Visualization

Challenge & Selection

I used Visualization tool to create awareness about Change Management services among the Sales  people so that they can easily understand the services and are able to communicate with the  prospective customers and spot the opportunities to offer Change management services.

Change Management as a concept is very generic and can be applicable in umpteen number of  customer situations. The sales folks do not have patience & time to understand the concept and  sometimes they have to spot the opportunities quickly while interacting with customers. Therefore,  visualization technique is very useful to explain the services that could be provided as Change  Management and the situations / challenges that lead to demand of such services.

Application

I discussed with sales people to first understand various customer situations and type of customer  interactions they would typically face and what is their preferred means of understanding and the best  way to communicate with the customer. It was not surprising to know that almost all said that they get  very little time to prepare for the customer meetings, sometimes they are preparing while on the road,  they need a very simple way to explain to customer which the customer can relate to, it could be in  professional or personal situation.  I understood that visualization techniques can be used to explain the  Change management concept, challenges faced by customers and the services we can offer in Change  management to address the customer challenges which will lead to more business for the organization. I  remembered the video of Angela Myer where she pointed out that visualization is a core component of  communication and it is not about drawing. It could be anything, writing on white boards, better Power  Point presentations, videos etc. It’s about expressing thoughts with fewer words. Visualization helps in  getting consensus with people, which I thought is very important for the sales folks.

I created a small vision statement that the output should be artifacts that could be easily understood,  intuitive, a sales person can relate to day to day basis, can spot the change management opportunities  during the customer interactions and then can explain easily to the customer the services we can offer. I  choose a combination of short videos, intuitive presentation, customer stories and infographics.

Short Videos: The objective of the videos was to visualize the customer situations that require change  management services. We created following videos

1. A bank’s customer downloads latest update for his/her bank’s mobile app. After updating, the

customer is asked to create a new profile again. The customer is really annoyed and doesn’t  uses the mobile app. This problem could have been avoided if there was proper change  management practice of thorough testing of the app before it was released to end customers.

2.  A new health insurance policy is announced by the CEO of a company for their employees. This

requires all the employees to update their profiles online for the new insurance cover to kick off.  Many employees who work remotely are not aware of this change and they do not update. As a

result, the insurance cover is revoked and few employees had to face the risk of paying for  medical expenses as they are not covered by insurance. Resulting in disgruntled employees.  Before the change, a proper change communication plan should have been created covering all  possible employee situations.

Presentation: The objective of the presentation was to intuitively explain what change management  services we can offer to the customers, what is our capability, how we operate and what are the  benefits a customer will get from our services. Only 4 slides were created, images and bold texts with  minimum font size of 20 were used.    Infographics: A gif image was created that could be loaded on mobile and carried for the sales folks to  quickly refer to the necessary information required while talking to the customers.    Insights & Approach    Earlier, the sales folks would always call us before the client meeting and ask the specific details and  talking points to prepare for the meeting. This would consume considerable amount of time for both.  With the above visualization artifacts, now the calls from sales folks have reduced drastically. They are  able to articulate the problem statement and discuss the possible solutions with the customer.  In fact  some of the sales folks have started providing us more customer situations that they are able to spot  which is leading to better alignment of the services to the actual needs of the customer.  Now, I’ve started to use white boards to explain my thoughts and what I want from my team in almost  all conversations with my team. For every presentation, I first visualize the customer situation and draw  a rough sketch on the white board. My team is able to visualize my thought process and able to create  much better presentations with less no of iterations and changes. This has resulted in increase  productivity and better turn around.     While the above visualization artifacts have helped, I think adding storytelling during customer and/or  employee interactions to describe a situation will further help in communicating complex and  ambiguous ideas.


Visualization Challenge & Selection I used Visualization tool to create awareness about Change Management services among the Sales people so that they can easily understand the services and are able to communicate with the prospective customers and spot the opportunities to offer Change management services . Change Management as a concept is very generic and can be applicable in umpteen number of customer situations . The sales folks do not have patience & time to understand the concept and sometimes they have to spot the opportunities quickly while interacting with customers . Therefore , visualization technique is very useful to explain the services that could be provided as Change Management and the situations / challenges that lead to demand of such services . Application I discussed with sales people to first understand various customer situations and type of customer interactions they would typically face and what is their preferred means of understanding and the best way to communicate with the customer . It was not surprising to know that almost all said that they get very little time to prepare for the customer meetings , sometimes they are preparing while on the road , they need a very simple way to explain to customer which the customer can relate to , it could be in professional or personal situation . I understood that visualization techniques can be used to explain the Change management concept , challenges faced by customers and the services we can offer in Change management to address the customer challenges which will lead to more business for the organization . I remembered the video of Angela Myer where she pointed out that visualization is a core component of communication and it is not about drawing . It could be anything , writing on white boards , better Power Point presentations , videos etc . It ’s about expressing thoughts with fewer words . Visualization helps in getting consensus with people , which I thought is very important for the sales folks . I created a small vision statement that the output should be artifacts that could be easily understood , intuitive , a sales person can relate to day to day basis , can spot the change management opportunities during the customer interactions and then can explain easily to the customer the services we can offer . I choose a combination of short videos , intuitive presentation , customer stories and infographics . Short Videos : The objective of the videos was to visualize the customer situations that require change management services . We created following videos 1 . A bank ’s customer downloads latest update for his / her bank ’s mobile app . After updating , the customer is asked to create a new profile again . The customer is really annoyed and does n’t uses the mobile app . This problem could have been avoided if there was proper change management practice of thorough testing of the app before it was released to end customers . 2 . A new health insurance policy is announced by the CEO of a company for their employees . This requires all the employees to update their profiles online for the new insurance cover to kick off . Many employees who work remotely are not aware of this change and they do not update . As a result , the insurance cover is revoked and few employees had to face the risk of paying for medical expenses as they are not covered by insurance . Resulting in disgruntled employees . Before the change , a proper change communication plan should have been created covering all possible employee situations . Presentation : The objective of the presentation was to intuitively explain what change management services we can offer to the customers , what is our capability , how we operate and what are the benefits a customer will get from our services . Only 4 slides were created , images and bold texts with minimum font size of 20 were used . Infographics : A gif image was created that could be loaded on mobile and carried for the sales folks to quickly refer to the necessary information required while talking to the customers . Insights & Approach Earlier , the sales folks would always call us before the client meeting and ask the specific details and talking points to prepare for the meeting . This would consume considerable amount of time for both . With the above visualization artifacts , now the calls from sales folks have reduced drastically . They are able to articulate the problem statement and discuss the possible solutions with the customer . In fact some of the sales folks have started providing us more customer situations that they are able to spot which is leading to better alignment of the services to the actual needs of the customer . Now , I ’ve started to use white boards to explain my thoughts and what I want from my team in almost all conversations with my team . For every presentation , I first visualize the customer situation and draw a rough sketch on the white board . My team is able to visualize my thought process and able to create much better presentations with less no of iterations and changes . This has resulted in increase productivity and better turn around . While the above visualization artifacts have helped , I think adding storytelling during customer and/or employee interactions to describe a situation will further help in communicating complex and ambiguous ideas .