Structured Visual Thinking™
Getting Under The Hood
A Comprehensive Introductory Guide — This document covers the fundamental principles and dimensions of Structured Visual Thinking™
Group Partners Was Born Out Of Experience. Bitter Experience.
We were clients ourselves — we worked in Computing, Government, Marketing. We saw the gaps in business thinking and that lack of value that existed as a result.
Almost every meeting was compromised from the start — variable definition, no shared meaning, intense semantics, lack of structure, unclear leadership, no real focus, shortage of clarity, no purpose, poor specification, vague requirements, no real partnership, poor relationships, foggy direction, no inspiring articulation of mission, vision or strategy — apart from that not much of working in business made sense.
We had multiple challenges and far too few ways of dealing with them
Collaboration?
If there were people who had a good grasp on this stuff it certainly wasn’t shared across the business — or outside by the partners we relied on. Everyone had their own language, each could defend their thinking, no one had a common definition.
The Problem With Meetings?
Meetings were events, moments in time where each individual could bang on about their point of view and whoever had the highest position in the company of the biggest deck won the day. Very little existed that approached a thoughtful attempt at considering the right answer to a given challenge or opportunity.
Self Serving Suppliers?
External advisers often had selective hearing. Whatever we said to a provider they listened for what bits stuck in their view of the solution and they bent everything we said around to what suited them and not us. They charged a lit of money for that too.
We often solved the wrong problem really well as a direct result — and it was our own fault.
GETTING THE IDEA
High Level Context & Why We Work The Way We Work
What we do covers a broad spectrum — from alignment and engagement to strategic problem solving as well as creating value from the opportunities that we have as businesses. A big by-product of what we do is far smarter ways to communicate (the outcome of the work) and build meaningful relationships.
We help a team to get inside the heads of their customer — and their business.
As teams start to think in a visual and structured way — and understand the potential and reality of the clients context — then everything just makes more sense. Recommendations and solutions become more valid, the team becomes more fluent and confident — and ultimately the client feels more trust and belief in the company as a whole.
This is what we spend our lives doing and we have developed an approach that genuinely works to improve the chances of winning with clients.
In the process it creates stronger engagement between the client and teams and results in far higher quality discussions and more deliverable outcomes.
The Important Facets
Impartial Objectivity
Having a ‘neutral’ party facilitating important discussions always helps bid teams consider better outcomes to their challenges — whatever they are.
Our assignments and approach to solving complex challenges or exploiting opportunities is pure impartiality — making all discussions more of a peer level conversation where someone without an agenda asks the difficult questions
Insight & Idea Exploitation
Because we spend our time with the leaders of large organisations across all industries we have a very good understanding of how they think and what their issues really are.
This is valuable insight that directly influences the way our assignments are constructed.
Leveraging A Visual World
We have a highly creative and visual approach which cuts through semantics and multiple perceptions — as well as being a blessed relief for clients who are overwhelmed by massive powerpoint decks.
The Ingredients Of Our Engagements
What’s Involved
We apply a flexible approach and there is no one size fits all. What they all share is the use of structured visual frameworks — configured to align with the most important context and supported by a business logic that we know will speak to the client and make sure that we are thinking about the opportunity from their perspective.
Critical Thinking
The process is built on the discipline of critical thinking — it is not a superficial trick or a way of visualising stuff — dressing up conclusions. The earlier such frameworks are applied the better the quality of thought as that thinking should persist throughout — with or without us.
Discovery
There is always a period of Discovery and Exploration — this starts with the setting of the exam question — the single minded reason for a group of people to be motivated to get together to develop (any) opportunity. With that clear in our minds we spend some time getting inside the dynamics— they will give us the greatest insights.
Designing The Program
In some cases it makes sense to engage with the attendees and stakeholders ahead of the assignment. As a minimum we will be working on setting the right expectations and making sure that we have quality conversation and that our exam question is tackling something they genuinely care about.
Teamwork
There is almost always group sessions this is one (albeit critical) part of the process. We can be though of as a virtual member of the team — not continuously in physical residence and not being an overhead or dependency.
Results
There is always an outcome and there’s always a deliverable of some kind — because our approach requires us to make no conclusions ahead of time it’s always challenging to describe the deliverable in detail.
Typically we will make assumptions that give everyone involved enough certainty that they will get the value that’s required from the process and agreed at the outset — always in line with the challenge we set.
The Anatomy of a Framework
In its simplest definition a framework for us is a container for contextualising thinking, perspective and insight. It is made up of a series of logical modules — themselves the topic of conversation and exploration.
These modules ask questions of the team— and it’s only when they are all answered in a coherent and connected manner that we can say we have a fully considered response to our exam question.
The choice of modules is quite wide ranging as we apply this approach to any type of challenge in any type of organisation. The nature of the context — industry, subject matter, domain — is only relevant in that we need to understand the unique dynamics that are going to impact the framework.
We will always draw on our experiences and expertise in configuring the best framework (or frameworks) for a given exam question and the objectives of any engagement.
An Example:
The Critical Exam Question
Exam Questions are deceptively powerful ‘tools’ for conversations. They can be completely open or very specific. Choosing the right one is worth some thought and discussion and it will affect the way we prepare and consider the context we develop through our exploration activity.
A Definition of Success
What it Takes
No relationship ever works without the right conversations and the most valuable interactions. We feel that all of the activities we describe should be assumed to come with a healthy helping of close and transparent working practice.
The Right People At The Right Time
Ideally a core team will be engaging with Group Partners over the entire assignment — as and when required — enough to contribute in context and on specific areas of expertse and also always in synch with the purpose and aim of the engagement.
