The life map
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. ―Robert Louis Stevenson
👥 Serves: 11-25 people, 2-10 people
🎚 Difficulty: Easy
⏳ Total time: 31-60 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: Sheets of paper (have plenty of sheets of paper, from A4 to A3 to A1 sizes so that participants can choose which ones are more appropriate for them), pens (have plenty of coloured pens, pencils, markers for people to use)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Radical Care, Ritualising
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Authenticity, Empathy, Honesty, Hosting conversations, Listening, Multiperspectivity, Openness, Relating to Others, Storytelling, Trust
The life map
📝 Description
A tool to share your story and connect.
The Life Map is an entry-level adaptation of our recipe “The river of life” and it has been kindly shared by our friends at Bridge for Billions. The Life Map is a visual timeline of your life and it allows you to visually represent important events of your life, both personal and professional. It serves as a support to introduce yourself to another person, and discover your partner’s journey. With this tool, you will feel more confident presenting yourself to someone else; you will be better equipped to understand their journey; and you will learn about what you share in common and what makes you unique.
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This recipe has been featured in our blog post “Defying workplace incivility” published on tbd* on 26 February 2020.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Draw (30’)
Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a line or a path. This represents your life from birth until today. Now include key moments of your life. Try to include at least one event for each period of 7 years, both professional and personal. Use symbols rather than words.
Step 2 – Send (5’)
Take a picture of your life map and send it to your team via email. At the same time, receive theirs before your first team meeting.
Step 3 – Share (10’)
Explain your life map during the first meeting (5-10 minutes) either to a partner or to the whole team. You can share as much or as little as you wish: happy and sad moments, achievements and regrets…
Step 4 – Listen (20’)
Listen to your team members’ stories too. If you are a big team, you may want to take more time for the sharing or do this over several meetings if you have time constraints.