Transparency in Strategy
"Be transparent" is one of Simon Wardley's doctrine principles. It means having a bias towards openness: sharing your maps so that others can add what they know and challenge what you've assumed. That can feel uncomfortable, but it gives you more chances to catch a mistake before you act on it.
Why It Feels Uncomfortable
A Wardley Map is a picture of your landscape: the components needed to meet a user need, placed by how visible they are to the user and how evolved they are. Because a map makes your assumptions visible, sharing it invites people to tell you where you're wrong. If you lead the organisation, letting a junior colleague pick apart your plan can feel like a loss of authority. But that colleague may know something you don't, and hearing it before you commit people and money costs far less than finding out afterwards.
Building a Culture of Challenge
Ask for Challenge
Tell people you want them to question the map, and make it safe to do so. Thank people for objections, including the ones you disagree with.
Go First
Share your own maps and reasoning, including the parts you're unsure of. Respond to critique by improving the map, not by defending it.
Show What Changed
When someone spots a flaw, credit them and show how the map or the decision changed as a result.
What You Gain
Better Decisions
More people looking at the same map means more chances to spot a missing component, a wrong assumption, or work that duplicates something elsewhere.
Shared Learning
Challenging each other's maps builds a common understanding of the landscape, and the strategy improves with each round.
Trust
When people can see the reasoning behind a decision, they are more likely to trust it and support it, even if they would have chosen differently.
Handling Resistance
Some people will find openness unsettling, especially if they are used to holding information close or being judged on having the answer. Make it clear that the aim is a better map, not a winner. Never penalise someone for pointing out a flaw. And keep sharing your own maps, so that openness becomes normal rather than a one-off.
Practical Ways to Share
Publish Your Maps
Put maps where people can find them, and mark the parts you're least sure of. Those are the parts most worth challenging.
Review Across Teams
Ask people from other teams to review a map. They can spot duplication and dependencies that the team that drew it missed.
Share Progress and Changes
Tell people how the strategy is going, including what has gone wrong and what you have changed. Hold regular sessions where anyone can ask questions directly.
Close the Loop
When feedback changes a map or a decision, say what changed and why. When it doesn't, explain that too, so people know they were heard.
A First Step
Pick one map, ideally one you're unsure about, and share it with people outside the group that made it. Ask them what is missing and what is wrong, then show them what you changed.