Ah, remember the memo! How they would often start in a spirit of considerate open-ness, explaining the 3 or 4 options available to us and inviting our thoughts. Before, that is, they ruined it all by giving just enough hints that the decision was already made and ‘proposing’ the option that was ‘probably best for all of us’.
Anne Marie Slaughter suggests that engaging people in a mapping exercise, on the other hand, is a very different thing. The facts, as you understand them, are laid out, as are the uncertainties and key issues that need to be resolved. Then other people use their expertise to fill out the parts of the map they know about until logical and possibly even evidence-based conclusions begin to emerge.
Photo credit: Intelligence Squared