Ecosystem mapping

Ecosystem mapping, also called 2D mapping, is the process of capturing on a sheet of paper or digitally the key elements of the system you’re seeking to understand better and potentially intervene in. It is a starting point to realising which roles, relationships, rules and so on determine how a system functions. There are many ways to map an ecosystem, with different intentions and purposes.

Ecosystem mapping is often done as part of sensemaking process, as we are doing here. Meaning, we are processing information and attempting to make sense of it, so as to inform our future choices and actions. This can also be done in a group, for example in a stakeholder gathering or a Social Innovation Lab. Ecosystem maps are also useful tools to make our assumptions, our mental models and thoughts, visible. To say, ‘hey, here is what I/we see so far, how do you see it?’. It makes things that may have been invisible or hard to see part of the collective domain and enables us to engage with these ideas in a new way. It can also help us to communicate our seeings and intentions, and situate our action in context with other actions and interventions.

What to use this tool for

There are many ways to map an ecosystem. Some approaches focus on the issues for instance, or how certain parameters interact. In this version of ecosystem mapping, our main intention is to focus on the actors and their interactions, so that we may understand those dynamics better, and know who to potentially talk to in the next steps. We will seek to make a visual representation of the stakeholders and their connections, including formal and informal roles, relationships and grouping. We will also add important context, such as trends or external influences.

The purpose is to get a better overview over the actors within our ecosystem, affected by or involved in the issue we care about, and how they interact. This may give us insights or ideas about who to speak to next, how to collaborate, or even what actions to take to contribue to positive change.

How to use this tool

You have several options:

• Do an ecosystem map on a piece of paper or flipchart
• Do a digital ecosystem map, for instance within Mural/Miro/another digital white board or a dedicated tool

The materials needed are simply paper, pens, possibly posts-its, or devices to work digitally

Step 1: ecosystem boundaries

Decide which ecosystem you will map. This typically means choosing a specific issue or challenge (e.g. food waste), and a specific geography. To be able to map an ecosystem, making a clear decision about boundaries is essential. For instance, if you map food waste in your city, of course waste that is created further up the value chain, for instance abroad, may be relevant and worth noting down, but it is outside the scope of your ecosystem per se. Similarly, national legislation may have an impact, but if you’re seeking to make a change within your city, you may find you have more access and leverage with elected officials at a city level. So in your ecosystem map, you could note the national legislation as a key influence, whilst focusing more on who makes the decisions within the city.

Step 2: key actors

You can begin by brainstorming all the key actors. Can you name them, as organisations/groups/categories or even as individuals? Who plays a role in your ecosystem? Who has a stake, i.e. is in any way affected, by the issue you are focusing on? You can brainstorm in the form of a bullet point list or do a little bit of a mindmap, whatever works best for you. If you have information on the roles of these actors, whether they be formal or informal, include this too.

Step 3: relationships between actors

Once you have brainstormed, and if you have not yet instinctively done so, you can now begin to visually display the actors and their relationships. You can put the actors in circles, or rectangles. Think of your markings as illustrating the key people and actors in your system, which you are looking at from above, with a bird’s eye view. You will instinctively notice that if you think of what you are doing as a map, some actors will be smaller, others bigger. Some will be closer to each other, some further away. Experiment with this. How does it feel to have these two close together? Further away? Which actors are bigger, which smaller? Which are placed more in the center, which are placed more in the perifery? Have a look whether you included decision-makers as well as marginalised or unheard voices.

You can then start to link the actors. Some may have very strong bonds, e.g. one gives a mandate to another, one elects another, and so on. Other bonds may be looser, or in some case there may be no contact or relationship at all. Where are there interdependencies, contracts, agreements, implicit relationships?

You may also group certain actors together, for instance in your ecosystem there may be a whole field of NGOs that are active in it, multiple entrepreneurs or community leaders. You could create a boundary or frame around them, for instance an oval/circular shape, and label it to clarify what is within that boundary. Experiment with different textures, so as lines, dotted lines, swirls, filled out areas, etc.

If something seems unstable or very much in movement and that makes it hard for you to place an actor or relationship definitively, include this information in your map.

Step 4: context

Next, you may wish to add context. What else do you need to draw, include or annotate to clarify your model and the story it is telling? Which influences, trends, tendencies, contextual information still need to be added? You can add labels, notes, big or small arrows, symbols, emojis, … This is the time to complete your map with what is still missing for it to convey what you have been seeing and uncovering.

Step 5: discuss and refine

Take a step back and ask yourselves: what are we seeing here? What information does this map provide? Do we understand why this issue persists based on this, and who we would need to speak to or engage to help things get unstuck? Who or what may we have missed? Whom should we collaborate with as a next step?

Where are you?

As we do this work, that is both so deeply personal and deeply systemic, it’s important never to loose sight of our own positionality. Have you situated yourself in the system you mapped out? Where would you place yourself? Are you a member of a decision-making group? Or part of the people most negatively affected by the issue you’re trying to address? Does your position have strong ties with some other members of the system, and others not?

Regularly bringing your own positionality to your awareness will be key to design interventions that are aligned with your values, and also to make best use of the resources available to you.

So, if you hadn’t had a clear sense of your own position in the ecosystem previously, take some time to reflect on this question, and situate yourself.

Word of caution

Don’t get lured into the idea that your ecosystem map is correct, or definitive. We have so many biases and necessarily limited views on a whole. A map’s quality increases with its usefulness, with depends on its accuracy. This in turn depends on how many stakeholders you either talked to or included directly in the process, and the information they gave.

Don’t let having this map give you the illusion of control. Systems are emergent by default, and it can be tempting to forget about that once we have a neat map. Thinking of this map as your perfect answer, the definitive instructions on how to put a piece of furniture together, is a great trap. Think of it instead as a rough treasure map and your compass. You may have some insights, but it is limited, and a lot remains to be discovered when you set out on the journey to your treasure. There is beauty in that, too.

 References

• Presencing Institute
• Kelvy Bird, System mapping
• Nora Wilhelm’s Cambridge dissertation
• USAID. (2016) The 5Rs Framework in the Program Cycle. Available at: https://usaidlearninglab.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/5rs_techncial_note_ver_2_1_final.pdf (Accessed: 15 April 2020)