusters in the data, begs the question ‘why are they clustered’.   Similarly, gaps in the data beg different questions. 

There are two main considerations in the use of mapping

1. What axes to use. 
2. What questions to ask.

In my blog about Assumption mapping, the axes used are ‘strength of belief’ and ‘relative importance’.  This could show, for example, which assumptions are not strongly held, but important, which gives considerable scope for exploration.  Furthermore, if you were to colour-code the assumptions by stakeholder groups, you could see clusters of a different type.  You need new ways to think about the data.

The key is to create a map that reveals something new and significant.