Spider Graph

One of my favourite tools which I have used for creating awareness of espoused values and real values in an organization is the SPIDER GRAPH. This is a really simple tool to use and helps participants (organizational insiders, rather than the consultant) to honestly evaluate and visualize where they are with respect to what they claim themselves to be.

Take for example a church which claims that its has four core expressions of its mission: Warmth, Witness, Worship and Word.


Spider Graph of 4 core expressions of mission in a church
What you want to do is draw 4 lines radiating from the center. At the center of the graph you want to mark "O", and at outer ends, you want to mark "10." So the question is on a scale of 1-10, where do you rate your church in terms of its warmth, witness, worship and word? In this case, participants have given themselves a "7" for Warmth, "3" for Witness, "8" for Worship and "9" for Word.

What you then need to do its to triangulate the opinions (ie make sure that the perception is correct by cross checking both insider as well as outsider perceptions) and then to ask what else you can do to improve your rating and how to implement change and growth. The other thing you could do is to ask if there are other "W"s (or some other important component in your church life beyond the 4 Ws) that you need to give attention to.