Crackerjack Visual Thinking

Tag: communicate

Crackerjack commissioned to create a strategic vision rich picture for The Nottingham Building Society #visualthinking #engage #thenottingham

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.

March 7, 2018
#Engage people, increase #understanding and improve #communication by embedding #visualthinking into the way your #organisation works

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.

November 29, 2017
Got a complicated message to communicate? Let a rich picture make the complex simple!!! #visualthinking #communicate #engage

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 50^thanniversary 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.

November 15, 2017
It’s a great time to #review your #achievements this year and #visualise what you will #achieve in #2018

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.

November 15, 2017
Crackerjack creating rich pictures for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust #nhs #nuh #magnetrecognition #visualthinking #engage

I’m very pleased to share that Crackerjack Visual Thinking will be working with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust to create two rich pictures and an animation to share key themes and ideas relating to both nursing and midwifery professional practice models (PPM) and the MAGNET recognition programme respectively.

Here’s a sneak peak at part of the PPM rich picture that’s currently in development:

To find out more about rich pictures and how they can help you communicate and engage with your people, please CONTACT US.

John Ashton
Director – Crackerjack Visual Thinking

September 19, 2017
Institute of Quarrying (@IQ_UK) ask Crackerjack #VisualThinking to create rich pictures to help #engage people with the world of #quarrying

We’re very pleased to share that the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) have asked us to create two rich pictures to engage people in the world of quarrying. The rich pictures will visualise the life-cycle of a quarry and the processes and job roles involved in quarrying.

The rich pictures will used for a variety of purposes including induction, training, communications and awareness raining activity.

Excitingly, the rich pictures will be also be displayed near the IQs QuarryGarden at the first ever RHS Chatsworth Flower Show being held in June 2017.

Quarry Garden (picture courtesy of the Institute of Quarrying)

We look forward to working with the IQ again on this project and also wish the IQ “Happy Birthday” as they celebrate their centenary this year!

To find out more about our work, please CONTACT US

March 24, 2017
Crackerjack’s graphic recording featured on UN Women’s #HeForShe global website #engage #communicate #UnitedNations #graphicrecording

We’ve just been informed that the graphic recording Crackerjack Visual Thinking created for the University of Leicester’s #HeForShe global ideathon is featured on the #HeForShe global website. View the article here.

#HeForShe is a UN Women backed campaign developing solutions to ensure the safety of everyone on university campuses worldwide. The University of Leicester is one of 10 IMPACT universities worldwide supporting this campaign and the global ideathon was one element of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign in November 2016.

The graphic was created live during a 2 hour session. It’s great to see our work being used to visualise and communicate ideas as part of this important global campaign.

If you would like to have your next event or conference captured visually using graphic recording, please contact us.

January 12, 2017
Crackerjack Visual Thinking’s new ‘menu’ helps you find the best way to #engage and #communicate with your people in 2017. #visualthinking

Happy New Year!

To help you get 2017 off to a flying start, we’ve created a new Crackerjack Visual Thinking ‘Menu’ that provides you with a quick reference guide to our services and how they can meet your organisations needs. So if you are looking to engage and communicate with your people in new and different ways during the coming year, click below to view the menu:

If you would like to explore how Crackerjack’s services could help you in your work, please contact us for an initial discussion.

January 5, 2017
Great client feedback about one of our recent graphic recordings! #communicate #engage #visualthinking

“Hello John,

I got the graphic recording. It looks fantastic, thank you so much. We are going to get a nice big printout of this and put it up on the main corridor. I am still amazed by the level of clarity you pick up in what you have heard – it is amazing!”

Matt Cadby | Project Manager | Transformation Team | Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

To find out more about our work please contact us or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

December 20, 2016