Crackerjack is very pleased to be working with the following new clients on various visual thinking projects:
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Crackerjack Visual Thinking is pleased to share that we have been commissioned to create a rich picture detailing The Nottingham’s strategic vision.
The new image will have an underlying theme sharing the benefits of mutuality for customers, members and staff alongside several other key elements important to the success of the organisation and its’ members.
We will be working closely with stakeholders at The Nottingham to develop the image over the next few weeks and will involve staff from across the organisation as part the design process.
In addition to providing existing team members with a clear visual overview of The Nottingham’s strategic vision, the rich picture will also be used to orient people during the induction process and to share The Nottingham’s vision with partner organisations and members of the building society.
To find out how we can help you engage people with your organisations vision, please CONTACT US.
Using visual thinking approaches to share complex information is increasingly recognised as an really effective element of organisational engagement initiatives across many sectors. The last week has proved this!
I’ve been working at an event to visualise Interflora’s strategy, created a whiteboard style explainer video for a major aerospace organisation and graphic recorded at an NHS Neuro-Rehabilitation workshop (take a look at my Twitter feed @johnashtonuk to read some of the feedback about this).
In all cases, visual thinking approaches have helped to turn ideas and thoughts into tangible visual reality across this broad range of organisations.
To find more about how Crackerjack can help you engage your people through visual thinking approaches, please Contact Us.
All the best,
John
John Ashton – Director
Crackerjack Visual Thinking has been working with the UK’s Institute of Quarrying (IQ) to create two rich pictures detailing the Lifecycle of a Quarry and the Quarrying process.
Sarah Fry, Business Development and Communications Manager at IQ explains more:
“We wanted to show how quarrying impacts the environment in its day to day operations throughout the total lifecycle of the site as well as show the full range of career opportunities the industry offers.
The rich pictures had to be graphics that could take highly complex geological, engineering and business processes and present them in a way that anyone could understand and hopefully be inspired by. That was our brief to John Ashton at CrackerJack.
John then worked closely with us and our members to map the key process and information areas relevant to the messages we wanted to convey. Part of the process involved spending time onsite at a quarry so John really took the task on to understand our world.
John’s attention to detail shows in the resulting two graphics that have been extremely well received and we feel that together we have created a couple of assets that will work hard for us for a long long time.”
Here are the rich pictures created for the IQ (click to view full size versions):
To find out more about rich pictures and how they could communicate key messages and ideas for your organisation in an engaging and impactful way, please CONTACT US to discuss your requirements.
Whilst out and about today I just had a quick visual thought. Would the coffee I just purchased (shown above) seem as appetising if the barista hadn’t taken the time to create the pattern in the froth?
Something simple that takes a short time to do makes a big difference to my perception of the quality and potentially the taste of the coffee.
Which is a bit like taking the time to share information visually: if you use an image or sketch to share information, people’s perception of the quality of the information you’re sharing increases and the potential for them wanting to ‘taste’ the messages you’re sharing also increases.
So, take the time to create a ‘pattern in the froth’ next time you want to engage your people!
John
Crackerjack Visual Thinking
If a picture speaks a thousand words, just imagine how enabling your people to think visually can help improve communication and creativity in your organisation!
Helping your people to communicate more effectively and share ideas more easily can be a key method of increasing creativity and productivity in your organisation. Put simply, the quicker your people can generate great ideas and share them with others, the quicker these ideas can be turned into (profitable) reality.
Developing your people’s visual thinking skills…
Providing your people with the skills to enable them to share their thinking visually using drawings and sketches can supercharge this ability in your organisation. A single picture could replace a multi-page report or a bullet-pointed multi-page slide show. 10 minutes around a whiteboard could develop a new product idea or find a way to save time in your production process.
Our Scribble Labs provide you with options for developing these visual thinking skills. We offer a range of workshops ranging from simply developing drawings skills through to helping people facilitate meetings using visual approaches.
Visual thinking support when your organisation needs it…
In addition to developing the visual thinking skills of your people, it can be helpful to call in additional visual thinking support to facilitate creative collaboration and visualisation of more complex ideas. This leaves your people free to get involved in the ideation and productive discussions that visually facilitated meetings can generate.
Crackerjack offers visual collaboration support for meetings along with a number of approaches to visualising ideas.
