Newsletter August 2025

Welcome to our August newsletter

Welcome to our wonderful TetraMappers across the globe – hope your August has been a good one. For some it continues to be as busy as ever and for others a slower pace as people take their annual vacations and schools are closed. Whether it’s time to take a breath and reflect, or business as usual – our newsletter is packed with industry insights, tips, hints and ideas from our TetraMap team.

In the last 25 years TetraMap’s simple approach and use of nature as a metaphor has seen it grow around the world. It establishes a safe and positive environment, and metaphor creates a universally acceptable and label-free language. While management theories and workplace trends have come and gone over the past quarter century, TetraMap has continued to thrive and never has ‘strength lies in valuing differences’ been more important. This month we offer an insight as to why TetraMap remains so relevant and why the future looks bright.

How many of you use our full range of specially designed workbooks? We know you all love it – but are you stuck in a WAYLT rut? In this month’s Trust the Process, we have a masterclass from Kataraina Pipi from New Zealand on how and why you should use ‘Why are we doing this? – the nature of planning’ and how this workbook will guarantee everyone gets involved in strategic planning.

As we continue to expand into new territories, we shine a light on Ehsan Abdool Rahman and his journey to bring TetraMap to Mauritius. ‘My success depends on your success’ and with our team’s support, find out how you can do it too – anything is possible! We also meet new Master Facilitator Andrew Kai who is about to hold the first ever certification course Myanmar in South East Asia.

Following last month’s focus on purposeful play we guide you towards breathing new life to your ice breakers with ‘the Beep Game’. Encourage your participants to open up with our expert tips and tricks.

10 ways TetraMap can help nurture employee engagement

How is employee engagement faring in the organisations you work with?

With engagement at an all-time low, we have a new must-read blog from Global Head of Learning, Emma Mauger. TetraMap is the tool of choice for many of you but do you ever struggle to spell out the benefits to your clients and why it is so successful at employee engagement?

Emma explores the relationship between engagement and synergy – how learning and development has a crucial place in helping to boost engagement, offering people opportunities to grow, to develop and for organisations to align learning initiatives to their goals.

Emma explains: “When we’re engaged, we’re more willing to collaborate effectively and more likely to be open to the possibility of synergy. Synergistic experiences in turn will increase engagement by making work more meaningful and rewarding. So here we have a mutual relationship, as we often observe in nature, when two species benefit from interacting.

Of course, many factors influence engagement. Let’s focus on how, with TetraMap, we can make a difference. What value can TetraMap add and how can we share its potential to help lift engagement?”

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”
Mother Teresa

Read Emma’s ten unmissable insights why organisations should choose TetraMap in the full Blog.

Max your TetraMap resources for team planning

There are five TetraMap workbooks available for you to use as a facilitator. All specially designed to create a meaningful and memorable learning experience with content that is easy to understand, use, take away and apply every day. Each can be used as stand alone resource or combined to create a more comprehensive learning experience.

In this month’s Trust the Process, Kataraina Pipi from New Zealand explains how and why she regularly uses ‘Why are we doing this? – the nature of planning’ (WAWDT), the perfect workbook to help people work more cohesively as a team and plan more effectively for a better, more positive future.

In her work Kataraina does lots of strategic planning and WAWDT is her ‘go to’ workbook as it is designed specifically for use in planning contexts. She has used it in a range of settings with organisations, families, communities, businesses and agencies.

Kararaina explains: “The workbook can be used in any situation that requires a plan, whether it be a strategic plan, a project plan or an event – big or small. The process gives clear steps to follow and results in a plan on a page which is attractive to many.

“The TetraApproach to planning is unique in that it enables each element – Earth, Air, Water, Fire to ‘shine their light’, express what matters and is important in their realm and give full and comprehensive consideration to the Results, Systems, Culture and Image aspects of the plan.

“How the elements ‘show up’ in the context of planning is fully realised through the process. You can clearly see the perspectives and what they offer to the plan. Often you will hear, ‘oh, I wouldn’t have thought of that!’ This enables a fuller appreciation of difference.”

How do you decide when to use this particular workbook?

The WAWDT process is a carefully thought-through process that enables full participation by each individual in the group. This is far more beneficial than one or two people or a small group considering the strategic direction in isolation from others who have a stake in this. The brainstorm of all ideas for the future brings diversity in the range of perspectives. Doing this in elemental groups, is a point of difference that clearly brings forth elemental preferences.

The process has rigour. It calls for a stake in the ground, provides an easy step-by-step process that encourages full participation and creativity. The use of post-it notes for brainstorming means that everyone can contribute and the plan benefits from a wide range of perspectives.

How important is the Vision graphic?

The Vision graphic is unique to the workbook alongside the Action planning template. This allows all the hard work done in the planning to come together in a succinct one-pager, which at a glance is a visual anchor to the plan.

Having the Vision displayed in the sun keeps the eye on the prize and focus on the ‘big picture’. Displaying the Values in the rays of the sun provides a clear picture that they radiate from the vision. Having four strategic goals, with a strategic focus statement and 3-4 focus areas provides clarity and provides a high-level outline of the direction and focus of the plan.

What is vital to the process is to ensure that there is time to bring together the four platforms in such a way that the group realises the importance of the interconnection between all parts. This is where nature’s principles of interdependence and synergy are realised. The outcome of ‘working interdependently with all the others to create your synergistic future’ is where the magic lies.

