Fun with Fishbones

Last week, I facilitated a fishbone diagramming session with an in-house team.

I really enjoy the practice of drawing a fishbone, which seems to surprise a lot of people.

Fishbones are very useful, so here are a couple of tips:

1. Write a clear problem question for the 'head' of the fish. Something like, "Why are 50% of customers dissatisfied with operation of Product A".
   Not, "customer dissatisfaction" - vague problem statements lead to a messy fishbone.
2. Use the 4 Ps (or the 4 Ms) as the primary bones of the fish. The 4 Ps (process, product, place, and people) are my favorite, but the 4 Ms (man, machine, method, material) work as well. These will make sure you consider a wide range of possibilities.
3. Use a separate sheet of paper for each of the 4 Ps. In the photo, you'll see the head in the bottom left of the photo, and the 4 'bones' in the center. The outside sheets of paper build off of the 4 P's.
4. Divide your fishbone team into 4 groups. Have each group take a separate sheet and start working on it. They should answer the problem question for their 'bone' - for example "Why can process cause 50% of customers to be dissatisfied with operation of Product A."
   This step eliminates the waste of time that occurs when someone suggests an idea and everyone wonders what 'bone' to put it under. Endless discussions like, "Is hiring a process? Or is it really under people?" will paralyze a fishbone session.
5. Make sure the 'whys' are expressed in negative terms. Don't just write 'documentation', write 'documentation is not available in Japanese'.
6. As energy decreases, rotate the four groups. They will then mark-up and add to the work of the previous group. Do this until all groups have added to all four 'bones'.
7. Paste the bones together. All the above should take about 45 minutes.
8. Rate each major 'bone', on a scale of 1 to 5 - how likely is it to be a cause of the problem.
9. Split into teams to attack the most likely causes!

This high energy approach makes fishbones fun and effective. 

Give it a try.

Hoopla in the Redwoods

Tricky Dick via hues

Angie and I were out in the Redwood Forests this weekend - hiking, drinking wine, playing with fire, and making Hoopla.

It was a good weekend.

I have to recommend Hoopla to anyone who is looking for a boardgame that demands multiple skills and is not overly competitive. It's just plain fun.

Hoopla combines pictionary with password with charades and more.

The picture above is from my clue for Angie to guess, "Richard Nixon".

For a game that tests verbal, visual, and kinesthetic skills - I have to recommend Hoopla.

VizThink 09 Highlights VII: John Wards' Kinesthetic Modeling

John Ward leading our workshop

I saw some outstanding talks at VizThink 09, and met some really interesting people - but the greatest takeaway from the three days was definitely my introduction to Kinesthetic Modeling.

The workshop was led by John Ward of Many Minds. John is one of the nicest men you'll ever meet. I'd been introduced to John last year, when he was doing the graphic recording of the Leadership Challenge event I attended in Sonoma, so I was happy to see him again.

I knew that John was on the agenda at VizThink, but apologized to him - I wouldn't be able to attend his workshop, because I needed to see another one.

John, gentleman that he is, scheduled a follow-up session for myself and a number of others who also expressed disappointment at missing his session.

So, Tuesday night we all gathered to learn about Kinesthetic Modeling.

I am a camera...

John issued each table of 4 a bag of 'holy scrap' - odds and ends that possess no inherent meaning - and asked us to dump the bag on the table. Then he walked us through a quick process:

1. Each of us were to grab 3-4 pieces that 'spoke to us'.
   
2. Organize the pieces in a manner that said something about us
3. Let the other members of our table tell us what they see.
4. Share what we saw and meant to convey.

My arrangement is displayed above. My tablemates saw a swimming pool with aliens.
I saw a collection of technical hardware (I'm an engineer), that were very toy-like (I still love to play), and I arranged them into a camera (my favorite toy, tool, and mode of expression).

That was interesting, but the big project was yet to come:
Our team project called for us to model the current economic situation and its impact on the visual thinking community. To say we were skeptical would be an understatement.

The four of us modeled in silence. It was really bizarre to model and utilize resources with no conversation. I had no idea what my colleagues were making, so just did my own thing and tried to stay out of their way.

After about 15 minutes, John asked us to stop.

We were left with what you see below.

