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.
AN EXAMPLE RESULT OF ONE OF OUR SESSIONS
SOME OF OUR CLIENTS
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
How Do We Do It?
Visually.
We intervene objectively, we facilitate, we counsel, we coach and we don’t create a dependency on us.
We make sense of all the moving parts visually - we make it inspiring for everyone involved.
We test assumptions and understand every perspective - visually.
We create the tools that make the assignments more effective and efficient - visually.
We are often on the ground - intervening with the teams in high energy workshops and visual sessions.
We sustain the results, in collaboration with the leaders, using the latest software and platforms.
We deliver tools to allow the results to be communicated with audiences and stakeholders alike.
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.
