What’s your intellectual landscape?

Although it might sound like the latest psycho-neurological theory to explain how we think, this is actually something much simpler. Just a Google Map showing some of the external organisations that influence the thinking of the team I work in. So what’s the point of the exercise? Is it a Twitter-esque flaunting of the latest web 2.0 tomfoolery? Well, no, actually. Making the map had three very real benefits.

Firstly, creating your intellectual landscape forces you to think hard about who really does have an influence. Listing the organisations, placing them on the map and writing a quick summary of each gives a strong sense of how these different organisations relate to each other and to you. As a more spatial thinker (and London cyclist), it was invaluable for me in understanding who all these different players are. It also amazed me how centralised everything was, within the capital let alone the country.

It also illustrates that even in this global and digital age, ‘locality’ is still highly important, both to where you live and where you work. I might sit there looking at Outlook all day but the names at the top of all those email addresses are real people - and, as it turns out, they are just a few minutes away. I’d be interested to see the intellectual landscapes of other organisations or people, where they match and how they differ to this one.

Lastly it shows the benefits of using new technologies to think a little creatively and present your ideas. It would be easy to have this information in an Excel workbook which I could complete, sort and analyse. But for this purpose, a blog post, that wouldn’t be half as much fun. The range of new media tools that allow research to be presented in different ways seems to be growing exponentially. At FreshMinds we always keep an eye on the coolest new graphics or chart techniques but time and again we have to make sure we’re using them appropriately and not just Tweeting.

Hope you enjoy our intellectual landscape – send us your own:

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About the author

Louis Coiffait is a Lead Research Manager with a track record of delivering insightful and organisation changing research to our clients in the public sector and healthcare industry.