Tactical mapping helps you and your team:
- Identify the human relationships and systems involved in your identified problem.
- Explore and visualize the interconnections between local, national and international relationships.
- Identify potential allies for building a more comprehensive and effective strategy.
- Identify potential opponents working against change.
Can’t use the online tool? Use these tips!
Use the following steps with your team if you are unable or do not want to use the online Tactical Mapping Tool.
NOTE: We have used a large sheet of paper for brainstorming. Used “post-its” to write the names of people, organizations, etc. This makes it easy to move them around. Different colors of marking pens to create a “key” for your map.
Begin at the face-to-face relationship of the human rights violation.
Identify the CENTER Relationship
This is the starting point of the map. Place this face-to-face relationship of two people at the CENTER of your map.
- Choose a “face-to-face” relationship that best represents your identified problem. This center relationship is not a relationship between groups or institutions. This center relationship must be between two people.
- One is the victim or rights-holder of the violation. This is the person whose human right you identified is being violated or denied.
- The other person in this face-to-face relationship is the violator or duty bearer. This person may or may not be responsible for decision making. But this person is actively violating the victim’s right. Or is standing in the way of the victim accessing their right.
Using our example from Step 1:
- The victim or rights-holder is the girl, age 13 from the urban poor communities in Galkayo, Somalia. Her right to education is being denied.
- The violator or duty bearer, the person denying her right to education is her father.
Add DIRECT relationships
These relationships have direct contact with the two people at the center of your map.
- Identify people, groups, organizations, and institutions that have direct contact with the individuals you identified in the center relationship. These relationships may occur at the local, national, regional, or even international levels.
Add INDIRECT relationships
These relationships have indirect contact with the two people at the center of your map.
- These relationships may also occur at the local, national, regional, or international levels.
Often, these indirect relationships include the institutional structures. These include governmental institutions that help or hinder you in your change efforts. Remember it is individuals who create and maintain organizations and institutions. These individuals will have different experiences and positions on your identified problem.
Add the NATURE of the relationships
The Tactical Mapping Tool provides an opportunity to identify the NATURE of relationships. We use five color-coded arrows to provide important information about these relationships. When creating your own tactical map, develop your own “map code”.
Use one primary nature of relationship line. It is important to select the most dominant relationship.
- Exploitation over power. This is when people use their power for ill-gotten benefits.
- Power over conflict. One side of this relationship has the power to decide an outcome.
- Conflict over mutual benefit. A conflict situation undermines opportunities for mutual benefit.
- Mutual benefit over “unknown”. This is when you can determine there are benefits to the relationship.
- Unknown for relationships that are unclear. An “unknown” relationship requires further research before you would choose an action.
Determining the nature of a relationship helps avoid costly mistakes. Such as sending the wrong messenger when a conflict exists between people. Understanding a relationship provides opportunities to identify innovative tactics.
This tool helps you visualize the ripple effects of your potential actions. Use it now to create your tactical map:
Explore Using the Spectrum of Allies Tool
Done mapping the terrain? Click to explore tactics for achieving your human rights goals.
RESOURCES
- Article: Tactical Mapping: How Nonprofits Can Identify the Levers of Change
This article provides an overview of the tactical map tool and specific examples of its use. It was published in The Nonprofit Quarterly, Summer 2009 edition.
Susan Banki of the University of Sydney explains why visually mapping the relationships that surround a human rights issue is important in identifying effective strategies, and she shares the steps involved in this activity. Thank you to the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney for creating and sharing this video with New Tactics!
