PART ONE

Just a little bit of the history to put parts two, three and four into a bit of context.

1980-1984 - CONFESSION TIME

The insight that led to Structured Visual Thinking™ happened 42 years ago.

21 years earlier than Group Partners.

Sometime between 1980 and 1984.

I was working on the client side.

It was my first proper job.

I loved it, but initially, I was always in meetings.

They were mystifying.

I spent months listening to intelligent people presenting at each other.

I thought I was the only idiot in the room.

Well, I probably was.

THE INSIGHT

Over time I realised I wasn’t the only one asking questions to clarify what we heard and what it meant. 

Eventually, I got frustrated because the same questions would be repeated meeting after meeting. 

Nothing moved forward. Zero progress. Anything valuable in the content was stifled at birth.

Without everyone in the room understanding these conversations, nothing would happen. 

I plucked up the courage, and at an appropriate moment, I got up.

I drew my interpretation of what I had heard on a whiteboard.

Bingo.

It was a revelation.

The room would fall silent and then become excited.

The conversation changed beyond recognition.

From polite confusion to constructive and engaging debate.

The idea and the meaning could be seen.

Practical stuff could be realised. 

There were some unintended consequences.

I got invited to even more meetings. 

Oh crap.

1984 - ONE MORE THING

In 1984 I left the computer industry.

Apple has just launched the Mac.

There was no way I could’ve appreciated that moment in time as I look back some 35 years later.

Life-changing doesn’t even get close to Apple's impact on my life.

The minute I had control over my purchasing decisions, I bought a Mac.

I had an Apple Newton too.

These two products, and the iPod and the iPhone - were revolutionary.

It’s hard to imagine that iPhone only launched in Europe in November 2009.

I’ve remained an Apple advocate ever since.

Apple has been fundamental to how our business has evolved too.

Apple showed many of our clients (and me) what was possible. 

For me, it went beyond the convenience of their products.

The UX/UI - the form factors, materials, packaging, service expectations, experiences, interconnectivity - the list is long.

We’ve just launched our platform, and it would not have been possible without our ability to (like Apple) think differently about everything.

We develop reflections and observations when not in real-life sessions with clients.

We do this through our iPhones, iPads, a slew of incredible apps and now on Apple Studio devices.

Apple products have a way of immersing you within creativity from the get-go.

It’s increasingly possible to use these devices instinctively.

Doing amazing things without having to think too much.

We can seamlessly share data across each device.

The screen experience and application design/UI.

Intuition is built-in.

It provides us with everything we need to know or see in relatively small spaces.

Apple helped us to see.

2000 - A TWINKLE IN THE EYE

Even in 1984, when I left Acorn, I thought there must be an alternative to agencies and consultancies.

I’ve always argued that you can present the brief to either kind of business and be guaranteed the answer.

Either a 6-month consulting assignment or a 30-second TV commercial.

Something more useful was needed.

A kind of business that was able to be agnostic to any sort of solution long enough to solve the actual problem.

We would probably call it a ‘hybrid’ model or a collective today.

I looked around to find it, but I couldn’t.

So I started one in London.

The concept was simple:

If I were still a client, what kind of business would I partner with to solve my (actual) problems?

AGENCY OR CONSULTANCY? THAT IS THE QUESTION

It is the wrong question.

In those days, it was easier for me to come at the problem from the Agency rather than the Consulting side.

It was 1985, and we had built a full-service agency business.

At the end of 2000, I sold it to the WPP Group plc.

My biggest client needed to go global, but we weren’t.

So we pitched to them with Ogilvy & Mather - out of NYC - to secure the business.

It was a massive win.

I left.

My work was done.

There were many reasons, but principally because I needed to look at things fresh.

I wanted to add more weight to the strategic side of things. 

I discovered that business problems were almost always opportunities.

To have any chance of creating the opportunity would take creative problem-solving.

And that meant more than creative or consulting work.

It had to be both, and the client had to be involved.

Outsourcing all the thinking is proven to fail.

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED AS A CLIENT:

If only I could clarify my vision (my dream), I could inspire my people to come with me. 

And when I had that vision, I needed the operation lined up behind it. 

