What I Do
Imagine a transformative approach that uncovers the challenges that really matter, harnesses the collective intelligence of your management team, and guides them toward innovative solutions in better structured, more effective, and more enjoyable meetings. That’s exactly what Visual Pathfinders does.
Through this platform, I design and facilitate such strategy engagement, while also providing guidance to individuals who are eager to learn and apply these techniques independently.
Relevance | Empathy | Conversations | Co-Creation | visual thinking | Facilitation | Relevance Empathy | Conversations Co-Creation | visual thinking | Facilitation |
At Visual Pathfinders, I work with senior leaders to identify the business challenge or opportunity question that is most relevant to answer. After thorough research and preparation, we convene all relevant stakeholders in a collaborative workshop to build consensus and co-create a shared vision and action plan that will deliver the desired business results. This accelerates decision-making, builds shared understanding and ownership, and is fun.
Relevance &
Empathy
How many times have you been involved in a project only to realize later that you were diligently solving the wrong problem? In statistics, this is known as a „Type 3 error“ (Cassie Kozyrkov, Google). You put so much effort into developing the math, developing the datasets, figuring out the code, and almost no effort into figuring out how to ask the right question and execute an end-to-end applied process without messing up.
As Visual Pathfinders, one of our key skills is empathy. We use this skill to thoroughly explore and identify the challenges and opportunities that really matter to the executive sponsor(s) on behalf of the stakeholders. By engaging in a consultative manner, we uncover the priorities and questions that are truly relevant and need to be answered to drive a team’s transformation and growth journey.
Conversations &
Co-creation
Organizations are often faced with challenging and complex problems. These situations are not just the domain of experts who analyze cause-and-effect relationships and try to identify the best solution among several options. According to the „Cynefin Framework“ developed by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, leaders in complex contexts need to be more open to creativity and experimentation, and not only listen to experts, but also welcome novel thoughts and solutions from others.
As Visual Pathfinders, our role is to facilitate the engagement of all stakeholders so that they can bring their unique perspectives, concerns, and ideas to the conversation. We believe that people support what they help to build. This approach requires creating a safe environment that encourages experimentation, tolerates failure, and promotes learning from one another. By exploring a challenge together, gaining clarity, and co-creating the path forward, we foster shared ownership, activation, and follow-through after an event.
Visual Thinking
In today’s fast-paced business environment, management teams are often challenged by unstructured meetings that lack clear purpose, direction, and tangible results. Without a well-defined agenda and effective tools, discussions can become disorganized, complex information can be difficult to understand, and ideas can go unexplored.
As Visual Pathfinders, we use frameworks, visual tools, and techniques to facilitate collaboration, co-creation, and alignment among leadership teams. Using concepts such as design thinking and visual thinking, we design and facilitate conversations with a clear structure, make complex information more accessible, uncover patterns and relationships, generate innovative ideas, and foster collaboration. Through the power of visual representations, individual knowledge is transformed into group knowledge, allowing ideas to be clarified and expanded. This approach enables teams to navigate complexity, foster creativity, and solve problems more effectively, leading to informed decisions and successful business outcomes.
Facilitation
Complex problems often involve diverse opinions and potential conflict. To achieve a successful solution, it is critical that all stakeholders actively contribute, even if it means stepping out of their comfort zones and exploring new territory. In addition, mindsets and thinking can be influenced by a functional or siloed view and biased by known or hidden political forces.
As Visual Pathfinders, we take on the role of impartial facilitators who create a safe and inclusive environment. Our goal is to foster open and constructive discussions where diverse perspectives can be shared without bias or power dynamics. We provide guidance and implement a structured process that ensures all team members have an equal opportunity to contribute. In a consultative manner, we encourage the exploration of diverse perspectives and challenge assumptions, leading to the emergence of novel and breakthrough solutions. We use a variety of techniques to facilitate consensus building and decision making within the team. Finally, we make it a priority to create an enjoyable and engaging meeting experience.