Crackerjack Visual Thinking

Tag: vision

  • The important ART of conversation #communication #engagement

    Have you ever had one of those conversations that doesn’t seem to go anywhere? You may have been talking for a long time with the other people involved in your conversation but feel like none of you are really understanding what the other is trying to say.

    Sound familiar?

    Whilst most of the time this lack of understanding is frustrating, it doesn’t necessarily have immediate serious consequences for organisations. Time wasted, frustration and inefficiency are often the product of these type of unresolved conversations – not desirable but often not enough on their own to cause fatal damage to an organisation.

    However, imagine if this lack of understanding related to the vision of the organisation. People not being able to understand, discuss and share the organisations vision (its DNA) accurately and understand what they need to do to make the vision a reality could ultimately be fatal.

    The result of not understanding the organisations vision could include:

    • The wrong critical decisions being made.
    • Confusing messages being communicated to the public/customers.
    • Lack of engagement amongst employees.
    • Internal conflicts caused by differing views of what the organisations vision actually means and how it should be implemented.

    So, how can people be helped to have the right conversations to enable them to fully understand an organisations vision (or indeed any other important information that needs to be communicated consistently and accurately)?

    A visual representation of an organisations vision in the form of a rich picture provides a single-page engaging view of what can often be a complex story.

    solent-nhs-trust-vision-small2
    A rich picture created to communicate the vision of Solent NHS Trust

    By showing the various elements of the vision and how they relate to each other in the form of a rich picture provides the following benefits:

    • Images (combined with the economical use of key words and phrases) enable your brain to process information more effectively and make linkages between ideas and concepts more easily.

    • Rich pictures by their nature are engaging. Initially people want to look at the picture and then they start wanting to read the detail. Not necessarily what happens when people are presented with a large PowerPoint deck or a lengthy report!

    • Rich pictures are accessible to all people at all levels in an organisation. They are designed to work for everyone regardless of role, length of service or seniority.

    • People can gather around a picture together (whether it’s in the form of a large poster, displayed on screen or used in a virtual meeting) and discuss what they are seeing. This process enables people to check and challenge their own perceptions of what the rich picture is communicating as well as beginning conversations about what the vision means in reality for them as an individual/team/organisation.

    • The rich picture creates a new common way of discussing the organisations vision (e.g. “You know the bit of the vision represented by the rocket ship…” etc). It is not uncommon for people to go into meetings with a copy of a rich picture for reference during meetings or events!

    Of course, the whole process of using a rich picture needs to be well-managed and time needs to be made to allow people to review the rich picture both individually and as a team.

    IAT Vision 2016 Small
    A rich picture created for the Institute of Asphalt Technology

    It’s also important to remember that a rich picture is not just a one-hit wonder. The rich picture will continue to provide a valuable method of discussing an organisations vision for the lifetime of the vision itself. And if required, rich pictures can be updated easily to reflect changes as they happen.

    In summary, art (in the form of a rich picture) can play a hugely important role in helping organisations enable their people to understand, discuss and engage with their vision. This understanding, discussion and engagement with the organisational vision is critical. A well-designed rich picture could therefore be the artistic key to success for many organisations.

    To find out more about rich pictures and visual thinking, please contact us, call +44 (0)775 282 6227 or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

  • Helping the NHS transform using visual thinking #engage #communicate #NHS

    In the news the NHS is never far from the headlines. ‘7 Day Working’, ‘Improving Quality’, ‘Focussing on Prevention’ and ‘Better Use of Technology’ are often mentioned and form key parts of the NHS 5 Year Forward View. This builds upon 15 years of improvement in the NHS and provides a broad consensus on what a better future for the NHS should be.

    nhs-examples

    Over the last couple of years Crackerjack has been working with a number of NHS Foundation Trusts (Oxford Health Foundation Trust, Solent NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) as they work on finding ways to implement the ideas and initiatives contained in the 5 Year Forward View. It’s pleasing to see that visual thinking approaches are playing a part in helping NHS Foundation Trusts in this important work. We’ve been involved in the following work to date:

    • Designing and developing an interactive on-line ‘Improvement Guide’ for Oxford Health Foundation Trust.
    • Creating a rich picture showing Solent NHS Foundation Trusts new vision.
    • Designing and creating an interactive on-line ‘7 Day Services Guide’ for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
    • Graphic recording a number of strategy and engagement events for both Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
    • Designing a graphically facilitated ‘Making Every Contact Count’ engagement session for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
    • Running a graphic skills workshop for the Oxford Health Improvement and Innovation Team.
    • Designing and creating an interactive on-line ‘Oxford Quality Improvement Toolkit’ for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

    The tools and approaches we’ve created all have a single goal: to engage people and provide them with the information they need in the most accessible, informative and relevant way possible. Using visual thinking principles in all of our work enables Crackerjack to achieve this goal.

    To find out more about how Crackerjack could help you engage and communicate with you people more effectively (whether you work in the NHS or in another sector), please contact us, call +44 (0)775 282 6227 or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

  • Now that’s a novel use for black insulation tape and a whiteboard! #visualthinking

    Just spotted this advert for a new TVR sports car which uses just black electrical insulation tape and a whiteboard to visualise a teaser image of the new car.