With these things in place, I would need a clear plan against which to execute.

The whole business would need to engage. 

The plan would need to be understood by everybody.

The definitions, roles/accountabilities, and business rules would be clear and plain for everyone to understand. 

Once all this was established, I would have to make sure my business wasn’t a secret.

Everything would have to be communicated to the audiences I most cared about. 

It was always the same conundrum:

Who would help me with that - an agency or a consultancy?

IT WAS THE WRONG QUESTION

It required a blend of both - and, critically, in collaboration with the client.

The challenge of combining an agency and a purely creative business was an extreme clash of mindsets.

We had to overcome the compromise. 

When I was in the agency world, I was a consultant.

And when working in the consulting world, I could see they didn’t understand the power of an agency.

Two religions, neither one wanting to be in the same cathedral.

IT’S A BIT MORE NORMAL NOW (A BIT)

Now, in 2022 we see the big consultancies buying out the big creative shops.

For me, the jury is still out on how well these disciplines are integrated in favour of the client.

Group Partner’s proposition to clients is:

• Through our consultative approach, they can be creative and …

• Through our creativity, we bring strategic direction to life - for the stakeholders who have to execute

• And in the same process, we build the foundations they need to win.

21 YEARS IN A FEW SENTENCES

To explain what we do, a few one-liners crop up repeatedly.

I guess because they’ve caught the attention and resonated well. 

“Let’s avoid solving the wrong problem really well.”

"These days the best strategy is be prepared for anything.” 

“If you can change the way you think, then you can change the way you work. And vice versa.”

“Q. How come you know our business better than we do? A. Because we’re further away.”

“The framework takes no prisoners. And they have a certain magic to them. They leave nothing valuable out and what’s not stays that way.”

“We are in the business of making strategies that work.”

“Happy Duck. Busy Duck. You cant get to simple unless you manage the complex…”

“The CEO will often say, you’ve done this a thousand times before - just tell me the answer. We say, “Let’s See.”

“If you think what we do is expensive, try not doing it.”

“A successful strategy is hard work. A strategic outcome that will sell something takes thousands of rational choices in pursuit of one emotional one.” 

PART TWO

How on earth did we get here. A brief history of time.

THE GROUP PARTNERS

Our name ‘Group Partners’ was deliberate, but I rarely explain why.

When I left the WPP group at the end of 2000, one of my first assignments was to consult with them.

The idea was to partner with agencies in the network that appreciated a more strategic approach to clients.

I was given carte blanche to see if we could create more value with the agencies when marketing was made strategic.

I knew the clients wanted it, but it was tough to persuade agencies.

A few enlightened agency CEOs recognised the approach as creating much more opportunity.

Many didn’t - they just saw additional costs, revenue lost, or maybe their relationship compromised. Crazy.

The enlightened could see how putting the media solution within a strategic conversation would add value to their clients.

So I would partner with them.

Hence the name: Group Partners.

2001 - OBJECTIVE PARTNERSHIP

The name wasn’t special or trendy and has stood the test of time.

To me, bringing people together as a group to solve problems was obvious.

I wasn’t selling a big campaign, doing ads or creating a brand. I was impartial and objective.

Using a visual approach, clients can ask questions they wouldn’t ordinarily ask themselves which then empowers them make sense of it all.

They started to see me as a partner in doing that. Group Partners.

Partnering is the only way to get anything done.

Group Partners was born, and our progress would not have been possible without the whole team.

But that team took a long time to emerge.

2003 - STRUCTURED VISUAL THINKING™

The name we gave our approach took a while too.

We tried Progressive Frameworks™. Contextual Frameworks™. Progressive Framework Methodology™. Ugh.

We had many attempts at getting a brand we liked.

Because we wanted to be a serious solution, it couldn’t be all about the drawings.

And it wasn’t about the drawings, but that’s what people remembered.

We had to get serious about explaining how and why it worked.

We came at the story from a lot of different directions.

World Views. White Papers. We had a Wiki.

We packaged the frameworks up in a variety of ways.

The story was always similar, but we used different words.

Back then and still today, we completely change the website every year or so.

