Welcome And Thanks For Engaging

Maybe you’re about to create a strategy, a plan for the future? Perhaps you are seeking to improve your enterprise in some way? Well, you’re in the right place. These are tough nuts, but you know that. 

In the next few seconds, we hope to convey what took us three decades to perfect.

We use structures, mostly visual, and critical thinking in direct collaboration with leaders. We drag the winning path kicking and screaming from the chaos and complexity that surrounds us these days.

If that didn’t convey it here’s a ‘day in the office’ for us.

Thinking Differently

Thinking through complex business challenges is tough. But that doesn’t mean the work has to be painful. We were clients ourselves, we’ve been through the torture of the endless meetings. We built our approach because we wanted a better way. We noticed that the best meetings were the ones that weren’t meetings.

We Noticed

We noticed the most successful programs didn’t feel like programs - they were about being creative and getting things to happen. We saw that things really worked when the team responsible worked. We saw the success when everyone was allowed to engage and to really understand what it would take to get the right job done.

A Different Language

The following graphic symbols represent the work we do and the things we care about most. We’ve proven that by simplifying complex ideas into visual components people engage far more. We have seen that by working with teams respectfully and impartially they are more open to the inevitable change. By engaging them in their own futures, in more meaningful ways, we can transfer the clarity and confidence to them - they are the ones that need to deliver.

So, we have to transfer the future to them.

Why We Exist

• To help business leaders create the best path to their future.

• Whether solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity - making the correct choices in business is life or death.

• There are always new market pressures, disruptive technologies and zero time. The future is entirely uncertain.

• We were clients ourselves - we created Structured Visual Thinking™ because there was nothing that worked.

• No method existed that would do what we needed.

• Nothing worked at speed or engaged/inspired the whole team.

• We knew that critical thinking and inclusive conversation was the vital ingredient when trying to create a strategy or execute a plan.

• Clarity of execution is essential if you plan to get anything done.

• As a leader you need objectivity but it’s hard to ask yourself the really tough questions.

What do we do?

• We ask the tough questions - together.

• We make strategy/planning and problem solving interesting and engaging.

• We make the process conversational and highly relevant for leaders in this new and uncertain world.

• We turn what’s often impenetrable information/data into living tools - everything becomes graphical and meaningful

• These tools create the stories that inspire and engage audiences and employees alike.

• We get leadership teams and decision makers aligned to their own future.

• We take account of the current situation, all the perspectives and bring objective challenge to all of it.

• We bring systems thinking to bear on the problem making sure we look at the challenge properly and avoid solving the wrong problem really well.

It Works - Ask Our Clients

A Scenario

In the last century, VUCA was coined as shorthand for highly exceptional circumstances.

Volatility, Uncertainty, Chaos and Ambiguity.

Now it defines every day and everything.

Tenacity, Emotional maturity, Creativity and Humility (TECH) could be the formula for survival.

They define the new 'senses' required for survival in the future.

Business leaders have many questions to answer - challenges to solve, opportunities to exploit.

For business leaders there’s always a trigger - for example:

“Given the constant state of flux, how should the leaders think and operate to succeed in the uncertain future?”

A question like that deserves the right conversation and critical thinking by the decision makers.

Conversation allows exchange of ideas and positions.

This allows the mapping of insights.

Insights emerge in two ways - the lack of connection between - or the force of the connection among - the combined ideas.

Discussing ideas until there is a shared sense of direction is highly valuable.

As long as the facts and basis of the conversation is built on quality data this is how business can chart its path to the future.

Even if all that emerges is a hypothesis that is tested further through market testing and research.

A Question Of Perspective

Every business is an ‘enterprise’ consisting of many individuals and they all have their own perspectives.

Every business operates with the marketplace it is within and every stakeholder has its own perspective too.

The minute we add technological and societal change these perspectives become ever more complex.

The minute we add time they become highly dynamic and leaders find the answers yet more confounding.

Visual Intervention

By making the mapping more graphical everyone can witness each step and make informed comments.

The process of progressive and iterative frame-working is not only important in shaping each step it is immersive, collaborative and educational for everyone involved.

Sustaining Over The Long Term

The content and dynamics will always change.

Products and services and opportunities for new processes, people and systems will always be the case.

What needn’t change are the principles applied here.

Every tool, technique and instrument, once learned will all arm the teams and inform the way on which the business can think and work whatever the future throws at them.

In Search Of The Elusive Future.

Tour through the main stages of our work.

The logic that’s needed to ‘frame’ the situation.

A blueprint to solve every challenge in business.

 The key themes that affect us all in business.

And what we feel we should do about them.

A plea for the world to wake up.

We humans need to make critical changes to our brains.

But only if we wish to be successful and survive.

Nine essential areas.

They drive every self respecting business strategy.

The three main areas.

They define our approach.

The critical context.

