By literally mapping out the details of your technology, marketplace, strategy, etc. we can give you and your team the opportunity to step back and see better:
see things more clearly
see the big picture
see things together
see things differently
A good strategic map and the process of bringing people together in constructive dialog, can help your team grapple with the complex, various, and difficult issues that are impeding your progress.
Navigating the future without a good map can be difficult and dangerous: difficult to see where you are, and at risk you won't get where you want to go. A good map can help reveal your strategic reality and thus position you to create the future you want. As a tool for generating meaningful conversation and clearer communication, a good map can generate understanding and insight, agreement and action.
A good model of your problem can help you both find and implement effective solutions. First, visual models can help you think through your problem creatively and comprehensively. Second, a good visual story can empower you to communicate your ideas in a clear and compelling way and thus engage the people – team-members, employees, customers, suppliers, investors – who must understand, own, and execute the solution.
The Power of Integration
There are dozens of approaches to strategic planning and 'complex problem solving', so why do we focus on the use of pictures? What makes pictures – visual models, diagrams, metaphors, and stories – uniquely suited to helping us understand and communicate complex issues? The short answer is that visual models provide the power of integration:
1 ) Visual models are a tool for integrating knowledge.
Visual models enable us to step back and see the often praised, seldom realized, 'big-picture'. The big-picture allows us to see all the elements of the problem and the critical relationships and interdependencies. This comprehensive and integrated view of the problem can help us wrap our minds around complex issues and can reveal critical missing pieces (of the kind that can be so painfully obvious in hindsight). By creating a tangible visual model of the problem we can bring together diverse perspectives and think through complex problems in a way we simply can't using words alone.
2 ) Visual models are a tool for integrating people into effective teams.
Effective teams are built on shared vision; a vision that engages the understanding and commitment of all involved. We can help you build that shared vision by working with your team to integrate their ideas into a coherent picture. We can then use that picture as a tool for connecting ideas to action by communicating the vision to the people who must understand and act; building the networks of common understanding and purpose on which real progress is founded.