Visualise

Visualisation:
Seeing is believing

People receive more than 80% of their information through the sense of sight. We write and draw in order to visualise our thoughts and emotions, as well as to remember things. No wonder methods such as Agile, Scrum, Lean, Design thinking and Kanban are becoming ever more popular. That’s because they all have one thing in common: visualisation.

More often than not, a team is made up of people from different working backgrounds, with different insights and different views. Once a process or project is visible, it becomes possible for the team to discuss, share views and align their thinking. This process is known as “visual management”.

workplace

Let the workplace speak

Visual management helps you improve the performance of your business or team by using visual communication products. At a glance, people can get the information they need without having to waste time searching for it. It enables anyone to assess the current status of an operation, process or project in an instant, regardless of their knowledge of the process.
With visual management, it is vital that employees are able to understand a situation without hesitation. For example, they shouldn’t have to go into a special room to find out. Instead, ideas can be made visible on a nearby wall using products such as a whiteboard or pinboard.

In fact, it’s very easy to get started with visualisation: just do it! Make a management board, draw a picture, start sketching together, and discuss what you see.

Possible scenarios

Visual management - for use in any situation

Whether you’re an architect, a mechanic or work in marketing, these examples illustrate how visual management can support your day-to-day work. Visual management can be applied in all manner of different situations.

Scenario A: outlining a problem
An architect uses a whiteboard to outline a problem scenario. By doing so, not only is the problem visualised, the reasons behind it are also made visible. As a result, the architect’s advice will solve the problem in hand, allowing the next steps to be taken to get to the real solution.

Scenario B: creating a common idea
A sketch is drawn on a whiteboard to explain to product owners an idea put forward by a marketer.
Together, the sketch is elaborated, with the result that the original idea of the marketer evolves into a common, realisable idea that everyone understands.

Scenario C: process improvements
Troubleshooting doesn’t always run smoothly. That’s why stakeholders are asked to document their current ways of working, setting out how they carry out their tasks. To prevent everyone from sticking to their own way of working and overlooking important steps, the process is drawn on a board. “Wait a minute... do we work like that...?” This is a common response. A perfect way to indicate joint process improvements.