Visual Thinking

I'm trying not to be negative about the HR cost reduction idea generator request. But I find myself wavering between bursting into hysterical laughter and bursting into tears.

Have I mentioned that our company has an official ban on the use of whiteboards? You know, the things that people gather around and scribble ideas on, and draw value streams and process maps and that kind of thing? I'm sure I have. The Chairman doesn't like them. He thinks they are unclean. I wonder if we had been doing some value streams on a whiteboard we wouldn't need to beg for some cost cutting ideas.

I'm very big on visual thinking. You can tell a person how to get from A to Z, but if you draw a map it's much easier, isn't it? Many people say "Oh, I'm not a visual person." What they mean is they aren't artistic, or they can't draw. But when you use images to plan a work process, no one cares about artistic ability. While we might have different learning styles - some learn best by reading, some by watching, some by seeing and doing - we all have some intrinsic visual learning ability. Unless you're visually challenged, of course.

And I wrote earlier how the Canadian Mount Everest Expedition got its start on the back of a napkin in a Camrose tavern. So I was very interested to see a new book by Dan Roam called The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Here's what Publisher's Weekly wrote:

"The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a “watershed moment”: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience."

Power. Clarity. Words have them but pictures have them even more. That's the premise behind the axiom "A picture is worth a thousand words." That's why processes like Value Stream Mapping are based on a visual map of the process, so you see every step and can cut out the ones that are wasteful. Maybe if just one of the conference rooms had a whiteboard, some group would be generating ideas of power and clarity. Just a thought.

So we've taken away the tool that allows people to express themselves visually. And now we wonder why we are in a bit of a rut, shall we say. I wonder if, when we removed the visual tools, we sent a message that we didn't want people to share ideas. In any case, we further ingrained the silo mentality we have. Not only is there less communication between departments, there is less within departments.

In any case, another memo came out from the same Captain of Industry. It had the classic elements of an HR memo as written on page 174 of the HR Person's Communication Manual:

1. Obligatory condescending note of thanks - "Oh, you had some REALLY good ideas". Does that mean we aren't as stupid as you thought we were?
   
2. Mandatory rah rah: "We know you have lots more ideas."
3. Pitiful begging: "So please send them to us", because we ran out of new ideas years ago.
4. Wave the carrot: "Three extra days of PTO". Which you won't have time to use anyway.
   

Here's another thing. Isn't it the responsibility of every employee and every manager to constantly look for ways to improve their work processes, cut costs and eliminate waste? Call me irrational, but isn't that implicit in the employment agreement - "We are hiring you to do this job, and if you can see any way to do it better, we'd like to hear it." Well, now that I've written that, I can see that I'm not being rational. that might be the imagery companies present. But many in many organizations the reality is "Here's your job. Shut up and do it."

When Tom Peters and Bob Waterman wrote "In Search of Excellence" a lifetime ago, their research demonstrated the importance of perception. Peters often says that "perception is all there is". In other words the facts don't matter too much. If consumers, or employees, have a certain perception of a product or a company, that perception will overrule rational thought. Much of management is the management of perceptions. If the employees get the idea that the company is screwing them, or the company is lieing to them, the perception will overrule fact. Managers need to respond to wrong perceptions with facts, honesty, speed and truth.

These are difficult times. I don't care if you think we are in a recession or not. We are certainly in difficult times. And difficult times call for strong management. Companies that have been managed by weaklings will fall by the wayside. Remember the old keyboarding exercise "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country"? What, they don't teach that any more? Anyway, now is the time for managers to step up to the plate and show their mettle.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.