Strategic Storyboarding

Visual Thinking Strategy To Change Minds and Get Results!

Curious about the #1 way you can get the best results in your next strategic presentation? This one strategy will engage your boss….win over the executive team… persuade, convince and get better results with any audience — in half the time. What is this most critical of all persuasive approaches? Paint a picture in their mind. It sounds so simple. Elegant, powerful and straightforward. But there is also something about this recommendation that you should know. It’s not absolutely brand new. I’d love to say ‘paint a picture for your audience’ is a fresh, innovative idea that no one else has discovered. But that’s not true. It’s a classic, proven, and well-researched principle of effective communication. Here’s the classic instruction from the man considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of the ancient world. And a master of persuasion:  “The soul never thinks without a picture.” —Aristotle That nails it…and he said it thousands of years ago. How can you use this same principle to get an “AHA” from your audience? You must paint a phenomenally powerful image in their minds. This only happens when you use strategic visual thinking from start to finish. But you don’t have to only reach back into well-worn books to discover the impact of visuals. Stanford research confirms Aristotle’s insights. According to recent findings, presentations that use visuals are 17% more persuasive than those that rely on words alone. Pictures use visual thinking to strategically influence better results. What kind of results? Precisely the kind you need: better problem solving, faster buy-in and smarter decisions. Imagine what this research means to you. How will you use visuals when you need to create brand strategy and persuade your boss to fund your plan? How will you include pictures into your winning proposal? How will visual strategy shape how you sell your new marketing plan to your top-paying client? Visual structure is the fastest way to organize your strategy, presentations and turn your audience around to your way of thinking. Whether this is for a product, a solution or a service, this means you have the system and tools to unlock the power of persuasion. You can use visual blueprints to present strategy for all kinds of topics: competitive leadership, innovation, marketing, planning, projects, sales, or training. Instead of putting pictures, icons and photographs in as a last minute after-thought, look at a broader definition of ‘a picture.’ Visual storyboarding uses maps and diagrams to increase productivity in strategic planning. Look at the three areas where you can influence, persuade and spread the word in half the time. This is like getting under the hood with the tools you need to create and deliver persuasive strategic presentations. I call it for short,  “The 3 P’s” of Visual Thinking Strategy. #1 P is PLANNING Visual storyboards are a series of frames and diagrams. This outline shows the big strategic picture and all the steps along the way. You and your team are able to make better and faster decisions. At a glance. Visuals persuade and shift opinions from start to finish in any planning process. With a storyboard, it’s easier and faster to answer questions. People point to the frames and voice differences of opinions. Conflicts are out in the open. Teams become highly functioning using the blueprint to quickly solve problems. This interactive team innovation saves time. It streamlines every type of planning… Project launch. Product development. Strategic direction. Marketing strategy. Training design. E-learning development. When you talk to successful project managers and strategic thinkers, everyone will point to the charts. What is the true productivity secret of innovative plans? Visual thinking strategy. A visual storyboard makes questions crystal clear. These structural questions must be answered in developing every strategy: Where are we now? Where do we want to go? What, where, when, why and how do we get there? These questions shape both process and solutions. Strategic thinking requires clarity. This clarity is expressed with surefire visual blueprints to dramatically improve the process of planning. With this flexible system, your planning team needs to get better results in half the time. Once the roadmap is clear, your team is on fire with the plan. And ready for action! Now, check out how visual thinking helps when you must present strategy. #2 P is PRESENTING You already have a visual tool, the storyboard, to tell your winning story. And the good news is this doesn’t take extra time or extra work. The visual story blueprint already exists. It’s been developed and tested by the planning team. Now it’s just a matter of using it to win over every crowd every time. Everyone in your organization can use this visual storyboard to communicate strategy. From the CEO to the customer service rep. From managers to new hires. It’s easier to tell a story when you can show the picture. Who needs to know?  The rest of the organization. Departments and units in other locations. Global partners. Clients. Customers. Investors. Partners. Trade Associations. You name it. With visual strategy maps, you have a fast and effective way to build and communicate your message. Visual thinking strategy goes way beyond adding a photo or icon as an afterthought. It’s not a ‘think first…add visuals last’ approach. You’ve used visual thinking to plan. Now use a blueprint to present and win over your audience. With the audience in mind, explain the essentials. Organize what you have to say in words…and use pictures, graphics and icons to support your strategic message. Anticipate questions that are on the minds of your audience…and answer them with pictures. Presenting strategy is exactly when you want to paint the big picture…and show how the detail fits together. Make it easy for your viewers to quickly get the point of your charts and diagrams. Remember the research? 17 % more persuasive. Engage each person in your audience with a powerful sequence of pictures and words. Paint a clear, colorful and compelling picture. A diagram is persuasive. A photo invites comments. This all adds up to a presentation that changes minds. But don’t stop there. #3 P is POPULARIZING Involve your audience. Ask your audience a question, “what picture do you have in mind?” You’ll find that people love to volunteer their images and opinions. You just have to ask. And now, you are putting your presentation of strategy on turbo speed. Your audience understands the strategic direction. You’ve made it easy for them to see the big picture. They are able to use your storyboard and tell their version of the story. You’ve just designed a rock-solid system that makes it easy and fast to spread the word. Share the buzz. They’ll explain your strategy in their own words. They’ll use their own pictures to tell your story. Powerful stuff. Valuable information. This is when your spine starts tingling and you can just feel the pulse of all systems go. But don’t stop there. Listen to everything your audience tells you. They’ll point out what makes sense… and what needs more work. They’ll give you new language, different examples and current metaphors. This is pure gold. Profound insight into what pictures and metaphors speak to their heart and soul. Use it all. Shape and adjust your strategic storytelling to match your audience. And take note. An entirely new dimension emerges. Your audience are the new storytellers of your strategy. They are responsible for making your story popular. Consider the power. Visual thinking at work on three levels: plan, present and popularize. This is a proven strategy to get any audience interested in what you’re offering. Thousands of years apart, instruction and research confirm the power of pictures to reach every person. From two ends of the spectrum — ancient oration…and current academic research— two flashing cherry red arrows point to one insight: Paint a picture in your audiences’ mind. Visual thinking is the strategic secret to plan, present and popularize your winning story.