Simon Wardley is a researcher who covers technology and business culture at the Leading Edge Forum, where it’s his job to spot signals of change. He

Simon Wardley on Mapping Our Way to a Common Language

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2021-08-16 13:30:21

Simon Wardley is a researcher who covers technology and business culture at the Leading Edge Forum, where it’s his job to spot signals of change. He is most known for his application of “Wardley Maps” to business and global problems alike.

We talk to the Brit about just what maps really are — versus their imposters: graphs — and why they are being applied to complex issues ranging from distributed systems in the cloud to billions in cost savings to the climate emergency to each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Maps very efficiently center us all in one direction and clarify the nuances of meaning and language, so we can unlock patterns. And maybe they also put some checks on that very human habit of storytelling. We talked to Wardley to find out more.

Simon Wardley: I used to run a company called Fotango. We had brilliant engineers and everything else, but the executive in me was completely clueless. And I realized over time that part of the problem was that I couldn’t actually perceive my landscape at all.

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