Embedding visual thinking into your organisation…
Developing the visual thinking skills of your people alongside calling in visual thinking support when you need it will allow visual thinking approaches to begin to permeate your organisation. The more people experience the visual way of working, the more they will engage with it and begin to see it as ‘the way we share ideas around here’.
Crackerjack can work with you to embed visual thinking into your organisation. In addition to the approaches detailed above, we can also help to embed visual approaches into areas such as learning and development interventions and induction programmes.
To find our more about how Crackerjack can help you embed visual thinking into your organisation, please CONTACT US.
In addition, please take a look at our 1 minute guide below to find the right visual thinking approach for your needs and use the menu above to explore the different visual thinking approaches available from Crackerjack.
Crackerjack Visual Thinking helps people think, learn and collaborate more effectively using a range of visual thinking approaches that engage people, increase understanding and improve communication.
Take a look at our 1 minute guide below to find the right visual thinking approach for your needs and then contact us and visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com to discuss your specific requirements in more detail.
Have you spent ages trying to simplify a complicated message into something that will inform and engage your people across your organisation? If so, a rich picture may be just the thing you are looking for!
Rich pictures distill your key messages into a one page visual that can be shared across your whole organisation in a variety of printed and on-line formats.
We’ve created rich pictures for organisations including The Woodland Trust, The Institute of Quarrying and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Here’s what some of our clients had to say about working with Crackerjack to create their rich pictures:
“John has the amazing ability to make sense of complex information and translate a concept into something that is creative, meaningful and has impact! Creating our High Performing Hospital ‘rich picture’ required incorporating a diverse range of views and opinions – never easy- but John was patient and flexible and as a result we have something that has wide appeal and application.” Helen Farrington | Associate Director of OD and Training | Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
“I commissioned John Ashton of Crackerjack Visual Thinking to create a rich picture and hand-drawn animation of the key themes I explore in my book ‘Jump!: Deliver astonishing results by unleashing your leadership team’. John worked with me to understand the key messages I wanted to communicate and developed a metaphor and storyboard that visualised the story I wanted to tell. The rich picture and animation are excellent and give me two valuable resources that I can share with clients, use in presentations and display on my website. I found working with John to be both thought provoking and supportive and look forward to working with him again on future projects.” Chris Henderson | Founder of One Third More
“John of Crackerjack Visual Thinking was employed by the Institute of Asphalt Technology to create both a rich picture of our new vision and a graphic recording of our 50th anniversary conference. It is evident from the quality of his work that he has a true talent not only in terms of creating the actual artwork itself but also in terms of listening, understanding and interpreting our requirements. His work is outstanding on many levels. Never before have I received such positive commentary on any project. Thank you John – it was a pleasure to work with you.” Geraldine Walsh | President | Institute for Asphalt Technology
To discuss creating rich pictures for your organisation, please CONTACT US.
As we approach mid-November, the end of the year is looming into view rapidly. Before the Christmas period begins, it’s a great time to review what you and your team have achieved this year and also to think about what you want to achieve in 2018.
Reviewing 2017…
A great way to review the year is to take a large sheet of paper (the bigger the better!) visually map your 2017 achievements against a timeline of the year. Use drawings/cartoons/doodles in addition to words to really bring this to life. Get everyone involved – remember it’s not about creating ‘art’ but it is about creating a way for everyone to see what they’ve achieved over the course of the year.
Visualising 2018…
Looking forward to 2018, why not ask your team to each create individual images showing what they think the team needs to achieve in the coming year. You can then compare these to look for similarities and differences – and drive a great conversation that will help really focus people’s mind on the year ahead. You could then get the team to work together to produce a finalised visual version of the plan for 2018. Display this on a wall when complete and regular review your progress against this during the coming year.
Alternatively, feel free to contact us to help you create a rich picture (like those shown above) of your teams vision for 2018 (and beyond!).
For support with any of the above ideas, please do CONTACT US.
I spent yesterday running a Scribble Lab session with the Interflora senior leadership team helping them being to develop their visual thinking skills – in particular their drawing and graphic recording techniques.
It was great to see the team really engage with the workshop and commit to using the tools and techniques learnt during the Scribble Lab session to help visualise, explore, clarify and communicate both their own and their teams thinking.
To find out more about how Crackerjack Visual Thinking can help you, please CONTACT US.
John
John Ashton
Director
Crackerjack Visual Thinking
