Hexagon maps
Hexagon maps were proposed as a tool for Systems Thinking by Anthony M Hodgson in a paper Hexagons for systems thinking (pdf 1992). It was described as “an approach to bridging the gap between the generalist thinking of decision makers and the specialism of modellers by concentrating on the preliminary issue conceptualisation stage of modelling.”
Issues, ideas and possible solutions are written onto magnetic hexagon shapes, and after the first round are clustered into “Issue maps”. These maps are examined for additional ideas that the clustering may bring out, and lines are drawn to indicate influence between areas giving an Issue map like the one on the right.
The paper goes on to introduce the use of colors to encode styles of thinking into the diagram.
lateral thinking | yellow | opportunity spotting |
critical thinking | black | innovation |
imaginative thinking | green | innovation |
judgemental thinking | brown | quality appraisal |
holistic thinking | blue | Environmental scanning |
systems thinking | orange | designing |
metacognition | white | Thinking about thinking |
chaotic thinking | grey | ambiguity |
strategic thinking | purple | directing |
decision thinking | red | action |
This uses elements of de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, which it mentions in the paper, but extends that to categorize further thinking styles.
Software[edit]
Software to produce these specialized maps was implemented by (at least) two software publishers, Idon Resources and Visual Concept, though both websites do not seem to have been updated recently. The Visual Concept link shows more examples of hexagon maps.
Acknowledgement[edit]
Thanks to John Fraser of Arum Systems Ltd for the pointer to this, and for providing the above real-life example.
For free information about the hundreds of visual thinking tools available, visit the Visual Thinking Center |