The main dimensions of business and strategy.

The differences between graphic recording/sketch notes and Structured Visual Thinking™

Create the right path to the future, solve challenges, exploit opportunities.

And it’s tough. Increasing market pressures, disruptive technologies, dramatic societal change - and no time the waste.

We were clients ourselves, and we created Structured Visual Thinking™ because nothing like it existed to get the job done.

We Needed New Tools

There was no realistic method to do what we wanted - critical thinking, at speed AND engage/inspire the whole team.

Thinking and making smart decisions is the vital ingredient if you are trying to create the best strategy or plan.

And you need sustainable tools to execute if you plan to get it done.

As a leader you need the objectivity. It’s hard to ask yourselves the tough questions.

We work within structured frameworks and apply visual creativity to everything we do. Because we’ve proven that it really works.

We are always evolving. We are developing an exhaustive and modular platform that we call the Group Partners Strategic Toolkit (GPSTK)

Insights & Wisdom

The way we work is different.

We use human emotional senses to create engagement.

We embrace these senses during the development of strategies for change and innovation for the future.

Engagement is critical beyond mere attendance in meetings.

We exploit the science/neuroscience of how we think and work as humans.

We are starting to appreciate (through neuroscience) new ideas that are only just becoming appreciated due to new technologies.

We understand the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of the visualisation techniques we use.

We know these techniques help us think and work far better in this new and dynamic world.

Whether we start with a problem to be solved or a solution to be found - a challenge is always an opportunity.

We’ve Developed A Unique Approach

It cuts through the chaos and frustration associated with developing new strategies.

We help senior teams develop the plans that create sustainable change and transformation.

We help our clients to overcome the lack of clarity caused by the increasing disruption in our world.

Solving Complex Challenges Often Fail

This is not because the answer isn't achieved but because the people who have to deliver it aren't engaged.

Our approach is equal parts critical thinking and creative experience.

Those working on the program get time to think.

Because it all happens visually they 'see' and own the future themselves.

The Technique

We build frameworks from the information we gather to create meaning.

We apply the structure and tension in these frameworks to cause a far greater quality of thinking.

We do this in a number of different ways.

To stimulate debate, to build models to show possible scenarios or direction and to understand and then communicate the outcome more broadly.

The Intervention Part

Although by no means the main part of our work it is certainly the most visible part of the experience.

We can’t really show the deliverables of our work but everyone asks about the intervention sessions.

Here’s a few images that explain the safe space we create for the critical thinking and collaboration part.

A Big White Wall Sounds Simple - It Often Isn’t

We will ask for 60–70–100 foot expanses of wall - depending on the scale of the challenge. They can be over two or even three sides. We do this so that we can build the conversational framework. This is the set of modules that make up the conversation we need to have to respond to the challenge. (See Above) Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we don’t.

Not Always Great Walls

Often the rooms we end up in are (to be kind) less than ideal. Impossible to create a flat expanse of whitewall. So, we have to cover a multitude of sins — moose’s heads, ornate lighting, fireplaces, oriental art, stained glass windows, rare statues — air conditioning units.

It’s quite a challenge. This is because such large expanses are seldom left clear. The traditional innovation or classroom space will have whiteboards screwed to the walls, plasma screens - all sorts of things. Although the instruction is for white flat painted rooms and their wall coverings are deceptive.

The one below looked fine from the photographs but were covered in wood chip paper - rendering them unworkable for the thin electrostatic wall covering we use to cover them to make the whiteboard.

Our request is ALWAYS for flat expanses of white painted walls because that’s what we need. We need the surface and the size and scale to allow us and the team to become free to think, to be creative and for us to do the work. But somehow that gets lost in translation. I know, that’s strange right? And because we have to draw all over them they have to be sturdy.

When we do find (or build a flat expanses of white painted wall we can apply really cool electrostatic vinyl materials that turn the wall into a whiteboard - in a flash.

When we don’t, as in the picture below, we have to bring a wall in with us:

Standing against the wall above you will see two massive boxes. They are the consequence of having a room that may well have walls but are hidden by years or poor taste, bad lighting, terrifying wallpaper, awful curtains and rubbish carpets.

Mouldings, dado rails, moose heads and all other things that constitute a ‘very bad room’. They will be delivered - usually a day or so ahead of us needing them in the venue.

All the images here give you a flavour of how we work and prepare for stakeholder sessions. Each one varies in scope and purpose.

Our walls are always unobtrusive, lightweight and readily removable. They never cause any harm or damage to the existing spaces.

1. Let’s Not Solve The Wrong Problems Really Well

We constantly do solve the wrong problems because it’s too easy to look at effects rather than the causes. It’s all too easy to go for the simple solution rather than thoughtful and harder ones. We are too busy to look at the whole picture.

