A Week In Thailand Creating Group Partners Vision — 2020
“The Summary Of Our Retreat — Thanon Phetchaburi, Makkasan, Bangkok And MaeRim, Chiangmai — Thailand — 17th— 21st August 2015”
Group Partners on Group Partners
This story charts the journey we intend to take towards 2020. We have applied the rigour and creativity we apply to our own clients to ourselves. It is presented here in complete transparency — nothing has been sanitised or removed.
An Evolving & Emerging Story
It’s the latest evolution of our thinking. It’s been done at a time where it felt important to consolidate some of the things we have learned over the last few years as well as explore how we could leverage them for the future.
And do all of this in ways that build on our vision and create more value for our clients and the causes that we support.
This is a faithful record of what happened during the course of our week in Thailand.
We went east instead of west — we did so very deliberately.
We wanted new and fresh surroundings to give ourselves no excuses to get trapped in any comfort zone or artificial paradigm. We want the content and the pictures to tell their own story — one thing’s for sure you can expect this to develop a whole lot more.
We hope it inspires you as much as it does us.
The Exam Question
“Expanding Our Horizons Well Beyond Our Current Points Of View…”
In the image below you will see topic and theme that preoccupied our thoughts during the week.
It’s what guided the conversation and made sure we stayed on track. We decided to make this as open ended as we possible could.
We had the luxury of giving ourselves permission to unleash our imagination, to ask ‘what if’ in as many ways as possible — at least to begin with.
By The Way — If You Would Like To Download And Reuse The Images Below In High & Lower Definition They Are Right Here Be Our Guest
Module G — What Do We Feel Most Passionate About?
Passion is the all important word. What we do requires a lot of physical and mental work — it can be brutal. It’s important to us to be inspired by what we do and push ourselves harder still to do more meaningful work in our world today.
We needed to make sure we will be working towards something we can believe in and to achieve what we want as a result of all the effort we put in.
“To sum this all up we intend to make the effort and all the unique things we do make a difference.”
A Shared Belief System
In the representation below is our combined belief system — who we are and what matters to us.
Our Practice is the manifestation of what we believe in and what drives us. While we may — when forced — acknowledge that we can’t ignore all the commercial realities of staying alive as a business, that is not what is driving us.
As we thought about the future we asked ourselves what we really want to achieve — because there’s never a better time than right now to shift direction in favour of what drives us.
Module F — Where Can We Add The Most Value?
The corollary to what we are passionate about is what we do that we feel our clients are passionate about. Perhaps more accurately — what we think they should be passionate about and where we feel we have the most to offer.
This is the energy we feel — it’s what we bring to our ongoing mission of changing the way businesses (organisations) think and work.
Ignition!
This conversation lit the touchpaper for what we want to focus on over the next few years.
In many ways this is at the core of what we’ve learned over the last 15 years and what that tells us we need to do now in our pursuit of real value for clients.
For us this was the most powerful expression of what we have been thinking, the first time it emerged in such a compelling way for us and in a way that gave us a perfect anchor for how we might evolve our Practice.
Those key words under each expression of value will develop into meaningful definitions — each of which will serve as our ‘benchmark’.
Module A
Where Are We Today?
What We Do Is Already Different
In a few weeks — on the first of January this next year — we will mark 15 years of Structured Visual Thinking™. It’s been an incredible journey. The next five will see an even more adventurous ride.
Our intended outcome has long been to change the way people think and work; and although a lot better known than us — Google’s epic manifesto states what we’ve been promoting for many years.
We’ve been banging on about how to get people to think and act differently if they truly wanted different results. We’ve also become pretty well known for another helpful idea — let’s not solve the wrong problem really well.
Our existing business attitude already does things differently. You can’t compare us to consultants because we have a business model that disdains dependency.
We aren’t easily comparable to others approaches as our unique mix takes in both visualisation, rationale, data and collaboration and adds capability transfer, impartial facilitation, collaborative and disruptive challenge and all of that in an effort to deliver what’s best for the client and not us.
