Structured Visual Thinking™ In Action
Explaining The Power Of Frameworks As Calculators And Storytelling Machines
We Use The Word ‘Framework’ A Lot
It’s an unfortunate word though and one that can apply to many things. Is it a physical structure, a list of ideas for policy, a skeleton that will get built on by many people — a chassis, an anatomy, a scheme or a system?
Well it’s all of those things.
“To us ‘frameworks’ are collaborative answering machines. They’re logical structures — deliberately designed — woven with tension, reality, gaps and stimulus — all at the same time. The framework is the central technique of Structured Visual Thinking™ — our methodology for collaborative ‘answering’…”
Uncommon Sense
Like all words in common use — a framework doesn’t mean much until you actually get to experience one.
As Steve McQueen famously said “I don’t think there is any race driver that could really tell you why he races. But I think he could probably show you.”
A Question Of Challenge
Without a framework many of the challenges we face in business and society would be impossible to understand much less manage. There’s just too much going on.
“Our lives — especially our working lives are highly pressurised — they’re fluid, complex and open to question — so much so that we need some mechanism for just thinking about stuff — and each step we might make.
FOR EXAMPLE
Take A Question Like This:
Great Questions
Given a specific challenge, what we call the ‘exam question’, we can build frameworks to answer even the toughest of them. We’ve applied frameworks to poverty, slavery, electoral reform, HIV/AIDS, human rights and every conceivable business challenge.
See How We Are Addressing The Goal 8 Challenge:
“We’ve applied visual and rigorous frameworks to every industry with major success — delivering valuable and sustained results for over 15 years…they make a difference…”
Take A Look At A Few Case Studies:
Solving On Purpose
Within frameworks we design deliberate modules. Modules that are the parts of the framework that you can see in the image above. They represent the specific dimensions of the challenge and they represent the conversations we need to have. Then think of them as the containers — the result of each discussion.
These discussions surround a visual artefact —it makes a visual structure that forces even better conversation.
Deceptively Simple
In really simple terms Strucured Visual Thinking™ frameworks have one simple intention — to frame the challenge or opportunity and encourage the critical thinking on the whole topic — so that we all emerge on the same page.
“Unsurprisingly frameworks have an end in mind — a clear result. They have a firm handle on what the situation is like today too, and then they plot a course between the two…”
And whilst that’s a simple concept it asks major questions of a team trying to get there. Simple ideas always raise highly subjective debates. They quickly become complex.
