Your Strategic Plan. Can you remember it off the top of your head? What is your vision, and what are the goals that will get you there? What makes up your organizational culture? When was the last time you read your strategic plan?
Helping groups navigate strategic planning makes up a big chunk of the work I do as a graphic facilitator, and I want to help you avoid one of the most common mistakes I see: putting heaps of money, time, and effort into bringing your best minds together to come up with a strategy which gets written up and then sits on a shelf because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?
Which results in:
Confusion around priorities (which priority is the real priority?)
Lackluster engagement because people don’t see how they fit into the bigger picture
Reinforcement of silos because of the temptation to focus on what’s right in front of us, rather than the high-level strategic goals
It doesn’t have to be this way!
And it doesn’t need to be a huge deal to shift from status quo to status: whoa!
Whether you’re working on a new strategic plan or you already have one, engaging a graphic facilitator to support process design or synthesizing your current plan into a strategic illustration can help alleviate frustrating patterns and support a healthy organization.
Here’s what making it visual can do for you:
Clearly shows vision, mission, values, and priorities in one page
Imagery can be used that employees see themselves in, which build buy-in
It can easily be referenced to make sure day-to-day activities are in support of the larger strategic direction
Create interest and something people will want to take time to look at, often, and remember
Nuance can be shown in visuals you can’t easily communicate with words
Provide a shared story outline leadership can easily share with their teams so the message is clear across the organization
If you have a plan you’d like brought to life or are in the midst of a strategic planning process, let’s talk about how visuals can add long-term value with a ripple effect!
Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.
Cheers,
Where in the World is ConverSketch?
Washington, DC: I just got back from the Funding Science for Sustainability forum, a gathering of entities that fund sustainability research around the world. Participants discussed the potential for strategic partnerships to better address gaps and challenges of supporting research around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Video Release! I often share that I’m in the studio working on videos and other projects. This week, I’m delighted to share a video for the Drawing Connections series for the National Park Service. Check out Yosemite National Park: