Pensamento visual e estratégia

"The list of questions makes clear that an important premise behind the ViSM approach to making strategy is that there should be a strong connection between strategy and operations, or else the strategy is relatively useless. In other words, if the strategy cannot be put into practice, then it will have no effect on changing the organization, its relationships with its environment, or any part of the environment. The strategy, in other words, will be equivalent to the typical New Year’s resolution. In contrast, ViSM is designed to focus attention on coherence and consistency across what people say (rhetoric), what they decide (choices), what they are willing to pay for (budget), what they do (actions), and the desirable consequences of those actions in terms of mission and goals, as well as any likely undesirable or untoward consequences that need to be managed.
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The list of questions also makes clear another important premise behind the ViSM approach to making strategy: beyond any conceptual connection between strategy and operations, there must also be strong links between the strategy in question and the psychological, social, and political commitments on the part of key stakeholders needed to implement it. [Moi ici: Recordar "uma estratégia empresarial não é uma ciência newtoniana, também tem muito do que querem os empresários fazer, do que gostam, da sua experiência, da sua paciência estratégica"] Again, without these linkages the strategy will be little more than hand waving on the part of the strategy formulators without any subsequent heavy lifting by the implementers. The need to create these commitments means that the process of developing strategies is typically as important—perhaps even more important—than the actual content of the strategies."[Moi ici: Quantas vezes sinto isto. O processo é tanto ou mais importante como o conteúdo. Chegar ao fim e sentir que as pessoas estão alinhadas e possuem a propriedade do resultado, é deles ponto]

Trecho retirado de  "Visual Strategy Strategy Mapping for Public and Nonprofit Organizations" de John M. Bryson, Fran Ackermann, e Colin Eden.

Uns bonecos podem ajudar

Na quarta-feira tinha sistematizado um projecto num pequeno fluxograma, quando me chamaram a atenção para a importância desses "bonecos", como vectores capazes de rapidamente transmitirem uma ideia a um certo conjunto de destinatários.
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Ontem, numa empresa, dei comigo a olhar para outro boneco que pretendia mostrar e situar o que tínhamos feito e o que faltava fazer num projecto.

Realmente!
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Quase sempre um boneco faz um tremendo trabalho de comunicação!!! Dá uma ideia do âmbito do trabalho. Depois:

Ajuda a equacionar a sequência temporal e torna clara a necessidade de definir quem faz o quê e até quando.
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Não compro nenhum livro por causa dos bonecos, mas já desisti de alguns porque não tinham nenhum boneco.

O trapezista (parte IV)

Continuado de parte III, parte II e parte I.
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Ontem ao final da tarde, enquanto aguardava o início de uma reunião, mergulhei no capítulo "Mapping Successful Organizational Routines" de Véronique Ambrosini e Cliff Bowman incluído no livro "Mapping Strategic Knowledge" editado por Anne Sigismund Huff e Mark Jenkins.
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E foi interessante encontrar, numa linguagem mais elaborada, o que de certa forma tenho tentado descrever ao longo desta série:
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"tacit knowledge has been argued to be a source of competitive advantage largely because it is difficult to express, it generates causal ambiguity, it is practical, and it is context-specific ... tacit knowledge possesses all the requirements that a ‘resource’ needs to have to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage it is valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and imperfectly substitutable.
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There are various types of cognitive maps. One of them is the cause map or causal map: ‘a cause map is a form of cognitive map that incorporates concepts tied together by causality relations’.
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causal maps reflect what is understood to be happening in an organization. (Moi ici: Algo que está acontecendo, algo que está em fluxo, algo que não está limitado e fechado, algo que está em evolução) One of the main benefits of using cognitive maps is that they ‘place concepts in relation to one another, ... they impose structure on vague situations'. Cause maps are therefore a way of ordering and analysing something that is ‘fuzzy’. These maps are also useful in eliciting tacit routines because they allow us to study issues at a microlevel; they can also represent multiple explanations and consequences, (Moi ici: Muito mais rico que um texto escrito, para descrever uma realidade incerta e em desenvolvimento) show interrelationships between factors, and potential dilemmas.
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‘the only reasonable claim that can be made of cognitive maps as an artefact ... is that ... they may represent subjective data more meaningfully than other models'. They are simply used as a technique that would allow us to elicit tacit routines.
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a group map ‘as a visual interactive model, acts in the form of a ... transitional object that encourages dialogues’
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Among the reasons behind the claim that metaphors can help express what is not easily articulable is that metaphors can generate new meaning.
They can ‘render vague and abstract ideas concrete’. Because they allow different ways of thinking, people may be able to explain complex organizational phenomena metaphorically. Metaphors can ‘transmit an entire story visually using one image’. This idea of image is central in understanding the argument concerning the articulation of tacit knowledge through metaphors. Because metaphors are vivid images, they may substitute for a large number of words and they are ‘useful in coping with a large amount of data’. Images also allow us to speak about process because they are not discrete. This matters because tacit routines are capabilities; they are a process (they are about how to do things).
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language [is a] discrete symbols system ... words partition experiences. [However] experience does not arrive in little discrete packets, but flows, leading us imperceptibly from one state to another. (Moi ici: Isto é tão "trapezista parte II") Thus the task we have to perform in communication is to convey what is usually some kind of continuum by using discrete symbols. It would not be surprising if discrete symbol systems were incapable of literally capturing every conceivable aspect of an object, event or experience that one might wish to describe. ...
This deficiency is filled by metaphor. Metaphors are a means of capturing the continuous flow of experience, hence they can be a means of capturing tacit knowledge. ‘They allow the transfer of concrete bands of experience whereas literal discourse segments experiences’. ‘One can say through metaphor what cannot be said in discrete, literal terms, especially when words are not available or do not exist’."
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Cool!

Viva o visual

É triste descobrir esta evolução "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children".
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Pessoalmente reconheço cada vez mais a importância da visualização secundando esta afirmação de David Sibbet: no seu recente livro "Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes & Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity":
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"I am conviced from my own experience that it is impossible to do what is called "systems thinking" without visualization.
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When you want to understand anything you can't experience all in one moment, ... then you need to be able to connect different pieces of information experienced at different times. If you want to think about how things connect and are related you will have to make some kind of display."

Títulos para todos gostos

Sou um visual, para mim uma imagem vale muito mais que mil palavras.

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Sinto que o uso de uma imagem, que o uso de alguns esquemas básicos, ajudariam a perceber melhor aquilo que à primeira vez parece contraditório:

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"Portugal lidera queda de juros na Europa após sucesso na emissão de dívida"

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"Estado paga mais juros para emitir dívida com o prazo de um ano"

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"Portugal vai contar com mais dificuldades em financiar-se"

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Faz lembrar aquela velha história dos vendedores de sapatos enviados para África mas não, tudo depende daquilo que é salientado pelo autor.

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BTW, basta apreciar este podcast para perceber o poder do visual para lidar com muita informação em simultâneo "Visual Thinking: It’s About The THINKING Too"

O poder e o valor do "pensamento visual"

"A business model really is a system where one element influences the other; it only makes sense as a whole. Capturing that big picture without visualizing it is difficult. In fact, by visually depicting a business model, one turns its tacit assumptions into explicit information. This makes the model tangible and allows for clearer discussions and changes. Visual techniques give "life" to a business model and facilitate co-creation."

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IMHO este é um dos principais pontos fortes do Business Canvas de Alex Osterwalder para a geração, reflexão e especulação sobre modelos de negócio. Conseguimos visualizar, agarrar e apreciar em simultâneo n variáveis e avaliar a harmonia do conjunto, do todo.

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Trecho retirado de "Business Model Generation" de Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur.