Graphic Guides

21st Century Literacy

Kristina Hooper Woolsey and I facilitated a session at the 10th Annual International Forum of Visual Practitioners conference at Granlibakken, Tahoe City, this last weekend. It built on a conference Adobe and New Media Consortium sponsored earlier in the year on that topic (I also facilitated that conference--Kristina was on the design team). Our of this experience it occurred to me that we SV consultants are already practicing 21st Century Literacy in being visual, interactive, multi-media oriented in our planning. Bill Bancroft, one of the designers of the IFVP Conference and Grove associate wrote me after the session. I suggested we carry on the conversation here as a way to capture the thinking.

If you want more information on 21st Century Literacy click on http://www.nmc.org/summit

New Templates for SV

The new templates that Konrad Knell and Scott Wheeler are working on are back on the front burners moving toward publication. I met with Konrad yesterday and saw a version of the Strategy Alternatives template he's working up with Trevor Jones, our new Grove designer. He's used it for many years doing strategic planning, and finds it works well as a way to get into envisioning alternatives. We'll post some things about it as it gets more developed.

Scott reports that he's back at work on a Customer Perspective guide to work up front in the planning process. He has also developed a set of more detailed guides to help clients that want to do a deep dive into marketing strategy that he will be using in his consulting.

Pia Larson is recommending an alternative to the Five Bold Steps that shows alternative routes of travel in a strategy.

As you know, the Grove is very interested in adding to this product line and invites proposed books. We're working out a clear standard contract now that will spell out the details of how we will partner on these. Any additional ideas are welcome.

What Is The SV Network?

I have invited some 15 of you who are actively doing Strategic Visioning consulting to be the first to collaborate through this new website. I'm calling you the SV Network. I took the liberty of posting many of your pictures in an album so you can see who you are. If you aren't there please send me a JPEG or GIF and I will post it. I plan to keep the site just for us for a while to see what happens.
• You can comment on any posting, or on comments included in the posts.
• I'm hoping we can use this as a place to build up some shared knowledge about how to make our practices more effective, and to generate new ideas for Grove tools that you and others can use.
• I'll add people as we discover that they are active SV practioners who want to be involved.
• Please suggest topics you are interested in.
....David Sibbet

Power of Storytelling

Roy Bartilson suggested the topic of Storytelling and it's generated an interesting run of observations from Ed Claassen, David Sibbet, Roy, and Bill Bankcroft. Latest additions are at the end of the chain. Join in and share your experiences and questions.

SV Market Segmentation

Scott Wheeler and I are thinking quite a bit about how to sell Strategic Visioning services. He has long experience in marketing strategy formation from an internal company position. A great deal of my experience has been facilitating SV offsites for management teams, and following up with two or three key meetings until they get their story to a compelling point and visualized for communication. I've done some strategy implementation work, but that isn't my long suit.

The question is, where are people willing to pay for SV services for our network, and what kind of effort do they want. This all suggests turning our segmentation attention to our own field. I'd love to to have everyone begin to wade in on what they think our target markets should be. This will inform both The Grove's upcoming marketing, and maybe help all of you with yours.

Thoughts On Collaborative Design

I’ve been writing, drawing, and designing things for as long as I can remember. It’s a love affair. The magic of putting together words and images and seeing things manifest in the real world is very rewarding. It’s probably this love that has led me into graphic facilitation and information design. This new field, as my friend Bob Horn says, “tightly integrates words and text.” It’s the emerging language of a generation raised on multi-media. It’s that generation that is already imaging the future, even as I write and who will inherit what we more senior folks have created. I want to be conscious about that—and push into the question of perhaps

I know before I’m through I’ll be back working with video and interactive, digital environments like this one. But my foundation is print. I was trained as a magazine journalist and still find that format satisfying. In some ways this blog medium is that with the added capability of on-the-flying editing and response.

The kinds of templates, guides, and Storymaps we produce at The Grove are all produced in teams, with a lot of collaboration, from the first time I sit down and share an idea with Ed or Laurie to the review cycles and final edits with Bobby in our Design Solutions Group. Those of you who have participated as reviewers and authors know how many e-mails and teleconferences go into a really good product.

I’ve always fantasized about having the kind of collaboration that exists around the production of a specific tool extend to the more general challenge of evolving this field. I’m hopeful this blog will allow our extended community to do that, and to get to know each other more broadly.

For that to happen, you’ll have to wade in with your own thinking. I’ll facilitate by contributing regularly.