Carole Manship
Bridge Marketing Partnership
Certified 08/11/2007

Carole Manship

Overview

Since becoming a certified facilitator, I have used TetraMap with a number of groups. It provides an extremely useful framework for discussions and to allow people to express themselves in a safe environment. I fully embrace the idea that TetraMap should be fun and the introductory exercises to get across the use of nature as a metaphor are always well received.

Here are a few examples of how it has been applied:

I used it just the other week with a group who had been introduced to TetraMap one year ago as part of a team building exercise. Last week, we used it to evaluate an away day and as ever, the TetraMap approach gave people the opportunity to say things that most likely would never come out otherwise.

With one client group, we used TetraMap successfully as the basis of a marketing exercise to step into the shoes of their customers and to re-design their processes for dealing with customers.

With another client, TetraMap was used to engage employee interest in end of year results. The company owners were disappointed that year after year, their staff did not show any interest or enthusiasm for this annual event. We used TetraMap as a vehicle for involving staff; the evening proved great fun and did get everyone asking questions. TetraMap also made it very clear why the situation existed - we basically had a room full of people whose main elements were water - they cared about each other and the customer but not the bottom line - and fire. The only person with a high score on earth was one of the owners.

I introduced TetraMap to the Heart of England's Women in Management Group as a tool for improving communication and relationships. The following day, organiser Yvette Meneaud sent an email to me with a summary of the feedback. She wrote: "Thank you very much for a brilliant evening. It certainly was the fun you promised and, as you can see from the attached analysis, the ratings were high for you as a speaker, the topic and the evening overall."

TetraMap Facilitation

My starting point is the use of nature as a metaphor to understand behaviours. I love the exercises that get people thinking in poetic terms and it never fails to engage people. Having a box full of toys and an oddbin of items or beautiful pictures on hand and asking people to find something that is like them in some way, always gets a buzz in the room. I was given a red cowgirl hat and I always love to see the fire person in the room that finds it and puts it on straightaway.

The longer I work with TetraMap, the more uses I find for it. As noted above, I've recently started to use it to evaluate programmes and that works a treat - especially when you ask people to put themselves in the shoes of the different elements.

What always amazes me is how simple the instrument is to assess individual scores and how accurate it tends to be. I can't remember one time when someone said "this isn't me", though the option is always given to join a different group.