What are the main differences from, for example, WAYLT?

The focus of WAWDT is the nature of planning. The process enables each element to ‘show up’ and bring their strength to the planning process. The TetraMap of Planning provides a useful framework to ensure due consideration is given to each elemental domain.

The templates provide all that is needed for the planning process. The Hot tips for Better Communication will guide the facilitation of the planning process and provide useful prompts for how to enrol, explain, guide, encourage participation from all.

“ I think the main value is that everyone contributes to a shared vision with four different perspectives of the future, (just like the design for a future house, usually shows North, South, East, West perspectives).”
Jon Brett

Supporting new territories

Twenty-five years on we are delighted at how far TetraMap has come – and yet how it has stayed the same! As we now reach far and wide into new territories, our team strives to support you wherever you are in the world and make sure you have all the resources you need!

This month we celebrate new ‘firsts’ for TetraMap in Mauritius in the Indian ocean and Myanmar, Southeast Asia.

Ehsan Abdool Rahman completed the digital certification course in June and already has his first TetraMap workshop scheduled, which is also the first one in Mauritius.

Andrew Kai is on his learning journey to become a new Master Facilitator, working with mentor and MTF, Dr Raymond Yap. He is about to hold the first ever certification course in Myanmar scheduled for September.

Thank you both for your continuing the great work!

At this milestone we want to thank ALL our intrepid TetraMappers for spreading the word. We celebrate the energy, commitment and passion of all our facilitators. It is truly a case of ‘my success depends on your success’.

Our resources and facilitation courses help us, and you, share the learning and create essential revenue which allows us to continue to invest in the future of TetraMap. Our workbooks are designed to make facilitation easier for you and you can choose a specific workbook title to extend learning into teamwork, planning or sales and service.

For 25 years TetraMap has always been about doing more with less, and continuing to focus on making the world a better place for all of humanity.

Investing in resources – translating workbooks, updating digital resources and creating new learning such as our recent addition, the Tetramap Of Leadership – is a constant process allowing TetraMap to evolve, of which we are very proud.

Don’t forget – if you need a reminder of what’s available or your responsibilities as a facilitator – it’s all in your WAYLT leader guide.

Beep! – A learning activity with minimal set up and maximum impact

Those of you who were at our recent 25-year celebration in Germany will remember TetraMap Global Brand Ambassador, Louise Duncan, introducing ‘Beep’. It made such an impact we were delighted to see it being applied the following week in a real-life learning workshop! Louise has kindly shared it for our readers, along with her tips on making it a much deeper learning experience.

All you need is a floor, some painters tape, and a few curious participants!

In recent years there’s been a lot of discussion around the term ‘psychological safety’ written about by Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson. In short, it’s about creating a safe ‘environment’ where teams can learn from and even welcome mistakes. I highly recommend her book ‘Right Kind of Wrong’.

The fear around making mistakes is real and the ‘Beep’ game reflects this in an obvious physical way. It requires whole body movement and team co-ordination. Lesson after lesson is revealed as the activity progresses. These may include awareness of team risks, mindset around feedback, and fear of making mistakes and it is likely there will be many more.

As mentioned in my article last month on purposeful play, take care to set the context and make participation safe by using previous scaffolding and being clear about the purpose of the game and its connections to the real world.

Before you play the Beep game with a client or colleagues, please test it with a group of friends so you are confident before you run it live.

“Psychological safety describes a climate at work where one believes that you can freely speak up with any idea, concern, question, even mistakes.” -Amy Edmonson

What you’ll need

• A grid of 6×8 40cm or 60cm squares, laid out in advance with painters’ tape or chalk if outside.
• A helper – who’ll be known as ‘The Beeper’. They will need a copy of the maze map (on a clipboard) which remains hidden from the participants at all times. (See photo)
• Music (can be played loud) to create a bit of stress!
• Quotes that reflect your context, for example – “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently” – Henry Ford

Frame the Game

Use your own context but be sure to include the idea that all learning is an experience. To illustrate the point about learning from mistakes – feedback is a gift, and encouraging teamwork – explain this is a fun, high tech grid known as a maze, which includes a sophisticated beeping system.

Your job is to work out how to get all members of the team to the end.

Object of the game

Get all players through the maze as quickly as possible.

The rules (demonstrate these with your Beeper)

• If you stand on a correct square, you will hear SILENCE
• You must move to an adjacent square, you cannot skip squares
• You may go forwards, diagonally, sideways and backwards
• If you stand on a wrong square, you will hear a loud BEEP (the beeper simply calls ‘BEEP’ in a loud voice!)
• After a beep you must retrace your steps back to the start
• You must all take turns at walking the maze
• No taking notes or talking during the game, BUT you can point or gesture
• You’ll have two minutes to strategize and talk
• Ready? Timer on! Let’s go!

You can adapt the rules to include physically or visually impaired participants.

Debrief

• Use the TetraPath of Learning to help you unpack the learning experience and apply the lessons to the real world [see your WAYLT Leader guide for a reminder)
• Look for leadership, risk taking, reaction to beeps (so you can highlight them in the debrief])
• What was fun, what was frustrating? (observing diverse reactions to the same experience)
• Link to key principles: Feedback, Compassion, Criticism, Teamwork, Encouragement, Solutions, Laughter, Success etc