Complexification to Simplification: Using visual tools to describe the problem space

  

& The Blog... A Picture Paints a 1,000 Words

Why are visualisations such a powerful part of transformation and change management? in part it's because a single image can convey a lot of information in a much more compressed format than writing everything down. I think we can all agree on that.

I also think that it's because many people have a better connection with something they can see than something they can read. In part it's because for many of us it's easier for us to create our own mental image and our part in it, as well as interpreting it in our own way.

As a systems thinker I don't constrain myself to one or two methods. I range across the spectrum of systems methodologies as build a multi-method approach that makes sense for the transformation and where we are in the phase of that change activity.

I'm a big fan of Peter Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology (or SSM). A very important part of this method is the Rich Picture.

Over in the The 4th Horizon  we try to unpack, to unthink, and generate understanding in whatever we think is the most useful way for the audience and the problem space under consideration.

Here is an example of a Rich Picture that was created to portray the founder's/entrepreneur's journey. This was part of a discussion around trying to encourage an "intrapreneurial" spirit. It was useful to highlight the normal outside view of startups as a means to show the tasks and responsibilities of a founder as a contrast to building this inside an existing organisation with all of the benefits of funding, people, technology and infrastructure needed to be successful.

The next step then was to show the challenges of short-termism and the KPIs more common in established businesses and how these create inertia and friction in achieving the desired "idea factory" many businesses know they need but struggle to bootstrap and maintain.

It's not supposed to be a masterpiece. It's a simple set of starman figures portraying a task or job to be done. But, the complexity shown in a single image proved to be a useful tool in and of itself.