Always In Context
Context is vital — the more background we are provided the quicker we can get started and stay aligned and the better prepared everyone will be. And this remains true at all key stages. Even when we are not planning a session it’s important to know what is going on and to appreciate the program dynamics.
Being Present
Any sessions need to be attended by those most involved in shaping the ultimate outcome — partial attendance at these times is not always helpful.
Getting the right environment for the workshop — covered later in Getting Practical — but it’s such an important part of this approach that we wanted to emphasise the point here.
Expectations
Setting and Managing Expectations is important. There are a number of things about our sessions that are not typical and we need to shift mindsets a little before we even get people in the room — see Realistic Expectations
Frameworks In Sessions
Knowing the framework and its configuration is vital. The conversations follow a deliberate sequence that is designed to build the most valuable context and to develop thinking in the right way.
Changing the nature of a discussion within modules can potentially derail an important conversation. It can be very tempting for some people to air a particular point as soon as possible — we all have burning issues to share or points to make — but there will be a right time and a place for each conversation.
Working Collaboratively
Setting and Managing Expectations — we always work to equip everyone with the materials that are needed to share with all stakeholders* and provide purposeful and specific information.
Helping us to get the right information — we will do our own research as well but there will be existing material that’s relevant and we do not want to create unnecessary work.
Helping us establish the Schedule and Plan the Logistics — we have someone dedicated to managing the detail of our schedules and liaising with venue managers but in many situations we need your involvement to secure a venue and we will always defer to you on diaries and schedules.
*We will require our clients help making sure that the right people are invited to any sessions.
In Session With SVT™ — The Golden Rules
- The Structure and Logic of the Framework drives the conversation — it’s important that we have the right discussions at the right time
- Patience is a virtue! — we must resist jumping to conclusions before we have all the context and perspective that we need
- It’s a conversation — we would rather ban presentations of any kind and create a natural environment that allows the energy to flow
- Suspend all Judgements — try and come into the session with a completely open mind
- Every perspective counts — we will be developing as wide a context as we possibly can. This may sometimes feel that it is going a little outside the ‘brief’
- Trust the process — at times it may feel frustrating or not getting ‘there’ fast enough. It works, we have done this many times
- It’s not really about the drawings — we need to make sure that all expectations that people give ahead of sessions cover the fact that working visually is crucial but it’s only one dimension. Structure and conversation is as, if not more, important.
- It’s OK if we find that we have the wrong exam question — part of the process is working out if we know what problem or opportunity we are addressing
There will be an output from this but we don’t presume exactly what it is ahead of time — we would be breaking our own process if we did. What we can guarantee is that there will always be a comprehensive narrative of the whole.
The Language Of SVT™
- Framework — We use this word to define the logical structures that contain the data that want to define, we want to consider and we want to communicate. The framework is a wide term that we use throughout the process.
- Context — the surroundings, the important viewpoint on the world of the challenge and everything that will inform it.
- Visual Thinking — The concept of using visual (and verbal) tools and techniques in order to define, stimulate, capture, consider and deploy the data that we aim to arrive at.
- Systems Thinking — The concept that everything is connected, however subtly or remotely to everything else. In business it is our way of explaining that the whole business is indeed one system operating within the dynamics of its context.
- Dynamics — The forces that are present and either within or without our control. These are the underlying energies that impact everything in subtle or not so subtle ways.
GETTING PRACTICAL
Realistic Expectations
We set realistic expectations of the outcome at the start of every assignment. What can and what can’t be achieved— and that’s always a balance. It’s a key part of us being well planned and managed ahead of starting any work. Change and transformation — or the realistic achievement of any complex challenge — has to be taken very seriously and time, capacity and capability are always major factors.
The exam question has to be tempered with a realistic definition and understanding about just how far we can all get in a day. Also the size of the team can directly impact the progress if everyone needs to be engaged in everything.
What Can Possibly Go Wrong?
Timing Matters
If there are any milestones or targets that we need to know in complex or long term programs then it’s important to know in good time. In most cases there’s important preparation and allowance must be made to complete work post sessions in order to deliver something — a strategy doesnt just happen — there will be important presentation materials, possibly more formal proposals, solution narratives — there can be a range of things coming out of these assignments and they all requires time to develop.
There Are Limits
We will create a lot of materials — visual tools and content but they typically represent the start of something that will need more work to follow through. It would be wrong to expect to get to the end of a compressd session or short assignment and have a completely clear plan of action.
What there will be is a framework that can continue to support discussion and thinking.
Vital Logistics
Venues for the collaborative and cocreative sessions are such an important part of the process that we will want to confirm them as soon as possible in the scheme of things. The space available drives the way we think about everything.
Take the room below, which is excellent, and imagine we had only a quarter of the amount of the space available. That would mean a very different set of conversations and experience for everyone involved.
Space For Thinking
We will provide support and guidance on the type of room needed and ideally we will get photos of the room — panoramic images are the best. That way we can see that our definition of a ‘clear, white wall’ of a certain size is the same as everyone else’s.
Preparing The Venue
We spend at least a day before the workshop in that venue setting the scene. That means we need to know that we can get access that day as well and that there will be support — if appropriate — to get the room set up for the best possible conversations. We remove all tables wherever physically possible.
Connected
It’s great to have access to the internet. Not only for attendees.
While we are setting up we may well still be researching and exploring and in the session there are some scenarios where it helps to be able to use online tools.
Our logistics team will take on a lot of the work to make things run smoothly so giving her a point of contact at the beginning makes all our lives a lot easier.
More Context At These Links
And Our Website
