How did I come to Structured Visual Thinking?
Why I care about diagrams
It all started with too much time at hand. I just went through a failed marriage (let me say: choose your spouse wisely!), and I had a job that, despite reasonable payments, didn’t demand a lot from me. So what to do with that combination? Leave a great town and an excellent position to not run randomly into your ex?
I started a part-time MBA. I learned a lot about all kinds of stuff I had never encountered in my engineering life before. They call it the “marriage breaker”; in my case, it was the reverse. It was demanding. It did get me close to the edge. But I learned much about myself. How do I work under stress? And so did my fellow students. For example, my friend, already in his forties, learned about him having dyslexia. To better use his abilities, he was advised that Mind Mapping might help him. So, that is when he started making me curious.
What is Mind Mapping? Mind Mapping is the most simple form of what I call Structured Visual Thinking. It is a visual way of breaking down a topic. Let me give you an example. I created this Mind Map based on a blog entry from James Altucher, published in 2015.
In this case, the ten-step learning technique was broken down into ten branches of the central node, each with additional further breakdowns.
The thing is, this Mind Mapping is incredibly simple. And it nearly always looks nice with excellent software (I use MindNode). And let us be honest: you might come back to this diagram. Unfortunately, the original article won’t give you the same quick recollection. Even more, by creating the map, you gain a deeper understanding of the matter at hand. I still do Mind Maps now and then, as it is a great way to break down some hierarchical information. This went on for years. I created mind maps and was in love with the outcomes that I did to review the topics.
Then, my boss got me in contact with Flying Logic and Current Reality Trees (CRTs). In short, CRTs have the same idea as fishbone diagrams. You look into the reasons for a particular problem. However, the visual language of the CRTs is richer. And even more important, there was a whole body of knowledge behind the CRTs. Within a few months, I started reading books from Eliyahu Goldratt, who invented the CRTs, like “The Goal”. He transferred knowledge from his time in physics to manufacturing and created something that is now called the Theory of Constraints (TOC). I will write more about it. For now, it’s sufficient to say that he understood to teach through stories. And Goldratt created a visual language around his “five focusing steps”. For example, Goldratt created an (incomplete) CRT in his book “It’s not luck”. It looks like this:
In this CRT (created in Vithanco), he connects 15 issues and logically derives that they all (besides UDE #11 for unknown reasons) are related to the core problem of TOC. His conclusion: if you fix that issue, all other issues are disappearing or improving. I learned a lot from Goldratt and will teach it to my readers.
All this sparked my interest. This was a way to generate insights; you could methodically investigate complex problems. So I started looking for more visual thinking notations. And I found them. I talked to people that use the IBIS notation to capture conversations, even a group discussion with over 1000 boxes in the diagram. Then, I spoke to people that use Causal Loop Diagrams to model and understand complex systems as they used for the original Club of Rome report in 1972. Since then, I have created software (www.vithanco.com) to support the following:
Develop better products through agile benefit mapping with BBS
Make better decisions through self-coaching with IBIS notation
Create shared ownership by capturing group conversations with Dialog Mapping Method.
Find the right spot to improve and do so via ongoing improvements with TOC Thinking Processes.
Align People via clarifying terms and meaning with Align People Method
Prioritise the best next feature for product development with Impact Mapping Method.
Understand the impact of changes better by understanding system behaviour with Systems Thinking.
It’s all only the beginning. There is so much more. For example, once you get over the initial hurdle of doing your first mind map, even on a piece of paper, you can use an extra sense (visual sense) to your advantage. As a result, you can condense information much more efficiently.
And if anyone wonders, I choose more wisely for the second marriage. I learned a few things in life in the meanwhile.