2. Why Do We Call It Structured Visual Thinking™?

Three simple words that make all the difference. There’s plenty of people who will turn up and draw what people say on a wall. It’s completely not what we do. We use the process of visualising* to make higher quality decisions parsed through logical models.

* We add the power of visualisation to the importance of structure and as a result we encourage much better thinking

3, What Is It About The Power Of Pictures?

It’s because words have been so abused. It seems almost everyone we meet can have a very different meaning of the most important ones. You know — innovation, quality, vision, mission, outcome, intention, purpose. By collectively drawing a picture we can force clarity — every time.

We apply Structured Visual Thinking™ tools and techniques to create outcomes based on the meaning of the concepts and get more clarity of the actual words.

4. The Intelligence Behind The Information That Makes It Work

The power of logical and structured thinking results in the creation of what we call frameworks. They emerge from an appreciation of the context and then calculating* what mechanism will help us answer the challenge. Frameworks* are our tools for forcing the right debate. They create the arcs for strategic narratives and help us build business cases and make the smartest decisions.

* Frameworks are powerful ways for curating and collecting the content that’s needed to make the tough choices needed for strategy. We call this Framework Science™

5. Getting To The Heart Of The Matter

Understanding how to make the right choices is a massive challenge for leaders in business today. It’s never been more complex and there’s no one right answer anyway. The straightforward fact that visualisation and structure contains logic helps us get to the better answer far faster,

Think of this systemic approach to conversations as a 21st Century strategic ‘answering machine’.

6. The Art Of Drawing Better Conclusions

Symbolism and imagery reflected in real time back to the audience helps to explain to people that what they are thinking is not what they mean*. And that can be liberating to some and deadly if not uncovered. People are not deliberately aiming to be mischievous — it’s just how we have become immune to common language.

We lack the bandwidth or interest (in many cases) to engage or dig into the meaning behind the language we use.

7. Nodding — Overcoming The Biggest Problem In Business Meetings

The biggest issue we have in meetings and workshops is the tendency of people to say they understand something when they absolutely don’t. That’s really not a very good idea and it’s potentially catastrophic for business.

Politeness or peer group pressure, call it what you like is everywhere, but we all see it. It is now so common that it appears in the top five of our biggest reasons why change and transformation doesn’t work.

8. When We Say ‘Let’s See’ — What Does That Actually Mean?

Not rushing to the answer is a powerful stance. It means that over time (and in collaboration with the team using visual frameworks) we all get to uncover the right answer — together. Not one that had been conceived ahead of the facts. Our belief is that many situations are compounded by the vested interest of consultants and agencies forcing their preferred solutions onto clients.

When I was a client I would issue the same brief to 1) an ad agency, 2) a management consultancy and 3) a technology provider/advisor. A few weeks later they would return and (no surprise) the response would be 1) a 30 second TV commercial, 2) six months of consulting followed by a software implementation or 3) straight to the vendors software or other ‘a m a y z i n g’ technology solution.

9. Vision — The Single Most Important Thing For The Business

It’s always an interesting one — when senior leaders of major firms lack a single or clear idea of the vision for their company. If you think about that there’s little wonder that meaningful change is so hard and motivation so low.

In this world there’s three things that a business needs. A clear idea of the vision of the future, a deep belief in their place in it - and a high degree of preparedness.

10. Will The Turkeys Vote For Christmas?

I’m not saying these industries (agencies/consultancies) are dead yet — far from it - but they will be very different businesses very soon. And the smart ones know it.

As data API’s bring the insight needed to dynamically create all the solutions of the trade (Decision Making, Copywriting, Media Planning, Creative Concepts) - in an automated way clients will have direct access to their own destiny via technology.

11. Solving Visual Problems Using Visualisation

We are not about making the problem look pretty. Nor do we just use visuals in workshops — see videos below. We use visualisation at every stage. Drawing images are incredibly powerful - especially in real time to assist decision making. There’s a distinct human/emotional reaction to working this way that’s difficult to achieve in any other way.

We see people engage in very powerful ways as we tease out their ideas and start to solve the issues they have. It’s especially valuable to force distinctions between important principles and definitions of concepts. It quickly shows us the gaps between what we know and what we need to know. And why have we stopped teaching drawing beyond certain ages in school? Don’t get me going!

12. Making Better Decisions Through Data And Machine Creativity

Data is increasingly important to business. Clever technology is far smarter than us at making the kinds of complex decisions based on the enormous quantities of data than we humans are. These calculations are needed in close to real time and humans are left in the dust by computers who have far bigger computational power over the data sets. Impartiality and objectivity are crucial principles in staying firmly on the side of the clients and the right answer, whatever that is, is the right answer.

I am not saying that human creativity is doomed any time yet but we need to be watchful. I believe true creativity — mutually valuable human/emotional inter-relationships will probably survive but much of the global complex decision making (a big domain for the consultancy industry) will be challenged.