The current economic situation and its impact on the visual thinking community

John asked us to walk around the table, commenting on items we didn't construct, and write down what we saw in those objects. After we did that, the people who constructed them told us their intention. We were aligned on many items, but very different on others.

Our next step was to create meaning from all the observations, and capture our key thoughts.

Our thoughts...

You'll see that our thoughts were quite profound for such a quick activity:

• Our beacon (the spoon) is surrounded by barriers.
• The community is outside the wall.
• Shelters from the storm look frighteningly similar to traps.
• Walls had been built through fear, but they are keeping the community from the 'gold'.
  

I don't think I've ever seen an activity bring that much alignment on a complex issue so quickly.

I'll be trying this one with my internal teams in the near future.

I would highly recommend that you attend one of John's workshops and see this methodology for yourself. It's very powerful.

Images of La Paz, Mexico

Swimming with Sea Lions

Angie and I spent 10 days in La Paz recently. Here are my 13 favorite images.

You can see 400 of my best at Huesimages in the Baja, Mexico section.

Traditional Dancers

Egret in La Paz Harbor

Street in the artists town of Todos Santos

2o-foot Whale Shark - La Paz Harbor

Carnaval 2009 Beauty Queen, La Paz

Jumping Manta, Sea of Cortez

Carnaval 2009 Beauty Queen, La Paz

Grey Whale Fluke - Magdalena Bay

Santa Misa Cathedral - La Paz

Sand Dunes - Magdalena Island

Grey Whale Fluke - Magdalena Bay

La Paz Sunset

5 Steps to Presenting Like a Rock Star! Part IV

The fourth step to presenting like a rock star is to create images for your audience.

Why are images so important?
Because, without images, we might be using only half of our brain. 

Brain Rules, by John Medina, covers the science behind this brilliantly, so read his book if you need the data.

Images promote engagement and help us think better.

There are three ways you can be visual:

• Visual imagery - Slides, pictures, posters, props... Give your audience something to look at! Think about the great shows by Pink Floyd or U2. 
  The best way to learn about visual images for your speeches and presentations is to read Garr Reynold's excellent blog, Presentation Zen.
• Verbal imagery - We've already talked about Bruce Springsteen writing that "this town rips the bones from your back", but what about Martin Luther King addressing a "governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification"... Wow... words rock when used well.
• Gestures - When Bono sings, "if you wanna touch the sky, better learn how to kneel", you better believe he drops (above). Your gestures should support your words. If you say 'big savings', your arms better show me big savings.

You can pretend I'm wrong. You can pretend these won't work for your situation.

All I'll say is watch. Watch Ted. Watch Steve Jobs. Watch the best speakers in your company.

They create images. I guarantee it.

Restroom Iconography V: Hawaii

Hawaii must be a mecca of improvisational restroom icon design.

I found a number of interesting variations during this recent trip.
This sign is located at Honolulu International Airport.

Once again, we have a simple update of the traditional international icon.
The addition of an aloha shirt and the Hawaiian word for man tells us where we are, while maintaining the integrity of the original design.

How can you localize a standard offering with a splash of color or a pattern?

Restroom Iconography IV: Hawaii

In our continuing series of restroom iconography, we return to Hawaii.
This week, we find another creative interpretation of the familiar international icon.

Two nice features here:

1. The use of petroglyph symbols for the icons. I'm a big petroglyph fan, so I appreciate the nod to ancient culture - even if they probably just used a bush back then.
2. The use of Hawaiian language. The Hawaiian language is a beautiful one, so I'm pleased whenever I see it.

One minor criticism: The woman looks like an Amazon.
She's quite a bit bigger than the male icon. Too much poi?

Restroom Iconography III: Japan

This is a no-peeing zone...

In a country where a man can heed natures' call just about anywhere - in an alley, in a bush, by the side of the road, off the end of a train platform - it's rare to find a place where you can't relieve yourself (just another reason why I love Japan).

Here, however - in a Tokyo parking lot by a pachinko parlor in a neighborhood close to Asakusa Temple - peeing is prohibited.

There is much to admire about this icon: The realistic pelvic thrust, the dotted stream, and of course the strategic placement of the cross line.

I also will give extra points for going with a square versus the usual circular red 'no' symbol.

It's a sign of my maturity that I didn't steal the darn thing (it would look great in my office).

