This article tells you what rich picturing is, why it is important, and how to do it. It provides six tips for getting started, and two example rich pictures based on cases in the business press. If you’re not in a reading mood, you can simply watch the video below!
What is Rich Picturing, and Why Is It Important?
Analysts and managers in organisations tend to talk or write about situations. You probably write many emails and attend many meetings every day! It is the accepted way of doing things.
The problem is that there are limitations to the spoken and written word. Neither helps us to view situations holistically, or express dynamic relationships well. It can limit our understanding. If a situation is not well understood, it is difficult to take purposeful action, which leads to stagnation, or failure. There are plenty of recent examples of failed strategic initiatives to support this idea.
In the 21st century, markets can be transformed, redefined, or made irrelevant very quickly. Our business environment has changed; but, we generally use the conventional medium to understand it. We think we need alternative ways to process this new, complex environment, and to appreciate the opportunities and threats it presents. We question whether the conventional approach is always fit-for-purpose! What are the alternatives?
Rich picturing is a richer and more challenging medium that presents new possibilities for analysts and managers. It refers to the practice of representing a problem situation visually. You could say that it is drawing out your situation on paper. It can be done individually, or in groups.
Usage for Analysts, Managers and Consultants
For an analyst, rich picturing offers new possibilities. In your day-to-day work, you would typically receive a briefing from your manager, some data, and would be expected to build a model to ‘solve’ a problem. Rarely, however, are you asked to explain ‘why’ a model is important; but, perhaps you have doubted the utility of some of the models that you have been asked to build. Rich picturing allows you to look at the situation in its entirety, and to choose the best place to focus your modelling efforts. It’s a great way maximise the impact of your modelling skills.
For a manager, rich picturing can be an awesome strategic tool. Rich picturing allows you to view the different areas of a problem situation at the same time. Using the structure outlined below, you can capture the firm-, industry-, and environment-level factors in a single view. This engenders a more holistic understanding of the situation, and a stronger appreciation of the linkages between the various elements. It provides you with an excellent starting point for strategic thinking.
For a consultant, rich picturing can facilitate a first client meeting. Whether you are consulting internally or externally, there is a need to ‘talk through’ the situation and to air all of the issues. Your client will no doubt have an idea what the root causes of their problems are, but it is your job to provide constructive challenge, and offer alternative hypotheses. In an individual, group or one-to-one setting, rich picturing can be a useful addition to your consulting toolkit.
For everybody, rich picturing offers a creative way to think about business problems. Research suggests that pictures are more memorable than words, and people usually think it is fun putting one together. So, how do you get started with it?
Some Tips to Help You Get Started!
Now, if you are thinking ‘I won’t be able to do that, because I can’t draw!’ you are not the only one. But, as we will find out, your artistic ability or inclination does not really matter!
The purpose of these resources is to share some basic guidelines that anybody can apply to help them get started with rich picturing.
So, let’s look at some helpful tips.
The number one rule of rich picturing is ‘It’s not about the picture!’ We are not suggesting that you should show your picture to your client or manager; but we are suggesting that creating a rich picture will help you view a problematic situation differently, and generate new insights. You have to adopt an entirely different mindset to create a rich picture, and this is where the value actually lies. The presentational quality is less important.
Number two is to use a structure to help you get started, and to identify the levels relevant to your problem situation. Use three levels and divide the paper into three to represent these. We recommend using the levels of firm, industry, and broader environment. Other possible levels are the individual, the team, the department or division, or a group of competitors. There are many possibilities; the point is that the picture helps you think about the different levels and captures the relationships between them.
Number three is to create an issues list. It is important to diagnose your organisational situation – to identify all of the things that are going wrong! So, when you identify something that is problematic, contentious or uncertain, write it down. Try to be articulate: writing ‘marketing’, for example, is not really helpful; but, writing ‘difficult to identify target market’ is more precise and therefore useful. The list of issues is the main output of the rich picturing process. You can position it on the right of the picture, as illustrated in the graphic above.
You may not want to share your rich picture for whatever reason, but the issues list identifies all of the insights that you gained, in text form. It should guide your next steps: deciding where to take action in the problem situation, and the best modelling approach.
Number four is to decide on the focus. The focus should be your client or customer. Of course, your client or customer could be yourself, if you are using the picture for your own purposes. Draw your client or customer in first, usually it is best to position him or her just inside the organisation part of the picture.