I probably add to the website and change something subtle two or three times a week

We wanted to focus on the value of visual thinking as our differentiator.

But it had to be simple.

And then one day: Structured Visual Thinking™

I remember someone walking past, observing us whilst we were preparing a venue. He suggested ‘cognitive cartography’.

And then, one day, the three words emerged as the best three words to explain the whole idea:

• Structured - because logic and organisation beat chaos.

• Visual - because it’s the fastest way to understand anything and…

• Thinking - because there’s nothing more important than deciding anything.

2003 - THERE WAS A PATTERN

We’ve evolved because of the diversity of skills that emerged in the team. 

Fundamentally important to Group Partners’ journey was the arrival of Hazel Tiffany.

Initially, Hazel worked as one of our clients at the Cabinet Office within the UK central government.

Now she is the linchpin of so much of what we do - a sharp focus on program analysis, design and development.

She has an obsession with structure, authenticity and the integrity of information.

Always in pursuit of insight, the patterns within them and delivering meaningful outcomes through it all.

She will never discard what’s already valuable.

Every client we’ve ever worked with desperately needs it.

Identifying what’s missing and bringing forward what would change the game by considering it.

What we call insight!

2001 - WE ALWAYS BUILT ON INSIGHT

An insight is that single piece of information that by knowing it changes the decision in a highly valuable way.

Identifying them is critical because they will distinguish our clients and bring value.

The focus on data ensures we analyse all information in context - this develops our understanding in a way that drives execution.

We focus on what matters and ensure important insight is built-in right from the start. 

These foundations cannot be overestimated.

The value is felt within every deliverable - the insights inform the long-term strategy and change implementation. 

Everybody benefits.

2001 - THE EARLY TEAM

Amanda Bravo - started working with us long before 2001 (starting in 1994).

Amanda remains key to managing all our schedules and logistics.

She carefully orchestrates all our travelling around the world.

She helps us get crazy things built in hotel basements and halfway up mountains.

Amanda ensures we are in the right place and delivers all the kit we need at the right time.

2001 - PERPETUAL STARTUP

Like all startups, we went through several iterations in those early years.

We were guilty of wanting to keep an account structure in place.

Eventually, we realised we should transfer that responsibility to those responsible for keeping strategies on the rails - our clients.

This is where I apologise to those left out.

A roll call through the early years - Jo Brittan, Robert Norum, David Butter, Scott Purchas, Susan Voase, Kevin Hoffberg, John Philpin, Julian Lander, Nick Coutts, Ellie Beale, Tirdad Sorooshian. Do let me know who I left out.

2001 - THE CREATIVE STUDIO

Our studio has been another of our valued assets over the last 21 years.

A big part of the magic we provide is because we’ve worked together for a long time.

Many of us started working together well before Group Partners. 

Andrew Maskall, our production director in the agency days, started Brand Fusion - it was our outsourced studio for several years.

Andrew Morgan was involved in the very first business in London - a tremendous ‘wrist’ as they were called.

Armed with only felt pens, he could turn ideas into visuals, producing powerful representations that could explain the concept to the client.

Producing great design and a lot of the assets our clients use every day.

Ian Francis is perhaps the most accomplished creative/tech talent I’ve ever encountered.

Almost everything visualised digitally in code or design is thanks to Ian.

Whether rich graphics, online, animated, 3-dimensional or interactive - it’s Ian.

He has an incredible ability to transform complex and dense information into palatable immersive graphical results that mean something.

Andrew and Ian are still vital elements of the team and still in the mix today.

All the digital and design work our clients receive comes from their efforts.

2001 - FIRM FOUNDATIONS

The Group Partners Expert Network - GPEN™  

We invented the very first partner resource ecosystem, model. 

That’s completely untrue.

But looking back, it was unique in this industry.

Certainly well ahead of its time.

We thought it was a good model for flexible working.

It was a smart way to avoid becoming just another factory ship.

Bringing people to the challenge when we knew what it was rather than the other way around.

Simply, it was the collective result of meeting new people all day, every day - forever.

Many people would come in to see what we were doing, and I remember the conversations always ended up in three groups. 

