Most teams lose more time to not knowing who to ask than to any skill gap. This builds a visible map of the team's real expertise — including the parts nobody has on their job title — and leaves you with an artefact the team keeps using.
What it is good for
- OnboardingHelping new people learn names, norms and who to ask about what.
- Cross-team networkingConnecting people who would otherwise never share a meeting.
- CollaborationWorking a shared problem where no one person holds all the information.
- CommunicationPractising clear hand-offs, active listening and saying the hard thing early.
What you need
- Sticky notes and a wall, or a shared whiteboard document
- Marker pens
The run sheet
Three notes each, in silence (8 min)
Everyone writes three things on separate notes: something I am the go-to person for here; something I know more about than my job title suggests; something I want to learn from someone in this room.
Cluster the first two piles (12 min)
Collect the 'go-to' and 'hidden knowledge' notes and cluster them on the wall by subject, not by person. Let the group do the clustering and argue about where things go — the argument is where the map gets accurate.
Name the clusters (5 min)
Write a header over each cluster. Expect surprises: teams routinely find a cluster nobody knew existed, like three people who have all run a migration before.
Match the learning notes (10 min)
Put the 'want to learn' notes next to the cluster they belong to. Every match is a potential pairing. Read the unmatched ones out — those are either a hiring signal or a training signal, and both are worth knowing.
Capture it before you leave (5 min)
Photograph the wall, or export the board, and put it where the team actually looks. An expertise map that lives in a drawer is a nice afternoon and nothing else.
Facilitator notes
- Resist writing names on the clusters during the session. Subject-first clustering produces honest groupings; name-first clustering reproduces the org chart.
- The 'more than my job title suggests' prompt is the one that does the work. Give it its own moment and say it twice.
- This is the single best activity on this site for a newly merged or newly reorganised team.
Debrief questions
Ask these immediately afterwards, not next week. Fifteen minutes of these is what turns the activity into something the team refers back to — see the debrief guide.
- Which cluster was the biggest surprise?
- Is there a cluster where all the knowledge sits with one person? What happens when they are away?
- Who will you go and ask something this week that you would not have before today?
Variations
Onboarding edition
Run it with an incoming cohort plus their team. New starters write only 'want to learn' notes; the existing team writes the other two. The matches become the first month's coffee chats.
Cross-team edition
Run it with two teams who hand work to each other. The clusters show where the handover actually breaks.
Access and inclusion
Writing-based, so allow extra time and offer to scribe for anyone who prefers to dictate. For wheelchair users, cluster on a table or a low wall rather than at standing height.
Running it remotely
Use a shared board with a timer on screen. Keep everyone muted during the silent write — the silence is doing real work and one person thinking out loud ends it.