13. Starting With The Exam Question

The importance of getting at the right question (at the start) cannot be overstated — it’s so that we avoid solving the wrong problem really well. The ‘exam question’ is the anchoring question that forces the right discussions and keeps us honest in every sense.

It still surprises me how many times it turns out that the initial question was wrong but it’s always a good thing.

14. The Elusive Meaning Behind Strategy

We have a love hate relationship with the idea of strategy. The word ‘strategy’ is widely abused as a term and we are doing all we can to change that. Fact is, the word is not to blame but the concept that springs into peoples heads is. If people think it’s a business plan that lives in a drawer; if they assume it’s other peoples responsibility — it’s wrong and it kills.

Strategy has been described recently as the game worth playing, and historically - the art of using battles to win wars, whereas tactics are the art of using soldiers to win battles.

15. Interactive Deliverables

Creating a strategy is nothing without the execution. Execution, on the other hand is nothing but a random act of ego without a thoughtful plan. The deliverables have a big part to play in the successful result of all that.

This video starts to explain the incredible power we have now with readily available tools for immersion and communication.

16. The Power Of Video & Animation In Telling Stories

Complex situations are now everywhere and we really do live in a 140 character world. We use animation and video extensively to overcome these kinds of challenges.

It seems our attention span decreases each week - we literally have seconds to attract and engage our audiences. Techniques such as video and animation, together with gaming technologies have mushroomed exponentially over the last few years as a result.

17. Interactive Systems

Much of what we do is confidential but this example is now out of restriction. It is still a generic version but it will explain the main idea. It shows how we can explain the vision and mission of a complex transformational program in simple ways to multiple audiences.

18. The Infinite Power Of Interactive Storytelling

There’s a lot of discussion about what strategy is. Every time we meet another practitioner we hear another refinement to the definition. Very few of them are wrong but they can be very self serving and somewhat narrow.

We believe that you can tell what the maturity of strategy exists when it isn’t present. Demotivated staff, reduction in revenues and growth and a general lack of interest in the business being displayed by the leadership.

Complacency, Ignorance And Fear.

 What To Expect From A Visual Session

You’ve been invited to many workshops. We sympathise if the idea fills you with fear and dread. We were clients ourselves and we didn’t appreciate entire days lost with little return on our participation.

To combat this we developed a very different approach called Structured Visual Thinking™. It’s designed to respect your time, bring a focus on solving the real challenge and create clear and meaningful outcomes. (Plans/Strategies/Results)

By the time we get to the session part we’ve taken as much time as we can to learn about your current situation. We’ve analysed the material we’ve received that defines the world you operate in. And as a result we’ve created structured - highly visual frameworks within which to have the most powerful conversations we can.

Imagine

You will enter a large/safe space where there’s no stupid questions and where genuine debate is the order of the day. The space will be ready and hopefully meaningful. It will contain important stimulus - information that provokes discussion. This content will be held within a framework and representation unlike how you’ve seen your business before.

In Preparation

We don’t ask that you prepare too much (if anything) for this workshop. As mentioned we’ve done all that’s needed at this stage to get us ready to get started. Too much preparation can often create fixed views when what we really want is your energy, open hearts and open minds.

The Agenda

Hearts and minds don’t work to an agenda - but our sessions do follow a particular rhythm. That means we spend the time where needed on the right discussion. We move to the next discussion when we are happy that we’ve understood enough. Over the course of our time together we will take regular breaks and cover what’s critical.

We will be working together to build (at least) the following:

• An aligned set of outcomes and intentions.

• A sense of the value and impact we intend to bring to our customers.

• A shared Vision of the future - one that will inspire and unify us and our marketplace.

• A reality check on what will get in our way - the challenges and barriers that we need to take account of.

• A better understanding of how we need to operate as we create this new Vision. The capabilities and skills we will need in place.

• A focus on what we need to do next to make this happen. And how we need to work as a leadership to sustain the work.

• The principles and criteria that will govern and ensure integrity of the above.

Practically Speaking

Logistically, we will gather at around 8-30 for coffee and kick off with a short context setting at 9-00 am. Expect to break at between 10-30/11-00 am for coffee and fresh air, again at lunch for 45 minutes around 12-45 and then again at 3-00pm with a finish time around 5-00pm. The same approach will happen on the second day.

What Next?

Because what we’re building is highly visual (and we will be capturing every insight and thought) we will be in a position to deliver the results of the session in several ways. Our aim is not to simply record the discussion. We are engineering a runway to the future. Our aim is to arm you with tools to get to the next step. We want to help make the work that happens as a result sustainable.

There are many tools that we can create as a result of working this way. We don’t know what that means until we get to that point but there’s some examples - collaborative and more social ways to share the result and keep the conversations going - wide scale ways to communicate and engage with wider stakeholders using the results and further digital developments.

We are very much looking forward to working with you.