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Near Tg the dynamics in glass‐formers vary by orders of magnitude from one region to another. The existence of such spatially heterogenous dynamics is now well established, both through simulation and experiment. However, it remains unclear to what extent this dynamic heterogeneity is a reflection of some underlying structural properties of the glass‐former. Here we provide a general theoretical tool for establishing the connection between a particle configuration and the spatial heterogeneity of the dynamics that originates from that configuration, and apply this to a model soft‐disk glass. We find that the dynamic heterogeneity in a trajectory is not completely determined by the initial configuration and establish a rigorous causal connection between a given configuration and the propensity of particles to move. Finally, we discuss a number of generalisations of this tool.