    Just shows that you don’t have to stick to pens and paper to communicate your ideas visually!

    For more ideas on how to visualise your ideas and drive communication in your organisation visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com or contact us.

  • Visual thinking: a key element of the people engagement and change process

    It’s been a busy few months for Crackerjack Visual Thinking since the start of 2016!

    Crackerjack’s work has included:

    • Designing and developing hand-drawn animations
    • Designing rich pictures for clients including Westmill Foods
    • Live scribing (graphic recording) for the NHS and Google UK
    • Creating an interactive PDF improvement guide for one of Crackerjack’s key clients

    The common theme amongst all this work has been that clients are wanting to really engage people (whether it’s their own team members, their own client’s or their customer’s) and see visualising all or some elements of what they are trying to communicate as key to this engagement.

    I see visual thinking as way to enhance people engagement and change initiatives by shortcutting the time it takes people to take in and process important and sometimes complex information. Looking at the ‘Resistance to Change Model’ below, it can been seen that ‘understanding the change’ is a vital part of people being able to move towards ‘new beginnings’:

    Resistance to Change.png

    So, if you are wanting to engage people or introduce a change in your organisation, think about how you can visualise the important information you need your people to understand. And don’t forget, you can also encourage your people to visualise how they feel and what they do and don’t understand about the change.

    Things you could do include:

    • Creating a one page image of what the future will look like…
    • Create an ideas and thoughts wall where people can draw or write their feedback, thinking and ideas about the change…
    • Create a board game that helps people understand the journey they will be going on…
    • Capture the conversations as they happen in meetings about the change as visual notes and encourage people to photograph them with their smartphones as an immediate easy to understand record of the event…

    For more ideas and support with using visual thinking approaches in your organisation, feel free to contact us, call us on 0775 282 6227 or visit our website at www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com.

    John Ashton
    Crackerjack Visual Thinking

  • Small details = Big Conversations #visualthinking #engagement

    I’ve just completed a rich picture for a client to help them communicate some important ideas to one of their key customers. As with all of our visual thinking work, the images we create are there to facilitate the right conversations between people.

    To do this we ensure each element of the image serves a purpose and communicates a key message. It’s often the small details included in the images that can create the biggest conversations!

    The example below shows just a few small elements of a much larger image we created for the client:

    To find out how Crackerjack Visual Thinking can help you visualise the small details you need to facilitate the ‘big conversations’ in your organisation, visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com or email info@crackerjackvisualthinking.com

  • Seeing the ‘big picture’ #visualthinking #engagement

    One of Crackerjack’s clients sent through a picture of the rich picture we created of their organisations past and future journey. It was great to see it in pride of place in their office!

    A Crackerjack rich picture
    A Crackerjack rich picture visualising an organisations journey in one of our clients offices

    We created the rich picture using a collaborative approach with the organisations team members, using their initial thoughts and ideas as the basis for the final image.

    The rich picture is used to by existing team members to keep the organisations mission and objectives at the front of their minds in the work they are doing. The rich picture is also used as part of the induction process for new team members and as an introduction for visitors to the organisation and its work.

    To find our more about our work visit http://www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com or email info@crackerjackvisualthinking.com

  • Crackerjack featured in Research to Action article on Visual Note Taking at Conferences

    Very pleased to be featured in an article by Laura french-Constant of Research to Action about Visual Note Taking at Conferences. You can read the article by clicking here.

    To find out more about how Crackerjack Visual Thinking creates images that start a conversation, contact us at info@crackerjackvisualthinking.com or call us on +44 (0)775 282 6227.

  • Woodland Trust 10 Year Vision Rich Picture Update

    As promised a couple of weeks ago, here’s a quick update on the rich picture I’m creating to help communicate the Woodland Trusts new 10 Year Vision.

    After reviewing all the available reports, documentation and presentations relating to the new 10 year vision and meeting with a number of key stakeholders involved in the work, I created version 1 of the rich picture. I then ‘pressure tested’ this with a cross-section of people across the organisation (including the CEO and other representatives from the various parts of the Woodland Trust).

    I’m now in the process of using the feedback from the pressure testing session and other additional feedback to create the final version of the 10 year vision. Here are a few teaser images from the rich picture:

    WT logo Owl Heart March

    I’ll provide a further update in a few days when the rich picture is completed.

    #woodlandtrust #richpicture #visualthinking #communication #engagement #vision

  • Holiday’s help you refresh your view of the familiar

    Whenever I return from a holiday, I’m always struck by how I notice even very small changes that have occurred in the area in which I live. It could be that someone has painted their door a slightly different colour, or that someone has planted a new plant in their garden.

    I then wonder if I would have noticed these small differences if I hadn’t had some time away from where I live?

    It would seem to me that familiarity can make us less likely notice the changes around us.

    Putting this into a work context, do we need to find ways of having ‘holidays’ from the projects we are working on in order to better understand what might have changed since we began our work?

    Sometimes recognising these changes (however big or small) could provide us with vital information that will allow us to refine and further improve our work.

    So, why not give yourself a ‘holiday’ from your work (even if it’s not two weeks in the sun!) and see if you can spot what’s changed since you went away?

    Happy holidays!

    #change #visualise #holiday