In today's newsletter, I want to discuss the value and impact of images in project work and invite you to a small webinar on visual consulting (link below the text).
The District Heating Image
Last week, I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of department heads and CEOs from a corporation in developing a vision for the expansion of municipal district heating. The term "vision" is to be taken literally: together with the participants, we developed an image that illustrates the complexity and interconnections of the district heating expansion, reveals opportunities and risks, and uncovers areas for action.
This image is intended to be used in two stages for internal and external communication, after several rounds of content and image development have been completed to align with various stakeholders and interest groups.
Image Creation as Process Guidance
In the workshop, although we worked on the design of a finished product (an image for communication purposes), the process of image creation itself is an extremely effective method that is currently underutilized in the workplace. The process of image creation(often in contrast to a purely verbal meeting) leads to:
Clarity: When different participants have different "images" of a term or concept in their minds, this becomes immediately apparent during image creation and can be resolved through dialogue.
Objectivity: When people start thinking in images, they stop developing counterarguments to other statements. Instead, they try to describe the image in their minds. This image is related to the topic and is therefore focused on the subject matter.
Constructiveness: With the self-imposed goal of creating a large explanatory image, a clear objective is articulated, towards which one visually works within a predefined timeframe. The progress of one's own work is clearly visible.
Consensus: In the process of image finding, everyone gets a voice and can collaborate. People promote and agree with topics that they have helped shape themselves—even over a longer period.
Image Process as a Shareable Value
At the end of the meeting, we discussed additional values of the image creation process:
Support from the Top: The workshop documentation, including the progression images, can be used to show employees how interested their superiors are in the success of the project. The workshop is not a black box to outsiders when used for communication.
Discussion & Explanation Tool: Even if the image is not completely finished after the first workshop, various participants already took it with them to show to relevant (e.g., political) actors.
Onboarding Tool: The participants agreed to use the documentation of the image creation and the image itself as an onboarding tool to quickly bring new project participants on board.
Empowerment: At the end of the workshop, despite the daunting task, everyone was confident that the project was feasible and felt empowered to communicate with confidence.
Conclusion and Invitation
I have had many positive experiences with visual consulting and image creation. However, with the increase of home office and digital meetings, I have also noticed that the use of visual communication has decreased. It felt important to me to show you this example to perhaps inspire you (again) to use more visual communication, which can also occur in the virtual space.