Leaders Have Choices To Make

A big one is whether to act in advance to challenges going on around them - or wait until forced.

Put another way. They could address the challenge or watch as the competition and opportunity flashes past.

For serious leaders this is the day job.

We Were Leaders Ourselves

We knew from direct experience that the job was seriously tough.

We tried the expensive ‘outsourced’ methods and consulting firms. Our people didn’t own the results. It didn’t work.

We needed ways that engaged and inspired us. We wanted the great thinking but we also needed to own the result.

We wanted to know what and how to execute.

The tools and techniques we needed to make better choices didn’t exist - we had to build them ourselves.

And they had to be rigorous, they had to deliver.

We saw the power of visual, collaborative and more engaging methods.

We needed the techniques to make genuine impact and get rapid results.

Making good strategic decisions had to be smarter and more inclusive than the traditional methods.

We needed them to inspire and generate creativity as well as be strategically smart.

We created Structured Visual Thinking™ - It’s our underlying philosophy.

ONE: We Deconstruct The Situation

Because it’s really critical to get inside the challenge and know what’s happening.

We apply tests and ‘scans’ of the current organisation.

In this way we can get an early sense of the situation through the eyes and perspectives of those most closely associated with the reality.

Only by doing that is it possible to understand the whole picture as a ‘system’ and therefore do the right things.

TWO: We Understand The ‘Real’ Opportunity

We visualise the conversations that allow us to build this picture.

We ensure that we are creating together because that helps everyone make sense of it in the same way.

This approach has the power to align, identify misunderstandings and spot the gaps.

It generates fresh new thinking and enables everyone to properly see the work that’s needed to be done in the future.

THREE: We Reconstruct For The Future

Working collaboratively means that everyone sees their role and ‘place’ in the system. They own it.

Together the team can reassemble the future far more meaningfully and we enable them to share the future workload much more intelligently.

FOUR: We Arm The Team To Execute Until It’s Done

The result of all the work above is visual and tangible. Frameworks and tools.

These emerge in artefacts, blueprints and a new narrative and language.

Because they built it all themselves that have significant confidence and fluency in them. That makes an enormous difference.

The team can now drive the work that's needed to get it done.