Systems mapping is one of the tools I like to use with groups grappling with complexity. They can help clarify the situation and where to best make changes.
But they can also be fearsomely complex and hard to read.
Here is a two-part blog post from one of the founders of Kumu, an online platform for creating systems and network maps, that lays out the challenge and makes several suggestion on what we can do to make better and easier to use maps.
The big take aways–make systems maps tell a story and then make a clear argument for what you are doing and why. See Part 1 and Part 2 of this great blog post.
