Cognitiv Maps™
What MAPS are made of
FOUNDATIONAL MAPS
Foundational Maps describe the irreducible dimensions of any organization. They make visible the organization’s actual structure, its assets in the broad sense, and its time horizons—the basic realities from which all strategic decisions are made.
These maps form a common ground. They are not tied to a specific objective or situation. They allow the organization to see how it truly operates before engaging in strategy, risk analysis, or transformation.
Without explicit Foundational Maps, other analyses rest on assumptions. With them, strategy starts from a clear and shared understanding of reality.
APPLIED MAPS
Applied Maps build on the Foundational Maps to explore, test, and structure specific strategic questions. They are used to work on strategy, risk, business models, scenarios, and complex decisions, starting from an already visible reality.
Each Applied Map produces a focused representation, oriented toward action or decision.
They do not replace the foundations—they rely on them.
Applied Maps translate organizational understanding into choices, trade-offs, and concrete direction.
What MAPS are used for
1. Augmented Cognition
MAPS provide a shared cognitive reference that makes structure, assets, and horizons visible at the same time. They allow leaders and teams to reason from the same representation of reality when making decisions.
3. StrategIQ Watch
MAPS support continuous macro- and micro-level monitoring of structural, economic, and temporal dynamics. They help track emerging risks, opportunities, and shifts as they develop across horizons.
2. Growth + Continuity Plan
MAPS enable Growth + Continuity to be addressed together by aligning ambitions with structure, assets, and constraints. They support coherent planning that preserves what must endure while enabling change where needed.
StrategIQ Plan
MAPS form the foundation of a strategic plan grounded in observable reality rather than assumptions. They translate visibility into clear priorities, trade-offs, and strategic direction across time.
Who are these MAPS for?
MAPS are aimed at founders, owners, leadership teams and managers – who are navigating growth, change and strategic uncertainty.
How MAPS are built
MAPS are built using models during working sessions or workshops, depending on the context and the organization’s challenges.
Assistance, delegation
Certain components of MAPS can be delegated to us in close collaboration with management teams.
Fondational Maps
Structural Map
STRUCTURE
Structural Map shows how the organization’s essential structural functions are handled in practice — not on paper, not by title, but in day-to-day operation.
Capabilities enabled
- maps 5 organizational systems,
- distinguish structural issues from people issues,
- locate overload, gaps, and blurred responsibilities,
- see which functions are missing, collapsed, or dormant.
Economic Map
VALUE
Economic Map examines whether the organization’s value-creation logic is explicit and inspectable, rather than assumed, fragmented, or reduced to financial indicators alone.
Capabilities developed
- surface hidden value drivers and risk concentrations,
- clarify the relationship between assets, value, and risk,
- improve capital and attention allocation decisions,
- strengthen the organization’s ability to observe and manage its own value-creation logic.
Temporal Map
HORIZONS
Temporal Map examines whether the organization has a shared and explicit view of time — not as forecasts, but as interacting horizons that influence present decisions.
Capabilities developed
- surface hidden tensions between horizons,
- clarify what belongs to the present, the transition, and the future,
- reduce temporal blind spots and strategic drift,
- improve the organization’s ability to reason and decide across time.
Applied Maps
Strategy Process Map
Strategy is not a document but a discipline and a process. This map clarifies how strategy making involves 3 distinct and progressive steps : thinking, development and planning.
Alternative Thinking & Alternative Futures
Challenge dominant assumptions and explore credible alternatives. This map helps develop the ability to think beyond default paths and inherited mental models.
Scenarios + Impacts
Move beyond storytelling with this map and learn how to use scenarios to explore implications, second-order effects, and strategic consequences — not just alternative thinking and futures.
Foresight/Prospective Map
A foresight map is a structured representation of possible futures and their implications for an organization. It makes visible how signals, trends, risks, and uncertainties may interact over time to shape decisions and outcomes.
Business Models
Reframe the business as a system of assets and capabilities. This map or canvas explores how business models evolve, where value shifts, and how to avoid being locked into past success.
Levels of Analysis
Learn to move between big-picture forces and local realities. Building and using this map sharpens the ability to connect global trends, industry dynamics, and organizational decisions.
Strategic Risks
Map Strategic, Horizons and Future-as-risk Risks to learn to identify strategic risks before they become operational or financial problems and to understand risk emerging from the future.
Customers
Go beyond demographics and satisfaction metrics. Map evolving customer behavior, unmet needs, and future demand patterns all inside the important customer attitude culture.
The Unreasonable Competition
Competition is no longer only about efficiency. Map how unconventional moves, reframing, and strategic asymmetry reshape competitive landscapes.
Contact us for more information or are ready to implement STRATEGIQ MAPS.
