Navigating Uncertainty Together: When the Map Is Useless, a multi-year initiative led by Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue

​When the Map Is Useless, a multi-year initiative led by Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, strengthens public sense-making and civic discourse by cultivating capacities to navigate social, political, and ecological uncertainty. Through Conversations for a World in Transition—an interdisciplinary dialogue series exploring what is unfolding, how to understand it, and how to sustain ourselves through change—and Bridging the Political Divide—facilitated conversations among public leaders modeling rigorous yet respectful disagreement—the program creates reflective spaces for engaging complexity without resorting to simplification or despair. The initiative equips communities and leaders with practices for sustaining democratic relationships and collective decision-making amid polarization, demonstrating how dialogue can foster critical optimism and broader participation in public life. By bringing together diverse voices to make sense of profound transition, this work directly advances NCDD's commitment to strengthening democracy through meaningful conversation and collaborative engagement across difference.

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In times of profound transition, communities need more than information—they need spaces to make sense of change together. When the Map Is Useless, a multi-year initiative led by Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, creates exactly these spaces. The program brings together university voices and the wider British Columbia community to strengthen collective sense-making and civic discourse during a period of social, political, and ecological transformation.
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The initiative begins with an honest recognition: familiar frameworks for understanding our world are often inadequate for the challenges we face. Rather than offering new certainties, When the Map Is Useless cultivates the capacities communities need to navigate uncertainty itself—engaging across difference, adapting leadership approaches, and sustaining democratic decision-making even amid deep polarization.

Building Capacity Through Dialogue

When the Map Is Useless operates through two interconnected programs, each designed to strengthen different dimensions of civic engagement. Conversations for a World in Transition offers a public dialogue series featuring interdisciplinary exchanges between innovative scholars and practitioners. These fireside-style conversations create opportunities for community members to engage with complexity without falling into oversimplification or despair.
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The dialogue series is organized around three guiding questions: What is unfolding in this moment? What contexts help us make sense of it? How do we sustain ourselves while navigating profound change? By centering these questions, the series invites participants into collective reflection that moves beyond soundbites and surface-level analysis. The conversations aim to deepen public understanding while fostering critical optimism, public imagination, and the personal and collective capacities needed to move through transformation with curiosity, care, courage, and integrity.

Strengthening Public Leadership

Bridging the Political Divide, the initiative's second component, addresses the erosion of civility and trust in public life. This programming brings together people who shape public discourse—elected and former elected officials, journalists, union leaders, philanthropists, academics, and community leaders—for facilitated conversations and reflective engagement.

The focus is practical: exploring how disagreement can remain rigorous and substantive without becoming dehumanizing. Through these gatherings, participants work to model how leaders can engage in heated conversations while remaining grounded and respectful. The initiative recognizes that the quality of public discourse depends significantly on how those with public influence engage with one another and with communities.
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By creating space for leaders to practice bridging divides, the program seeks to shift patterns in British Columbia and Canadian public life. The work aims not only to improve the tone of public conversation but also to encourage broader and more diverse participation in democratic leadership.

Reclaiming Shared Decision-Making

When the Map Is Useless responds to a fundamental democratic challenge: how communities sustain the relationships and practices needed for collective decision-making when polarization intensifies and shared frameworks fracture. The initiative treats this not as a problem to solve but as an ongoing practice to strengthen.

The program creates conditions for people to develop their capacity to sit with uncertainty, engage across worldviews, and participate in sense-making together. Rather than prescribing specific outcomes, it trusts that communities equipped with these capacities can find their own way forward through change.

This approach reflects deep respect for the democratic process itself. By bringing together diverse voices—from university scholars to community members to public leaders—the initiative demonstrates that navigating transition requires wisdom from multiple sources and sustained commitment to inclusive dialogue.
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Explore the When the Map Is Useless initiative and learn about upcoming dialogues and programs at https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/what-we-do/initiatives/map-is-useless.html