The secret of creating effective one-page diagrams really comes down to 2 considerations. I've tested these considerations in all my client work and found them helpful in all cases. You can test them too. In this post we'll briefly explore these considerations so that you can begin to dramatically increase the effectness of your diagrams or the diagrams of those you supervise, mentor or teach.
Here's the secret:
Creating effective one-page diagrams requires us to consider the diagram's purpose and the diagram's audience.
This sounds simple doesn't it? It is. But in spite of the simplicity we still see more ineffective diagrams out there than effective ones. Why? Because knowing is not doing.
My goal for this post is to provide a few simple guidelines that will help you create the right diagram for the right audience every time.
CONSIDERING A DIAGRAM'S PURPOSE
The key to a purposeful diagram is to make use of the common interrogatives of who, what, why, where, when, or how. Think of the purpose of your diagram. Is it simply a "what" diagram? For example, I was given a challenge several years ago by a colleague to create a diagram of the technical infrastructure of the company all on one page. What a challenge! But think about it: She was asking for a visual inventory of the technical infrastructure, a "what" diagram.
Another example is what I call the Relationship Map described in another post. In this diagram I model "what" the department does, "who" it does it for and with, and "what" the nature of the interactions are with the "who" identified in the diagram. It's that simple.
Reducing the purpose of a one-page diagram to an interrogative or multiple interrogatives helps achieve better clarity.
Another way to this approach is to identify the question/s the diagram is to answer.
In my first example the question was, "Of what is our infrastructure comprised?" The Relationship Map answers the following questions, "What does this department do? Who are they dependent on to do their job? Who do they do their job for? What is the nature of the interactions with others in the course of their business?"
CONSIDERING THE AUDIENCE
The second consideration is to identify the audience. This is very important because in doing so you will automatically specify the level of detail and style of your diagram. For instance, a diagram created for a techinical specialist differs in scope and detail from a diagram created for an architect or the business head of the division. My first example was for a director of a division which informed the level of detail I used in creating the diagram.
Speaking of "who," I've also found that personality types play a big part of the success of one-page diagrams. By this I mean that I found it helpful to consider the four major personality types identified by most pyschologists and organizational development gurus. I like to summarize them at a high level as "why people" (planners, strategists), "what people" (accountants, analysts), "who people" (sales, marketing), and "how people" (technical support, operations).
I learned this by a challenging experience related to my first example of the infrastructure diagram. I was verifying my draft diagram with different parts of the IT organization and was meeting a great deal of acceptance and enthusiasm for the work so far. However when I presented it to the technical support team I was meet with a high degree of anger, tension, and anything but acceptance. They were actually very offended by the diagram and felt it had absolutely no value at all. I quickly realized I was holding a "what" diagram in my hand presenting it to a group of "how' people. Once I clarified that getting to how was important and in scope but that the first step was simply to identify "what" we had they calmed down and were the most helpful group of all.
Finding a match between the purpose of a diagram and the audience is essential to the success of a diagram.
Anticipating a mismatch and confronting it up-front will help you avoid episods like my experience with the tech team.
YOUR TURN
What have you found to be helpful in creating great diagrams in your job experience? Please let us know in the comment area below. If you have a blog, please feel free to put your response in a post and use the trackback feature at the bottom of of the page.