Power Map.

Map the field of power around your decision-maker honestly, so your effort goes where it can actually move the decision rather than where it feels good.

In Build a Strategy for the Change You Seek, after your change and target are defined, before you choose tactics.

Change runs through power, and power is rarely where it first appears.

Map who influences the decision-maker

The decision-maker or body (from your target definition)

Who influences them, whose voice they actually listen to

Our allies, who want this change too

Our opponents, who will push back, and how much power they hold

The persuadable middle, those not yet decided

Where the people we serve sit in this field, and how much voice they have

Be honest about power

Power we do not have but wish we did

Opposition stronger than we would like to admit

Find your points of leverage

Where we actually have or can build leverage: a relationship, a constituency, a piece of evidence, a moment

The one or two points where our force could most move this decision

Strategy is concentrating force where you have leverage, not spreading it thin everywhere. A good power map is honest about the opposition and clear about the few points where you can actually push. If the map shows you have almost no leverage on this decision-maker, that is itself a finding: you may need to build power first, through coalition and community, before this change is reachable. Feeds the Tactics Within Limits Selector.

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