And a sign of my immaturity that I regret that I didn't steal it...

Restroom Iconography II: Hawaii

Here's the 2nd in my series of photos that capture creative restroom icons around the world.

This one is from Hawaii.

Unfortunately, my notes don't indicate where these restrooms are.

If you know, please share...

The previous image I shared displayed a very loose interpretation of the international icon for a human figure.

This one, on the other hand, embraces the rounded, bland figure that we're all familiar with and dresses it up with a grass skirt, coconut bikini, and frangipani flower.

Restroom Iconography I: Mexico

Maybe it's my fascination with the human figure.
Maybe it's my interest in graphic design.

Maybe I'm just odd...

Whatever the reason, I am unreasonably delighted when I encounter a restroom with an atypical male/female icon on its' signboard.

I found this elegant icon outside the ladies room at the Marquis Resort in Los Cabos. I was waiting there for my wife (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

I'm not sure that Frank Lloyd Wright had restroom signs in mind when he said, "God is in the details". At the same time, I'm pretty sure he'd approve.

Creative Thinking Through Metaphors

One of the easiest ways to get creative is through the use of metaphors.

Unfortunately, it's way too easy to fall back on cliches when we brainstorm metaphors.

That's why I love using metaphorical images. We lay out 100 or so ambiguous images and ask the group to pick an image that serves as a metaphor for their challenge. After one person shows an image, I'll even ask others to contribute what metaphor they saw in the image. There's usually a big difference.

Today, addressing staffing, one participant picked up an image of a leopard. From that image, the team came up with 'hunting talent', 'scanning the horizon', 'staying hungry', 'tracking leads', 'working in teams', 'moving fast', 'being agile', and 'prowling the popular watering holes'.

Not sure if that last one was about staffing or their Friday night plans...

Either way, the images gave us some power ideas that we wouldn't have reached otherwise.

Building Spatial Intelligence through Tangrams

Howard Gardner has proposed that there are 8 kinds of intelligence, one of which is visual-spatial intelligence.

An excellent way to develop your spatial intelligence is by playing with a tangram. A tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle, made up of 7 pieces that can be used to construct a shape.

I discovered a cleverly designed Tangram set called 'Tangoes', when Angie and I were at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesen West in Phoenix, earlier this year.

It holds two sets (so two people can play), along with the puzzles, in a carrying case.

I bought a set like the ones in the picture to the left and play with them once a week or so.

This week, I discovered that there is an online tangoes exercise. Just go to the main page at Tangoes.com and click on the "Play Tangoes Online. Free!" link at the bottom right.

Good luck...

Links of interest

• Tangoes.com
• History and example of Tangrams (pdf)
• Cut-out Paper Tangram (pdf)
• More Tangrams (pdf)
• ABC's of Tangrams (pdf)
• Tangram images

Identifying Your Training Weaknesses

I'm a book geek. One of the few things I like better than a bookstore is a used bookstore.
Petaluma, California has a very good one called Copperfields, where Angie and I spent a couple hours yesterday.

I bought a mint copy of "101 Stupid Things Trainers Do to Sabotage Success" there and leafed through it last night.
The book serves as an excellent reminder of how many things can go wrong in a training situation.

My pet peeve is #64 - Foolish Icebreakers. I hate icebreakers. If a class is properly designed, the introduction of attendees should happen organically. If you want me to do a formal introduction, fine... but don't ask me to pick which animal is most like me. Just ask me to introduce myself. Better yet, give us a topic-relevant exercise that requires us to meet each other.

Two that I could be better at would be #41 - using inappropriate humor - occasionally my filter doesn't work quickly enough, and #86 - flopping flip charts. I'm a frequent user of flip charts, but this book reminded me that once you flip the page, people can't see what you wrote. The book suggests hanging the important sheets (and they're all important, or you wouldn't be writing them, right?) so the group can refer back to them.
Great suggestion, and a good book.

What are your biggest training weaknesses?

An Fine Example of Information Graphics

Whether you call it information graphics or visual communication, many stories are better told with pictures.
Some stories are even better if told with Venn Diagrams.

Don't believe me?
Well, check out Jessica Hagy's "Indexed" Website or book.

Some of her stuff is very subtle, but others - like the one above - are flat out brilliant.

