Somebody asked me today about what is the value an organization would get from doing strategic planning, especially this “fun” visual planning that I’m offering. GOOD QUESTION MEL! Thanks!
First of all, strategic planning is a really important exercise to any group of people who are responsible for taking action towards a goal. It’s especially important if you’re doing so in an environment of limited resource, with potentially conflicting opinions on the team about where you want to end up and how you’re going to get there. When a team agrees on a common goal and common values, they are infinitely more effective in their actions than if members of the team are trying to steer the group in different directions. Focused communication (not just idle wondering and watercooler gossip) is required to get people to agree that they want the same thing and how they’re going to go after it. That’s what strategic planning is, in a nutshell.
A broader (less nutshell, more of a melon-husk perhaps) definition of strategic planning would include taking a wide view of the environment, customers, suppliers, competitors and stakeholders and asking “what will make us successful? what could challenge us?” These questions and others are designed to take stock of the current situation and prepare tactics/actions to make sure the team will meet its goals. Without this kind of thinking, a team – be it business, government or non-profit – is at very high risk of simply wandering through time without ever really having the kind of impact it desires. And on the flipside, teams that do strategic planning well have more dramatic success in less time.
Where does the graphic facilitation come in? Well, imagine you had to do all of the above discussions without ever writing a single thing down. Very ineffective, right? What most teams do is have one person take minutes and write a report that they hope reflects what was said and meant when the team gets together for a discussion. That’s not a bad approach but it’s not always successful, and you’re still relying on a solely verbal discussion followed by a solely written report. Now, imagine this team were talking while somebody (a neutral, objective third-party) was listening attentively and interpreting the key messages, writing them onto a large wall chart while the whole group looked on. Here’s a couple of scenarios:
- Uh oh – that’s not what Bob meant to say but it’s been written on the chart. Let’s change it! The group participates in the writing and revision of the report IN REAL TIME.
- Bob and Mary see things differently and can’t believe the other person really “gets” what they’re saying. The facilitator interprets both points and includes them as part of the record of the discussion. Bob sees he’s been heard and Mary sees she’s been heard and, upon reflecting on what’s written up there on the chart, they both realize they’re saying the same thing in different ways. The conflict gets resolved and Bob, Mary and their whole team move forward with a better understanding of each other.
- Jane’s team frequently goes off onto tangents and gets distracted from their agenda. The new graphic meeting agenda reminds people what they’re supposed to be doing, and as the discussion gets charted it becomes apparent to everyone that they’re not staying on topic. Fortunately, Jane gets a chance to finish what she was saying and then the facilitator points back to the place on the chart where they departed from their purpose.
- Dave’s co-workers have a habit of repeating themselves OVER and OVER in different words. When the chart is being created, though, they can see that their point has already been heard by the group and correctly recorded, so they move onto creating new ideas and energy.
These scenarios are just some of the ways that graphic facilitation can help teams get more out of their strategic planning. Aside from these in-the-moment scenarios, there are plenty of reasons why including graphic facilitation in a team’s process is a wise investment:
- Graphic charts can replace or augment written meeting minutes, reminding people in a fun way of what got talked about.
- 87% of us are visual learners and retain more information when we see it than when it’s just delivered verbally, so people will remember more from a session where the discussion was recorded visually.
- Sometimes words don’t capture the full depth of meaning, whereas using images and icons can portray a concept with simplicity and grace. If a picture’s worth 1,000 words, why are you only using words for your strategic planning?
I hope that answers the question of where is the value in visual strategic planning. If you’ve got something to add, feel free to add a comment! (You do that by clicking on the little cloud icon beside the post title. I know, I’ve got to work on this blog design a bit more).
Tags: questions, Strategic Planning, value, visual planning
