Unless you know where you are, a map is no use...

I recently posted this age-old piece of wisdom on Twitter and found myself challenged by someone who wrote:

I disagree Geoff. There are many times when we've been lost but by looking at what is around us and comparing it to what is shown on the map, we are able to ascertain where we are. This holds true for both physical and emotional contexts.

This really got me thinking...and my initial response was:

OK then...Where you ARE is independent of any map.
Reference to physical (or emotional!) objects and translating them to an appropriate (and that's important) map will help locate yourself on a map, then you can use a map to plan out a way ...to get somewhere else.

There are all sorts of maps - physical and virtual - and we constantly create and update our own maps of the world. None of these are true - remember that Korsybski said that "The map is not the territory" - yet they generally prove helpful. The map of the London Underground is nothing like a physical geographical representation of the locations of lines and stations, yet it is successfully used daily by millions of travellers. You can drop a traveller in any station and they can very quickly, by reference to where the trains in that station are going to/from and without looking at the station name on the platform, figure out where they are and then how to get to their destination. And of course, that map alone is of limited use if I am on Green Park station wanting to find out how to get to Birmingham. Birmingham is not on the Tube map! I need another map, one in my head that says "go North young man" or some knowledge that trains to Birmingham depart from Euston, or some other way of knowing that I can only get part of my route planned form the tube map.

When we think of organisational change, what maps do we use to understand the current state of the organisation? What maps do we use to define our destination, and is that destination necessarily on the same map as we used for diagnosis - or even any map at all!? What maps and other tools (e.g. an Oyster Card or ticket for the Tube) do we need to plan the journey?
Are you sure that your map is up-to-date? Using an Underground map from 25 years ago before the Jubilee Line was built will significantly extend my journey times. Using an organisational map based on 14th Century theological principles or early 20th Century behaviourism would be of little use in an early 21st Century organisation.