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by Russell Giesbrecht
The problem with most organizational thinking is that it is needlessly underpowered. Planning and decision making are done by a small group of people who tend to see things the same way and use the same filters in their thinking. The format for thinking together depends mostly on sitting around tables talking, with the occasional flip chart used to record the results of the talking and PowerPoint presentations in which someone talks and everyone else pretends to listen. A lot of words and many of them go in one ear and out the other. This makes it very difficult for organizations to overcome the inertia of their history (we tried that once; it didnt work), culture (weve always done it this way) and structure (so and so would never go for that) in bringing about necessary changes. So instead of bold vision, creative thinking and purposeful action, they get a slightly modified version of an inadequate present and increased cynicism (the more things change, the more they stay the same). It doesnt have to be this way. Its possible for change to happen, but it really helps if people can see it happening. Thats the piece thats usually missing. Very often the most important information can only be expressed through pictures: visual and verbal pictures.
like having a telescope and a microscope. Each provides a different view of reality and if you want to operate with a complete view of your universe you youll want to include both. The two sides of the brain arent t mutually exclusive, so even for more left-brained activities its it often helpful to incorporate a visual approach in order to make room for the worth. It can be counted on to think of right brain to put in its two cents things that wouldnt occur to the left side of the brain on its own. Visual group memory. Its easy for the group to thinking is also helpful in facilitating forget important stuff even when its s written down in everyones everyon notes or covered in a PowerPoint that everyone has copies of. Putting the important things on a wall graphic where everyone can see them creates a shared memory space.
Graphic Histories
Those who dont study history are doomed to repeat it is a wise saying that most groups disregard. Particularly on organizational scale projects or projects that bring together a multi multi-disciplinary team with different backgrounds, it is critical to estab establish a common frame of reference and to relate each individuals personal history to that of the organization and the work at hand. Having a single, visual record makes it possible to achieve and maintain a shared sense of identity in the group. This can be e done either on a small scale or a very large scale, depending on the situation.
Context Maps
Context is vital to understanding a situation, so many groups dont do it. Instead, they assume that everyone understands the context, is in agreement and the only question is what to do about it. Having a simple visual format with predefined categories such as customer needs, economic climate, trends and so forth makes it easier to engage in a robust scan of the landscape and doing so visually results in an easily accessible artifact that can be reviewed at any time.
Story Visions
Another thing the right side of the brain is really tuned into is story, one of the most powerful and often overlooked tools in the thinking toolbox. The fact is, everyones a storyteller, everyones living a story in which theyre the star, but when they sit down at the boardroom table theyre all supposed to become robots. Doesnt happen. The best thing to do is to consciously script the story the group wants to tell about itself: elf: the characters, the plot, the reviews. You can do it as a movie, a novel, a magazine, even a comic book. This also activates a very powerful device called the completion backwards principle by imagining the outcome in the beginning. And it its s fun! fun
Visioneering
Many organizations have vision and mission statements and most of them suck. They suck because they theyre meant to appear to say something without actually saying anything for fear of offending someone or setting up challenging expectations. (Think committed to quality and service.) Visual visioneering can break this limitation by making room for the right brain to get in on the action and to help design a vision that is truly engaging while being grounded in the reality of the work being done. done This applies to projects as well as organizations, any time you need to get a group of people aligned and committed to a common objective.
Stakeholder Management
If youre planning on changing something, chances are youre planning on messing with someones life, so its good to know whose lives youre going to be messing with and be prepared for their response. A visual Stakeholder Map can help identify key groups and how they relate to any proposed change and to each other. The visual, right-brain brained approach makes it easier to elicit the nuances of each group groups interests than simply entering them into a spreadsheet or making a list. This can be paired with personas, a tool commonly used in software development to foster empathy with and understanding of end users as people and not just abstractions.
Heres an example of what an organizations destiny can look like when captured and expressed visually. This is called a Storymap and this particular one was created during National Semiconductors turnaround in the 1990s under CEO Louis Gerstner:
A Storymap is generally created in a very large format (i.e., covering an entire wall) for obvious reasons but can also be reproduced in smaller versions that can be posted in individual offices. It combines elements from several of the visual tools weve looked at so far such as history, vision and strategy. All the tools weve looked at so far and many more that we havent support change no matter what methodology youre using (or not using) and whether its change or transformation that youre doing. But heres a model of how some of the most basic tools can be employed in the service of a strategic visioning exercise that most organizations carry out at some point in their life: Youll notice that it recognizes the importance of the past, present and the future to the process. What is less obvious are the four icons down the left hand side. These represent the four flows that must be part of any comprehensive planning exercise: attention, energy, information and operations. Similar to ADKARs Awareness/Desire/Knowledge/Action/Reinforcement schema, this approach says that thought follows a particular order from the abstract to the concrete. It also recognizes that different people are more attuned to different stages and by laying them out visually makes room for everyone to shine in their own time. This also helps avoid the temptation to go straight to implementation without fully understanding the situation and its possible solutions first. Organizational transformation also requires we elevate our game when it comes to how we think about the organization itself. Beyond what we think of the organization its helpful to be aware of how we think about it, since that influences the how in ways we may not be aware of. For instance, its important to understand that we are all naturally visual thinkers and that we use a trick called metaphor without even realizing what were doing. This is important to consider when it comes to the organization because we tend to think of the places we work in metaphorically and its important that everyone agree on what the most appropriate metaphor is. If you feel like youre just a cog in the machine, then thats a metaphor of the organization as a machine. If you talk about it in terms of adaptation and growth, then youre using the metaphor of a living organism. If you like to think of it as a family, thats another metaphor. (Whether its a happy family is another matter) If you work in IT, you
may tend to view the organization as a cybernetic system. With this wide range of options, you can see how important it is for people to agree what it is theyre working on before they start working on it. Heres an array of mental models that can posted on a wall in large format as a focus for group discussion:
Its also important to take into account what stage of its lifecycle the organization is in, particularly because the need to undertake a transformative change is a strong indication that its being pulled/pushed from one stage to another.
Note that the use of the term lifecycle implies a particular perspective as per the preceding chart. The next graphic shows how that lifecycle looks when displayed visually. The theory behind this framework is that an organization naturally evolves from a state of maximum freedom to one of increasing constraint. When the amount of constraint represented by its systems, procedures, history and culture reach their maximum, this puts a strain on the organization that requires it to return to a state of greater freedom or die.
Incidentally, the movement from freedom to constraint and back to freedom is the same one that underlies the TPM we looked at previously. (Its based on Arthur Youngs Theory of Process, if youre interested.) Its also related to the Four Flows we mentioned. So you see how this visual thinking is more than just pretty pictures. Its an entire system of thought and practice that unlocks powerful, natural sources of insight and inspiration that conventional approaches cant access. Want to talk further? I look forward to hearing from you: Russell Giesbrecht 403-970-8353 russellg@wholebrainedthinking.com