Roadmap Tool

In this Roadmap tool we challenge you to visualize your identity as teacher, lecturer, coach or researcher, involved or interested in talent development. Dig into your brain and find out what or who influenced you and made you who you are. The assignment takes about 40 minutes and consists of thinking, drawing and writing.

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What is the Roadmap Tool?

Finding out ‘who one is’, is not an easy task. Identity, professional or personal, is not formed in a straight line, but formed in a non-linear way. Therefore we offer you a helping hand, a guideline to start and, if needed, some extra questions to trigger your thinking.

It may help you as an individual to learn more about what is important for you and how this helps you to make decisions. It may help you as a group of colleagues to learn from one another and keep on learning while developing your respective programs.

You can use this tool in different ways:

  • Make a personal roadmap: look into the mirror
  • Share roadmaps with colleagues: they can show you their mirror
  • Share the roadmaps with your team: this will give you the possibility to talk with colleagues about your and their attitude towards ‘talent development’.
  • Ask your students to draw their own roadmap and get a grip on what is important for them in making choices.

Instructions

Your Roadmap steps:

On a big blank sheet of (A3) paper you draw your timeline.

  • It seems best to draw starting from the bottom, but if you want it somewhere else on the page: feel free.
  • Keep in mind that you will add information along the line, so make sure there is enough room.

Along this line you draw your resumé as a route or a road, design it in a way that suits you and make clear what points in time were moments of change. Use symbols, drawings, pictures, whatever suits you best. 

  • Where in your resumé are moments of change by force or free will, make clear what caused your change in course.
  • Did you encounter a radical change due to some specific reason?
  • What were the important choices and insights: what did you learn along the way?

Mark the moment where you decided to get involved with (educating) talented students and make clear WHY: what were your drives? What or who helped you with this?

Mark the moments that you gained more competence in guiding talented students. How and what competences?

  • How did you develop these competences?
  • What knowledge and skills do you lack and what would you like to develop further?
  • What obstacles do you have to overcome to get where you want in this track?
  • Want to do a simple and free test?

Indicate on the sheet how you know you are on the right track. What helps you?

  • How will you know when you have reached your goals with these talented students?
  • What does this mean for you?
  • How will others know you have reached your goals?

Write down your thoughts about your timeline, events, the impact, etc.
If you want to, you can use several sets of questions; For instance:

  • Did I do the thing(s) that was / were needed to be done?
  • Did I do it / them in a way that I think is a good way?
  • Did I do it / them for the right reasons?

Or think about a variation on the Cartesian questions:

  • What happened now that I did this?
  • What would have happened if I not had done this?
  • What did not happen now that I did this?
  • What would not have happened if I not had done this?

Reflection is not only based on ‘events’ and how you reacted, but also on you and your decisions, you and your ‘why’, you and your context(s), etc. So also ask yourself:

  • what does this assignment bring me?
  • How am I going to make this work?

Reflecting together

There are two main ways of reflecting on the results of using this tool
with the help of others. The third option is about helping students to reflect

Use this instrument with a group of colleagues. Make the ‘roadmap’ individually and explain to one another why your ‘roadmap’ looks as it does. Elaborate on reasons, triggers, believes and/or opinions and views.

After having drawn your individual roadmap with the Roadmap tool, it is time to reflect. We think this assignment works best if you reflect on it in a structured way afterwards, for example in a small group of about four colleagues.

We suggest the following:

  1. Each participant gives a short pitch of highlights of his/her individual roadmap; Instruction: include as precise as you want the important moments in your roadmap, illustrate short if that makes it more clear for the listeners. At the same time: don’t be too detailed, it may be difficult to keep all details in mind.
  2. At the end of your own story, please pick two reflections you want to share with the others in your group (see step 6).  
  3. After all participants have given their pitch: Start the conversation about what is common in your development, or about what binds you, connects you. Also share the differences.
  4. See what’s important about these common grounds. What do you share?
  5. Reflect on where you stand after listening to the others; is there anything you would like to develop?
  6. Try thinking of two actions which you can perform in a relatively short time that would help you in that development.

Make notes which help you to remember what has been said and make you remember your actions.

Make the roadmap individually, find a colleague who is willing to ask you questions about it and get into dialogue about your roadmap.

Questions which might help to get deeper into the result of the Roadmap tool:

  • Could you elaborate on ……..?
  • What do you mean with ……?
  • What had the most important impact in your development (which is in the roadmap)?
  • At which moment in time would you rather have had a different choice or would you rather have made another decision?
  • What was the most precious moment?
  • In what way would you like to develop more or further?

You can also reflect with students on their roadmap, using the suggestions under options 1 and 2. This might help students to get a clearer view on where they stand right now and where they would like to aim for.