Structured Visual Thinking™ will continue to set us apart as we move into the next chapter of our evolution.
This conversation allowed us to check in on what we already do — it shows our existing approach, assets and capabilities.
For A Very Quick Snapshot Of Our Story So Far Click The Image Below
Over the years we’ve amassed an incredible archive of work.
The archive is the sum of our experiences and includes both the insight and evidence from many hundreds of assignments and literally thousands of modules, frameworks, architectures, scenarios, journeys and mechanisms.
These assignments and experiences chart the many challenges and opportunities we’ve been privileged to be involved with.
It covers the many dimensions of strategy and direction for business — together with countless documents and papers, case studies and references of the last 15 years.
We later contrasted this picture of what we do today with what we intend to do moving forwards and as a result ensured we could see the areas of tension and opportunity. What therefore were the implications as we move to deliver the value we seek to deliver in Module F?
Module A+ — What Are The Clues And Insights In This?
By drawing out everything we currently do and have in our asset register it was simpler to see what we will need to be conscious of as we build for the future.
We are no different to any other team. Every now and then we need ask ourselves the difficult questions and expose our challenges.
Behind these insights lies our primary challenge, one that has been occupying us for some years now — how to create greater impact on our clients outcomes without resorting to the tactics and approaches we are so against.
For us the eternal challenge is to make what we do more sustainable by others and to find ways to capture our insights and experience into repeatable tools and techniques.
Module B
What Are Our Influencers And Dynamics…
We Discussed The Idea Of Dynamics At Length
We Started With A Definition:
A meaningful phrase — one that evokes the underlying energies, context and influences. Enough to suggest (the idea) that describes the presenting situation, behaviour or operational phenomena. Neither positive nor negative — dynamics sit behind everything and can inform everything.
By knowing them intimately they become a crucial ingredient in all decision making. It’s highly likely that they will overlap, appear ambiguous or conflicting, subtle and paradoxical.
They are essential references in answering the exam question, achieving any intention (direction) and reaching any decision.
Our Dynamics
ID1 — What we do doesn’t neatly fit into a box — we love that.
We are highly protective of our creative mix and the way that we can combine many different techniques and capabilities into something that is uniquely us and of value to clients.
We never want to be traditional or predictable and yet that poses some interesting challenges for us when that shows up in a world that is mostly used to certainty.
- It’s easier to say what (we do) isn’t
- It’s hard to describe (what we really do) simply to others
- It makes comparison hard for clients whose systems force competition
- It makes what we do much harder to scale or repeat
- It comes from our individual strengths and passions — not pure theory
ID 2 — We bring a mix of skills and personalities that probably would not have been part of a deliberate design.
Our Practice wasn’t ever part of a grand plan. We didn’t plan our roles or define a set of desired capabilities or skills.
It works because it just does, because we share some fundamental beliefs that see us through any other differences and the tensions that come with that.
It was important for us to keep this in mind — it will be a significant factor as we plan the next phase in our journey:
- We are in many ways an ‘accidental’ partnership
- We are extreme opposites in very many aspects
- We come from very different backgrounds
- Our skills were never intentionally mapped out
- It’s super easy to misinterpret each other
- And when combined well it’s a winning formula
- Any packaged offer has to overcome the individuality of our Practice
ID 3 — This is a highly personal business built from individual belief and style — which links strongly to the last dynamic.
We have never based what we do on any textbook theory.
Of course we are constantly exploring the latest thinking and concepts but whatever we develop comes from our own beliefs, our strengths and our interests.
We always think like this, not just when we are working with clients.
It’s how we both think so highly authentic
It creates conflict (good and bad)
- We have to care about what we do
- We are motivated by challenge in the widest sense
- Strong views on the way things should be done
- Highly driven
ID 4 — What we do has universal applicability.
We never want to be specialists in anything other than our approach and that means that we are effectively ‘flying solo’ in every engagement.
Yes, we become quite knowledgeable in certain areas through repeated engagements but generally we relish the fact that any new engagement might throw us into completely new territory. One week we can be unpacking the Nigerian Electoral system and the next helping a team develop a winning bid.
