Visualisation tool

Challenge

The design thinking approach and its tools are new to me. In my previous development experience, I have  applied the visualization approach, but more as an isolated, presentation-focused tool and not as an  iterative tool within a broader process.

At present, my organization is going through a process that aims to improve the way we operate, deliver  and interact with stakeholders based on the platform way of working. While there are general concepts on  the platform way of working, no concrete examples are there yet. Thus, each team member has a very  different understanding what the platform way of working means and how it can help us elevate our  performance and enhance our business model. The process is structured around several discussion  workshops, guided by a set of corporate materials meant to steer each step. The first step was a  conversation about the current situation and challenges we face in our work. After a long discussion,  although many challenges were captured, findings were scattered, often superficial and there was not a  common agreement on the problems we face as organization.

Tool selection

As moderator of this process, I decided to suggest using the visualization tool in our next discussion, so we  unlock our creative thinking and try to identify and reach shared understanding on the challenges among  the team of 15 colleagues and then use this common ground to identify solutions that can together shape  up the future platform way of working for our organization. I selected this tool also because, as pointed by  Angela Meyer in the video-lecture, this tool can help us analyse complex problems by bringing logic,  inductive reasoning and thinking about possibilities we may not see without visual thinking.

Application

The session was divided in two parts: individual work and then joint looking at the results and conversation.  At the beginning, each team member had 30 minutes to identify and draw pictures of the three top  challenges we face in our current work or barriers that prevent us perform more effectively. Participants  could use simple shapes and 1 – 2 words to capture key points. Each participant received A4 paper and  markers. Participants could work in or outside the room. Following the individual thinking session, all visual  articulations of the priority challenges were compiled and presented by pinning them on a large board.  Challenges were grouped into clusters in case they were inter-connected or similar. The clustering of the  challenges was done jointly by the group, based on common agreement. At the end of the session, all  challenges were visually presenting the “bigger picture”, in all its complexity. Such visualisation helped the  group analyse in a more structured and multi-angle manner groups of problems, see their inter-connectivity  and agree on the key sets of problems for the organization, which set a solid ground for further work. In  the end, I took photo of the visual presentation of our thinking, so we can have it for our records as well as  use it for the process ahead.

Insight and approach

Process observations: at the beginning of the session, the team was somewhat reluctant to embrace the  visualisation tool, because it seemed “not serious enough”. However, with some encouragement, the  individual work started. After some minutes, when colleagues started to visualise their thinking, a positive  and creative energy was somehow unlocked in the room. The fact that the technique offers a fun-like  working fuelled enthusiasm and colleagues simply engaged in the process. There were a couple of sceptics

in the team who felt like this is a childish way to approach serious development work; however, after some  time they were also somehow engaged in the discussion. By displaying all the visualised challenges on a  board, we were able to group them and see that there is a lot of like-minded thinking in the room, thus the  joint feeling of engagement grew stronger. By suing the visualisation tool (instead of verbal discussions  only) we were able to overcome a roadblock in the process and set common ground for the steps ahead.

Personal thoughts: the visualisation tool seemed appropriate from viewpoint of the ultimate objective of  this process – i.e. organizational transformation. The results of this session, however, encouraged me to  think if I can align closer the entire process ahead with the design thinking approach and test some of the  other design thinking tools, which I believe can stimulate stronger engagement, shared vision-setting,  ownership over the ideas, as well as innovative solutions for the way forward.

