Any of us can use a sketch this way

Nov 17, 2019 | Strategy implementation, Strategy visualization

Any of us can use a sketch this way

Nearly every time we start a visual discussion with a blank sheet of paper, at least one business participant looks up in horror –

I cannot draw! It totally stresses me out!

Here – in the Value of Quick Storytelling – Joshua Wold, Product Designer with Automattic (which owns WordPress) shares examples of how to use sketches simply to create more clear understanding in conversation.

Scrolling down Joshua’s post, one notices that most of the sketches are rectangles, squares and single lines of various types. He even adds a few tool tips near the end.

While these examples have an artful touch, any of us can draw a box!

Shall we try?

Real challenges: the Messy Middle

Oct 1, 2019 | Leader communication, Strategy implementation

Real challenges: the Messy Middle

I so appreciate Scott Belsky‘s perspective about implementing strategy, which he outlines in The Messy Middle. Combining his experience as Chief Product Officer of Adobe, co-founder of Behance and investor, Scott focuses on start-ups and entrepreneurs – which are today’s trend.

Yet his two visual charts here describe nearly every strategy I’ve seen, large company or small, and are well worth a look (and a smile): The Myth and The Reality.

Scott says that we don’t talk about the down curves of implementation enough. The persistence, the stress, the tough surprises, the wondering if it is simply impossible. We could better prepare to have stamina when facing the obstacles as leaders and as teams.

If we communicate nothing else, maybe it should be this – that our strategy will inevitably go differently in implementation than it starts on paper and that we will have to adjust.

While acknowledgement of this reality is not the easiest, shiny, drum-rolling, vision painting way to begin, it might be the most honest and credibilty building when the strategy plan plays out.