Looking for a creativity exercise? Or a new way of communicating an idea?
How about challenging your team to express their problem in a Venn diagram.

It just might work.

Crushed by Curiosity

I'm destined to die under a pile of books... not a bad to go, though.
Today I stopped by Recycle Book Store, in San Jose.
It was either a great idea or a terrible idea. I'm not sure.

What I do know is that I bought 10 more books, on top of the 20-some that I bought a couple weeks ago, during another used book buying spree.

I bought:

• "The Dip" by Seth Godin
  
• "Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes" by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw
• "Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology" by H. Russell Bernard
• "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks
• "Writing Up Qualitative Research" by Harry F. Wolcott
• "Effective Training Strategies" by Davis and Davis
• "Bottom-line Training" by Donald J. Ford
• "Encouraging The Heart" by Kouzes and Posner
• "Lateral Thinking" by Edward deBono
• "Rhetoric & On Poetics" by Aristotle

It was a pretty exciting haul for me in many ways.

• I'm a huge fan of Oliver Sacks. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" is one of my favorite books.
  
• The ethnography books look really interesting. I'm curious about using ethnographic techniques at work.
  
• I already own copies of "Encouraging The Heart" and "Lateral Thinking", but I couldn't pass up clean, hard-copy 1st editions of either.
  
• And I have "Rhetoric & On Poetics" as well. This copy is hardcover, with readable typeface, though. That's pretty unusual.
  

Now I just need time to read them...

Pie Chart Humor at GraphJam

GraphJam is brilliant.
This collection of pop-culture humor set to pie-charts is a winner in every respect.

Think about how you might be able to use this type of chart to add a little humor to your presentation, without resorting to 'joke-telling'.

Check it the site. There's much more where this came from.
Watch out though, it's addictive.


more music charts

Facilitating with Metaphoric Images

We've been experimenting with metaphoric images in our facilitation lately.

I first saw them used in 2006, when I was attending Coach U in Singapore. The facilitators there used them 3 or 4 times during the week.

I did some web research when I returned, finding two primary sources - VisualsSpeak and The Center for Creative Leadership's Visual Explorer.

After reading about the images, I decided to build a set with my own photos. It's not that hard. You just pick photos that are ambiguous - that can be taken positively or negatively.

We've been using them for team sessions. A typical facilitation exercise starts with, "pick an image that represents the state your team is in today". Then, we might ask them to pick an image that represents what they'd like the team to look like in the future.

What happens next is a little bit of magic. The images grab some part of our right brain, but then we must explain them using the logic and words of our left brain. The result is a bit like truth serum. Feelings are expressed before the mind can suppress them, often surprising the person speaking those words.

It's a great way to start or end a session.
You can let participants choose their images, or you can hand them a random one and have them force a connection.

We've been using them with a number of individuals and teams.
In every situation we've tried, they've moved the conversation forward.

I bought a couple sets from VisualsSpeak for my colleagues recently.
I also saw the Visual Explorer set at The Leadership Challenge Workshop.
Both sets work fine. You can't go wrong with either.
Still, I prefer to use my own set - heavily loaded with Asian images - for my facilitations.

Learning Styles

I'm currently working on a Masters Degree in Adult Education and Training.
One of my homeworks assignments this week was to find a learning styles assessment and complete it.

After googling a bit, I found this one:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

I found it more interesting than the VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic) test I've taken before. It measures on four continuums - Active/Reflective, Sensing/Intuitive, Visual/Verbal, and Sequential/Global.

It turns out that I'm Active/Intuitive/Visual/Global (my results are in the photo above).
The results ring true for me, because my favorite way to learn is just to dive in.
I want to discuss or play with the learning content. Experiments, exercises, and prototypes are right up my alley.
I like innovation and hate repetition. I like to sketch ideas. I often grab a marker and jump up to the board. In fact - and I hate to admit this - it's very common for me to take the marker out of a teacher's hand and draw, to illustrate my idea. It's a habit I'm trying to break...

What's this all mean?
Well, it's a little concerning, since I'm in an online program. Online courses don't encourage a lot of active, visual learning. So, I'm going to need to develop my reflective, verbal side.

I guess that's a good thing. It will put me in the shoes of many of my clients.