Reading a recent article by Clive Thompson about he used visual communication to make a computer purchasing decision I was led to an interesting presentation by Dan Roam Author of On the Back of a Napkin. While over 2 years old now, Dan does a good job in his presentation of sorting out the Health Care Reform movement in the US. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, I felt the presentation was a very good example of using visual communications to sort out a highly emotionally, politically charged, and complex topic.

In this post I'd like to step back from the actual topic and briefly focus on how to take any topic and use visual communications to reduce and simplify it in a way that provides a spring board for active discussion and decision making. I break this process down to 7 simple steps anyone can follow. I've also provided a link to Dan's presentation for you to study.

What to look for in Dan's video

While you watch the video, notice how Dan breaks simplifies the subject by breaking it down to its pieces and parts, their purpose or position, and their relationship to one another. Another way to look at doing this is that we now have built a working model of the issues that we can then run various scenarios through to see their effect. And he does just that.

He then uses case studies or examples and "feeds" them through the model and helps the viewer see what happens in each case. All the steps so far have been to achieve a common level or a shared understanding of the reform problem. Now you are ready for the "therefore what?" stage of the discussion. In a real, interactive situation this is where you are ready to summarize the points and make a recommendation.

This is an effective and very important example of how you can take the most controversial topics and facilitate productive discussion about it leading to decisions. While you might want to take a different approach to the slides and graphics to use if you were making a presentation like in the board room the principles remain the same.

The six hats exercise we've covered in other posts does it another way by helping each person to see the topic from a different perspective. Perhaps Six Hats is better suited for a more interactive debate and discussion while the approach we've studied about is best suited for situations you are selling in that are highly charged and difficult at best.

I've summarized the steps below. I recommend you try them the next time you are faced with getting funding for a controversial project or selling in a very complex environment.

The 7 Steps

BUILD THE MODEL

Step 1 – reduce the issues down to the major components

Step 2 – characterize each component in terms that make sense for your discussion

Step 3 – show the relationships between the components

BUILD THE SCENARIOS OR CASE STUDIES

Step 4 – identify 2-5 case studies that illustrate the various options, positions, or alternatives

EXERCISE THE MODEL

Step 5 – Run each case study through the model noting the effect each time

EVALUATE AND CONCLUDE

Step 6 – Summarize and compare the results

Step 7 – Draw your conclusion and close the sale