Number five is to focus on relationships. It is important to make the picture as rich as possible – you should not be ‘filtering out’ many of the details yourself. However, it is equally important to link the various elements together. As an analyst or a manager, it is helpful to understand how long-term trends shape the dynamics of the industry, and the firm’s position in relation to its competitors. You must focus on the interactions between the parts of the picture to do these things. Use dotted lines to indicate a link, and an arrow to convey a clear causal relationship.
The final guideline is to create an icon set. As you do more rich picturing, you will find yourself using the same symbols or icons repeatedly. Get used to drawing common features such as people and other competitors, and develop quick ways to draw them. If you can quickly draw out the important elements, it will improve the efficiency of the process. So go on, create your own icon set!
There are six basic guidelines to help you get started. We hope you realise that it is nothing to be scared of, and we hope this motivates you to try it out for yourself! Now, time to practise…
Exercises
Use the below cases and rich picture examples to help you get started. Access the article, read it and, with the six tips in mind, create your own rich picture for the organisational situation. Then, compare to the examples provided.
It is important to bear in mind that there is no ‘model’ rich picture for any situation – everybody’s interpretation is different. However, comparison with the examples may help you check how well you have applied the principles outlined above. It is important to also reflect on how rich picturing made you think about the situation. What insight, if any, have you gained that you would not have gained from a bullet point analysis?
Exercise One – Hugo Boss
Link to article
PDF of example rich picture
Exercise Two – Morrisons Supermarket
Link to article
PDF of example rich picture
HOW DID YOU GET ON? LET US KNOW!
We hope you’ve found these videos helpful, and thar you have tried rich picturing for yourself. How did you find it? Let us know! Contact us here.
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Excel Game – Do You Know the Offside Rule?!
INTRODUCTION
How can you get better at Excel? Creating an Excel game is a great way to explore Excel’s capabilities away from the pressures of work or study. We hope that our Excel game inspires you to try to create your own! The game works for PC (but not Mac); it will not work in Google docs or Open Office. If you have Excel, Simply save the file to your desktop, open it, and get started!
Click here to download the file.
WHAT IS THE GAME?
Our Excel game is called Euro 2016 Linesman. A linesman’s role in football or ‘soccer’ is to indicate if a player is offside. Simply put, a player is ‘offside’ if there are fewer than two players between him or her and the goal, when the ball is played.
In our game, you have to make a number of offside decisions from a ‘bird’s eye’ view of the pitch. Decisions are assessed in terms of accuracy and time. If your decision-making is good enough, the assessor will promote you to a higher league. The aim is to reach the Euro 2016 tournament at the end of the season, but you only have 11 months – and you can be demoted as well as promoted! There is at least one surprise along the way…
Why not download it and try it out? Simply save the file to your desktop, open it, and get started! Will your friends be able to beat your scores?
Click here to download the file.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The Excel game file is not protected, and you can explore it to understand how it works. Simply right-click on the sheet tab at the bottom to unhide the hidden sheet.
The Excel game combines together formulae and Excel VBA code to create the required functionality. The shapes are randomly positioned within certain parameters using random numbers. Using VBA, a table on the background sheet is populated with the positions of each of the ‘players’; formulae then compare the positions, and establish if players are offside or not.
The file uses formulae and VBA to note the time that decision-making starts, and ends. This gives a time for each decision. Right and wrong decisions are tracked from one routine to the next using module-level variables. User interaction takes place through dialogue boxes – simple message boxes, and ‘yes / no’ message boxes. All of these elements combine together to create the gameplay.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Exploring an Excel game is a great way to improve your Excel skills away from the pressures of work or study. This kind of creative application pushes our imagination and skill level, which can only benefit our day-to-day work. The Excel game is also a great example of a complete Excel application: more important than understanding the formulae and VBA code is to understand how the whole thing works. When you learn to combine different elements (formulae, code, user interface, backend) together, you can create powerful Excel applications.
We hope you enjoyed the Excel game! Do you have a specific question about how it works? Why not leave a comment on the video on the YouTube channel, and share the file with your colleagues.
Ever thought about getting started with computer coding in Excel?
Read more about the #ExcelRevolution here. Or, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.