- Our approach could work in any market for any problem
- There’s a lot of important topics that need tackling
- We have almost too many choices
- Challenges and opportunities require an approach and process that can be easily customised
- What we do often requires a leap of faith
- In this world deep specialism isn’t always an advantage
- We work in a world that loves to stereotype
ID 5— Our Practice is in constant evolution based on experience and experiment.
For us ‘practice’ is the right word. Everything we learn and the way we develop the Practice is based on real experience. Every client benefits from the last engagement. We are always looking to improve and we keep discovering new ways to configure frameworks, and new tools that can help teams break out of their current models
- We’ve always held true to core tenants of Structured Visual Thinking™
- This mentality throws off a lot of insight
- It can make it hard to choose and know when to codify
- We make lots of new things and our processes are naturally in catch up
- It demands that we stay flexible and adaptable
- It calls for high degrees of creativity and comfort in ambiguity
ID 6 — We are holding the keys to something of immense value and potential.
We have always believed that and when we take a moment to reflect we are struck by just how much we have developed over the years. It would be a crime not to make this more widely available!
- We get repeated requests to teach others
- We have many opportunities to license or sell
- Clients could do a lot more with the outcomes of what we do
- Significant opportunities to leverage technology and digital — timing is perfect
- No readily available solutions to leverage for the scale we might need
- Too busy on the day job
- Huge ‘collection’ of untapped IP
ID 7 — Our beliefs and philosophies demand that we constantly challenge the status quo
These days we have some strong points of view around what needs challenging. This developed in quite an exciting way for us on this retreat and we are more ready than ever to take on this challenge!
- In constant discovery mode
- Expressed differently by each of us
- Most clients don’t know what to do with the challenge
- Requires us to have a strong argument
- We are not the only ones challenging it
- Clients are influenced by many other world views and dynamics
ID 8 — The majority of our customers live in a world that we are committed to change.
Many would agree completely with this dynamic but we see all too often how it can be for them to actually do something about that. We are under no illusions here, this is not going to be for everyone
Most clients are unable to sustain meaningful change
Many clients are happy to solve the wrong problem
What we do is often open to interpretation through an outdated lens
Clients are looking to us for the answers more and more
We don’t have the luxury of taking on only the ideal work
- Not enough really great case studies to back up the mission
ID 9 — We are ultimately a commercial business that needs to earn revenue — as much as we hate to be reminded of it, we can’t ignore that reality.
We would love to be doing far more for the projects we are so passionate about — the ones in South Africa continue to inspire us in so many ways.
But this is a challenging environment for our business, more so for a Practice that is more motivated by doing the work than thinking about financial reward.
A historic short term pipeline
Starting to see potential longer term / more enduring engagements
- In the best financial position for a long time
- At the mercy of the market
- We are bound by practical resource constraints
- We could earn more from our IP
- We have never been financially driven — or astute
Module C
What Are Our Biggest Challenges?
Shining Light
There’s no point kidding ourselves that our mission is simple. We asked ourselves what would challenge us. What would get in the way? Let’s understand the skeletons in our own closet.
Our Own Red Boxes
Our dynamics shine a light on many of the challenges we have pulled out in this process. Few of them were that surprising but some we’ve conveniently left on the sidelines in the past while we just got on with things.
Some of these now have to be addressed as we raise our ambitions and take on new initiatives, develop new programmes and start to do things we have never done before.
We would be foolish to ignore these things.
Module D
Just Imagine
Break With Tradition
Very few people argue with us then we suggest that we can’t continue to work the way we have done for so many years now. The sad truth for many businesses today is that they are completely stuck in their old models.
The planning processes, the arcane policies, the laborious cycle of meetings, documents and presentations to get things done.
They are all artefacts of a bygone era. It’s all become a lot more complex and a lot more dynamic than these rigid approaches can cope with. They simply weren’t designed for our world.
As a society we ‘know’ this but we seem to be paralysed when it comes to doing anything about it.
This Isn’t Big News Anymore
There are more connections, technologies, systems and processes than ever and it’s only just begun.
When we started Group Partners we were in a lonely place. Back then few people thought that creating a visual framework was worth much.
Even a framework that delved into the whole context of the situation and in doing so was going to solve their problems.
Our frustration now is that even we’ve become much more effective at getting to the heart of the problems and identifying possible futures clients continue to struggle to implement what that means. And we mean what that ‘really’ means.
Almost without exception left with rip roaring reviews and commendations but we’ve not seen the transformation we all aimed for.
Being Sustainable
Growing And Changing Whilst Learning And Improving Is Truly An Art…
Some Things Just Never Change
We aren’t blaming our clients here but the focus in MaeRim was on why we weren’t far more successful. How come we could create great strategies and not get them properly executed? Why was it that we knew this was the right stuff but as we checked in later and they hadn’t achieved the full value.
We were in danger of failing our first law — “Let’s not solve the wrong problem really well.”
“If you want a new system then first break the existing one that’s holding you back...” — Group Partners
And so we gave ourselves the freedom to imagine things that we would break and when we are given the right conditions and permission.
The mandate to get inside the challenges and dynamics and have honest conversations about them.
Within this ideal world we can revisit our tools and techniques and enhance them, create new systems and techniques and redesign programmes to equip us and our clients with a modern toolset to realise a new way of thinking and working.
Our structured visual approach stays but our focus now is on what goes.
As a result we will go deeper into tackling what needs to stop, what needs to be replaced and what needs to be completely reimagined and redefined. The systems that hold us back. The attitudes and behaviours that defend what used to be. The cultures that no longer care about the business they work for. The processes that are dead set against any change. The leadership mindsets and attitudes that say one thing but does another.
There are an infinite number of challenges — our structured visual approach is aimed squarely at solving them.
System Detonation
Our bet is there are many smart leaders out there that agree with us and will support us to help them to do the right thing. In other cases we will work hard to present the case and hope that our evidence is welcomed and understood.
Where we get the permission (and we will be trying hard each time to get it) it will mean a systematic dismantling of everything in the way of change.
We considered what it would take to create the new way of thinking and working — at the same time as dismantling the scaffolding that keeps the old way of thinking and working in place.
There are some big dimensions involved here. Firstly we already know that our approach has infinite application based on the exam question that’s posed. So our thinking turned towards our challenge to ourselves.
We need to detonate the system that holds the change back. We need to set any new vision we create free from the shackles that will kill it.
RedBoxes
The Hunt For Red October
Living A Lie
In every assignment we ask questions about the current reality — all the dynamics that exist around the business. These insights and clues only scratch the surface and we’ve assumed in the past that the team will go and solve them as part of the day job. That’s almost certainly not the case.
It’s An Insidious Red Mist
There are many reasons for this.
Not empowered, not under their jurisdiction, the day job overtakes them, they are the effects of other underlying issues — stuff that they wouldn’t ever know is being caused by something unknown somewhere else. The real culprit is lurking in deep water, it’s seldom hunted down and killed.
“We will refer to the culprits as RedBoxes — they are the enemy and we seek to flush them out and burn them to death…”
We will work with teams to replace the old with something very different — something that takes them out of their boxes and into a new way of thinking and working.
Whatever we do will be designed to work in their environment but not designed to simply fit into a ‘different’ box. Any ‘box’, no matter how well considered at the time, has limits and will eventually be discarded in favour of a newer and yet shiner version.
On A Mission
We know this is a big challenge. It will take time.
We will not always get the access to the right people or the right data in the short term. We will get it wrong. We will miss some clues — but we have been learning for the past 15 years, ever since we kicked all this off. We learn fast and we make real progress.
We Think All This Will Take:
A seriously enlightened senior leadership. A team of properly engaged people within the company who are dedicated to this work. A senior leadership with what we’ve called visceral appreciation for this challenge.
