Introduction
Seeing the whole terrain is a facilitated workshop and mapping game created by For Purpose, a social change agency based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is built for campaign teams, advocacy organisations and movement groups that want to pause and take stock before committing to a campaign.
Campaigns can feel like navigating an ever-shifting landscape.
They are often launched under pressure, before strategy is settled or teams are aligned, which leads to unclear asks, internal confusion, stress and uneven results. The game grew out of For Purposeโs years of work supporting campaigns and movements and turns campaign readiness into something a team can see, map and talk through together, rather than debate in the abstract.
What the Game Does
Pause, Diagnose and Map
The workshop creates space to pause, diagnose where you are and get ready to move forward together. It uses a game-like, facilitated process built around five regions of the campaign landscape. Using decks of prompt cards and visual mapping, each team maps its terrain by identifying key landmarks, characters, tools and strengths.
Talking Honestly for Clearer Strategy
Framing the work as a shared game makes it easier to talk honestly about how decisions are made, how power is shared, where effort is being stretched, and what foundations need strengthening. The session is designed to support clearer strategy, healthier internal dynamics and more sustainable campaigning.
There is no winning. The aim is to see the terrain clearly before you travel through it together.
The 5 Regions
Each team takes responsibility for one region of โthe world” – a different dimension of campaign readiness. Together, the regions form the full campaign landscape.
- Story, vision, values and identity: the narrative realm
- Strategy: the map of intent
- Power: the field of forces
- Alignment: the tension plains
- Capacity: the energy reserves
How the Session Works
It opens by setting the scene and talking about campaign readiness and where the thinking came from. Each team is assigned a region and given matching prompt cards. Each team maps its terrain, then the teams come back together to share what they found and see how the regions connect. The point is not to compete, but to build a shared, honest picture of where the campaign stands before the work begins.
Access the Resource
Register your interest in For Purposeโs campaign readiness game.
Contact For Purpose if youโre interested in us facilitating a workshop using this method.
About the Author
Kristin Gillies is Director at For Purpose, a dad, a renewable energy buff, and compostโs #1 Fan. Kristin got his start in campaigning in the days before smartphones, holding up coal trains and occupying mines on the West Coast of New Zealandโs South Island. As Actions Coordinator at Greenpeace NZ, Kristin worked to accelerate political action on climate change by coordinating campaign-defining actions, such as the 6-week flotilla off the East Cape alongside local iwi, Te Whฤnau-ฤ-Apanui, to stop Brazilian oil giant Petrobasโ plans for offshore exploration. Kristin sharpened his political and digital campaigning skills at the Green Party of Aotearoa. Here, he was elevated to National Campaign Manager and led the partyโs shift to digital campaigning for the 2014 General Election. For Kristin, working at For Purpose is about supporting the multitudes of good people doing good work to make Aotearoa a better place.
For Purpose is a social change agency that builds the capability and infrastructure behind movements and actions that last. Working across strategy, communications, design, storytelling and technology, For Purpose supports advocacy organisations, not-for-profits, social good campaigners, unions, community groups, foundations and membership-based organisations in understanding and growing their audiences and sustaining their work over the long term. ForPurpose is grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and works as a long-term partner rather than a one-off supplier.