Appendix A- Honeycomb Map

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Ang Roell
Structural and Work-Culture Consultant via UMass Amherst Libraries

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Project Management in collaborative teams can often be cumbersome and create patterns or ruts in our collaboration.

Often we take on tasks that are easy or within our role. Often there’s a hierarchy of tasks and a “leader” taking on the lion’s share of the work. The honeycomb map is designed to help you break up projects into digestible tasks, and share roles, tasks and power amongst collaborators. This tactile tool is meant to help you translate projects from vision to mapping. First, as a team, you will need to make a list of all the tasks necessary to complete the project. Then group those tasks based on the theme of your project. Next write out each of the sets of tasks in sets of 5.

Each project you map with this system should be broken into as many groupings as necessary (5-500). Then the tasks should be delegated amongst team members. Team members can take on tasks that amplify their skills or can choose to take on tasks that challenge their skills. Team members can ask for support or accountability partners based on the tasks they chose. The tasks and roles can then be translated into whatever project management software or hardware your team prefers for project tracking and reporting.

The goal here is to divide tasks towards your shared objective in a way that feels equitable while giving group members a chance to try new roles and responsibilities. While this tool alone won’t create equitable power sharing, it is an excellent start to mapping roles and responsibilities while noticing patterns of action or inaction in your team.

The Honeycomb map is also available as a PDF for download.

Diagram of 5 yellow hexagons with black borders for mapping projects

Figure A.1 Honeycomb map

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