“Wave” Analysis of Trends
Using Wave Analysis to Understand Trends
Wave Analysis Overview
- This is a quick way to reveal everyone’s interpretation of current reality with objective clues and form a common story about current reality.
- This exercise uses a Wave as a metaphor to categorize everyone’s perception of the reality.
Major Steps of Wave Analysis
- Draw or post the wave image on the wall
- Set a context for the purpose of the exercise
- Have individuals and small groups brainstorm observations of current reality and write on cards
- Introduce the Wave as a metaphor – tell stories to clarify each area
- Teams mark all their cards with the most appropriate area and place on the wall in the 5 areas
- Walk through 5 areas, reading and clarifying all the cards, and mark representative cards
- Overall reflection looking at the whole wave (using ORID) – what are the insights?