It will take a profound sense of what matters and why. It will take the engagement and collaboration of the teams we work with. It will take the mandate and support of everyone who matters to get barriers removed (The Red Boxes) as we go. For us it will take a major investment in time and technology. Technology is a major ally here.
As new platforms and digital ways of working become the standard we intend to leverage the data.
We will use our detection skills to identify and challenge what’s going in in the system where it matters. Calling out the barriers and sending in the troops to dismantle the offending part. This will be done within the context of the whole system and ensure that the dismantling of the part has the right effect on the whole.
By embracing people directly involved with the argument and rationale for change we can show the new world within a complete system view and as a result removing the traditional barriers to change.
Pervasion
We are going to build this into a system with pervasive enough ‘tentacles’ to reach into every crevice and synapse of the enterprise. This platform will allow us to get scale and reach. To find out what’s happening across the whole enterprise.
It will mean that the complete system is scanned for the renegades and terrorists whether they are processes and policies or people and systems.
We will take no prisoners in the war for what’s required to achieve the right outcomes for the business.
Module E
The Work Is Only Just Starting…
We didn’t want to end our Retreat without having a pretty good idea of what we needed to start working on to make all of this a reality.
We are not expecting things to change overnight but we can start to introduce new concepts and ideas and be much more on the alert for those ‘red boxes’ in each and every conversation we have.
Our work has been organised into 5 key themes — areas where we will need to focus time and energy on developing new tools and techniques, changing the way we engage and support our partners, and doing way more with the insights that we want to leverage.
The work within these 5 themes will evolve but the themes will endure.
At this stage we are busy setting ourselves up for the effort this will demand and consolidating the results of that first week. Soon we will begin making changes.
The Five Themes
ONE: The SVT Cloud™
Something we have been discussing for a long time — a virtual world where we can provide a safe environment for our clients where they can enjoy conversation within their own private space as well as across organisation with peers.
A world where we can bring Structured Visual Thinking™ to life, create immersive experiences and maximise the use of the frameworks that we create for teams.
TWO: Creating The IP
We possess a mass of IP in the tools and techniques that we apply and in the inherent capabilities that we bring.
However there is more that we can do to ‘codify’ certain elements of this and this allows to to realise a long held vision of the introduction of the Group Partners Index™
This is a series of models that will be designed to help clients set new benchmarks for what good looks like in this century.
Designing & Developing The Programmes
The way that we develop engagements is going to change. Our workshops will still be a key part of the approach but there will be many other dimensions to our work, different modes of working, different conditions for even scheduling a workshop in the future. And we will be launching some more creative ways of getting groups together.
Creating The Opportunity
We will have a lot of convincing to do in some markets to persuade some organisations that this is the right thing to be doing, and these developments will open the door to new types of clients.
This will require us to revisit our network, make new connections and create new conversations. Expect to see us getting very vocal on certain topics and finding new platforms to raise our profile.
Developing The Story
We have always invested time and energy in telling stories and that is not going to change. Now though we will have some very specific stories that we will be developing that dive deep into these topics and — we hope — will motivate organisations to take a leap into the unknown.
Our stories will emphasise what needs to change and why, and they will paint a new picture, one that we think will be hard to argue with.
Creating New Capability
We are going to be exploring new territories ourselves — especially in the tech space.
We are already avid learners and explorers so it will be a joy to throw ourselves into the art of the possible and to see what we can make happen with the integration of new platforms.
We can’t do this on our own so we will be scanning our networks and seeking the capabilities — and capacity — that we don’t have ourselves.
Operational Alignment
Our operational processes are already in a constant state of reinvention. Working in a highly virtual model with clients who span very different models themselves requires us to be incredibly adaptive.
This latest evolution will demand a lot more of us operationally and we will be introducing new tools, retiring some and aligning our processes. And throughout we will be testing to see just how good an experience we can create for the teams we work with.
Working Hard To Put This All Into Practice.
We are fully focussed on gaining the insights, creating the tools and building the systems we will need to make this happen. We are now on the most critical chapter so far.
Watch This Space!
We are excited — we have a way to go.
