WHY THE TREND MATRIX?

You are invited to attend yet another offsite planning meeting. You have lost track of how many of these you’ve attended in the course of your career. They are all the same. Lots of hype about where the company is going. Perhaps discussions about real problems and concerns. Loads of information and ideas are collected. Your hopes are high. Perhaps this one will be different. Maybe this time something will actually happen. Does this sound familiar?

The purpose of the Trend Matrix is to provide the team with a framework and tool to:

• consider the impact each trend captured in the Context Map has on the organization
• capture the actions that the organization will take in response to each trend
• categorize, sort, and prioritize trends and actions to create an actionalble plan for moving forward with confidence

In short, the purpose of the Trend Matrix is to transform talk into action.

BUILDING ON THE DATA

I assume that prior to doing a Trend Map exercise you have completed a Context Map with the team or individual you are working with. Once you have done that you have what you need to drill down and transform your high level trends to something meaningful to your client.

I’ve found that the most valuable part of this exercise comes from building what I call a “Trend Matrix.” It is a simple 2-dimensional table that provides implications and possible actions for each trend identified in the map. See example below:

(Notice I’ve created a table for each trend. I’ve found that this helps break up the long list of trends into manageable chunks so as to not be so overwhelming to the team or individual I am working with.)

COMPLETING THE TREND MATRIX

I’ve found that the best way to complete the Trend Map is to use a laptop connected to a digital projector using a preformatted spreadsheet that I have populated on a break.

To complete the Trend Matrix I take each trend and ask, “What are the implications to the organization as a whole?” I record all the responses as a bulleted list in the implication column. I also like to ask, “What are the implications to your individual departments or divisions?” I’ll add those to the list, making a note of the departments affected.

Next I’ll ask, “What are the possible actions to take given the implications this trend has for your organization?” I’ll also record the responses in a bulleted list under the actions column. It is also important to note individual departments or divisions if applicable.

When you are finished you’ll have a very rich database of all the trends affecting the organization, all the implications they represent, and the possible actions the organization should consider taking to repsond to the trends. This can be further refined by the team members and their staff between meetings.

Once this data in finalized I like to categorize the actions, add departments, and insert the trend in the row in antiticipation of the next step: creating the consolidated view in an MS Excel or MS Access database. Taking this step makes it easy to sort and prioritize line items in preparation for formulating the plans and initiatives resulting from this work. I’ve included a partial example below:

The Trend Matrix is one of my most powerful tools in helping individuals and teams respond to the many trends and factors affecting them in this highly dynamic world we are lving in today.

WHY THE CONTEXT MAP?

The environment in which organization’s exist is constantly changing. The forces that make up this environment include things such as the current economic climate, political trends, customer needs, demographical trends, and technology trends just to name a few. The organization can either react to trends dominant trends once they are strongly felt, or proactively anticipate and respond to these trends before their effect is strongly felt.The most successful companies do the latter.

The purpose of the Context Map is to provide a framework for identifying, discussing, and recording the most impactful trends affecting the organization. It results in a high-level view of all the factors to consider when planning or strategizing about an organization’s future. You can view an example of the Gorve Context Map by clicking here.

Completing the map as a team helps them build an appreciation for one another as each individual team member adds trends and factors from their own perspective that come naturally because of their unique personality, position in the organization, and personal interests. This is an important point to bring to the team’s attention somewhere in this exercise usually as part of the summary at the end. In short, using the context map not only provides valuable data but also helps the team to build trust, the foundation of high-performing teams in any organization.

USING THE CONTEXT MAP

I’ve found the Context Map to be a very useful tool not only for building a strategic vision, but also in building a cohesive and functional team. See my post, “Context Maps: The Key To Getting To Why” for a detailed discussion about how to use them with your team. Please take a few minutes to read the post now as it will walk you through the process of building a Context Map.

In the next post in this series we’ll build on the work we have done in creating a Context Map and focus the team by building a Trend Matrix.