Developed by Werner Kunz and Horst Rittel (Issues as Elements of Information Systems, 1970), later carried into software and meetings by Jeff Conklin (gIBIS, with Michael Begeman, 1988; Dialogue Mapping, 2006).
Maps a deliberation as questions, candidate answers, and the arguments for and against each, so the question is named first and the reasoning outlasts the meeting.
When to reach for it
A group working a contested problem that needs a record it can audit later of why it chose what it chose.
How it runs
- Write the central question being decided.
- List every position proposed as an answer.
- Attach the arguments for and against each position.
- Open a sub-question wherever an argument is itself contested.
- Drop positions that are clearly outweighed, and save the map.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Issues as Elements of Information Systems, Working Paper 131, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Berkeley, 1970
- gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Exploratory Policy Discussion, ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 1988
- Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, Wiley, 2006