Using Big Picture with Leeds Irish Health and Homes

T

Last Thursday (7th November 2013) I had the privilege of leading an away-day session for Leeds Irish Health and Homes (LIHH). The aim of the day was to generate a list of workable opportunities for LIHH to pursue. The consolidated opportunities will form the basis of a more detailed business plan.

Did it all work? See for yourself by watching the short video clips.

Prior to the session I had run three short workshops with small groups.

The first session was a freeform post-it note session where we created an empathy model of a typical client and then used this to identify the most important elements of their marketplace. For the second session we used Big Picture in small groups to generate an opportunity list which was refined using force-field analysis. Finally we used an interrogative session (Who, what, how etc.) to further investigate LIHH’s marketplace and their position within the market.

The away-day built on these previous sessions and we used Big Picture in large format (a 20-foot-long hand-drawn Big Picture template). Working in groups we populated each of the elements of the model and then swapped groups to comment on other groups ideas. I found this to be a great way of working as the participants readily grasped the concept of Big Picture and enjoyed the dynamic way of working. We also populated the model with all the output from previous workshops.

The large-scale Big Picture was then consolidated down to an A0 Big Picture board (see image above ), Big Picture elements were clustered and major concepts were mapped. A short list of opportunities was generated and then further refined using the SCAMPER methodology.

© Gareth Gadd 2013

This blog has now moved to a WordPress Premium site ==>http://howtoaccelerateyourbusiness.com/blog/

Can a Post-it note save your business?

What’s the value of a post-it note? Not the cost; they’re less than a penny each (depends how many you buy). And a single post-it is not of much value. Although you may say it depends what is written on it.

The big value is when many of them are used in facilitated meetings. Participants can use them to write ideas on and stick on a wall. As participants join in they can add to them and move them and generate more ideas and collaboration begins. Even quiet people will eventually participate.

When people collaborate they can be more effective. Many years ago my business strategy lecturer asked “What’s the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?”. The answer to that rhetorical question was “efficient businesses who are ineffective just go bust quicker!”. We all want to be more effective don’t we?

A post-it note may not save your business (well not straight away) but it can be the start of something beautiful if you start collaborating!

© Gareth Gadd 2013

This blog has now moved to a WordPress Premium site ==>http://howtoaccelerateyourbusiness.com/blog/