1. What could the partner bring to us?

2. What could we bring to the partner? And three… 

3. Imagine what we could do if we, between us, could create something completely new.

21 years later, that’s still the case. 

However, the real value of Group Partners has always been our fierce impartiality.

The insight and value we bring to clients can be stated simply in what we are and, equally important, what we are not.

What we are not:

Unlike an agency or a consultancy, we are not trying to sell you anything or create a dependency. 

We are not a pre-baked solution-seeking company.

We don’t have a solution seeking to be fitted neatly as the answer to a problem statement we have defined. 

What we are:

A creative team of people comfortable with all aspects of business.

Passionate about solving the actual problem.

Happy to bring the expertise in if we don’t have it.

Distinct from any method, product or service that’s convenient and financially valuable for us.

A new agency model from 2001

2002 - THE ALL-POWERFUL EXAM QUESTION

From the very beginning, we stood squarely behind the idea of the exam question. 

This was the one question that defined what we had been brought in to solve. 

It was a more relaxed and informal idea in the early days but quickly established itself. 

It was signed off in blood.

It anchored everyone. 

It forces everyone to remain on the path. 

Busted those with different agendas. 

It is non-negotiable to this day. 

2003 - CREATING THE SPACE

There’s so little attention given to quality time just to think.

I have huge sympathy for leadership teams.

Their noses are pressed right up against the challenges every day. 

Little wonder that they are compelled to answer the question that feels right rather than is.

The head of the Industrial Engineering Department of Yale University (not Einstein) said - “If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend two-thirds of that hour attempting to define what the problem is.”

”Creativity is problem-solving. 

Asking the better next questions 

Objectivity and closeness

2003 - DECISION QUALITY

A friend and colleague of Group Partners a long time ago introduced me to the definition. 

A decision is an irrevocable allocation of resources.

A decision not defined like that, then you’ve declared an intention - that’s not a decision. 

The result of lack of decisions is the redoing of decisions and re-litigation of everything causing chaos - mostly.

What we built was all about making high-quality decisions.

Understanding the context. Setting the proper framework for consideration - the alternatives - assessing all meaningful data - defining what matters - clarifying values and making tradeoffs - applying logical reasoning - committing to action - understanding the impact and sustaining the action. 

"Good design makes a product useful. A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.” - Dieter Rams

2005 - MAKING STRATEGIES THAT WORK

By 2005 we realised that the language used in strategic thinking is a problem.

Using words like ‘challenge’ can sound both inspiring and threatening.

‘Vision’ can sound valuable or vague and simply ticking a box. 

Challenges are both problems and opportunities.

Plans can be tactical AND strategic.

Terms used in business can lead and mislead people.

Divisions in companies can be helpful compartments to manage areas or the death knell of an effective and efficient business. 

Over the last 21 years, we’ve proven that the lazy use of words can do great harm.

Poorly defined concepts trigger major problems and barriers to meaningful transformation.

As a result, we spend a lot of time with new clients unpacking the meaning and realities behind them. 

Together we remove the fear and variability of them.

It works.

2006 - IT WAS NEVER JUST ABOUT THE WALLS

But it was always hard to make that point clear.

Workshops are a big part of the process but no more than the research, analytics, preparation and development with our clients.

We’ve always been about delivering tools and materials for our clients.

As we call them, the deliverables have been central to the value we create with the client teams.

Much of what we do is confidential.

That means we can’t ever share sensitive documentation.

Sometimes we develop things of a generic nature that we can share.

An example here:

2009 - SALT LAKE AND THE GRAPHIC RECORDERS

People always like to compare.

We were always compared to graphic facilitators.

So I went to a conference for graphic facilitators in Salt Lake City.

I saw the big differences first-hand and had to point them out.

The biggest differences being:

Strategy creation.

We apply real-time visualisation to help business leaders accelerate decision-making. 

We help our clients to imagine and then create their future.

We are critical systems thinkers. And we happen to do this visually.

Visualising discussions within a logic model becomes a mechanism to parse multiple perspectives.

Through rigorous conversation, we combine the discussion (through the framework's logic) into a logical calculation.

All those involved understand that their contribution has been heard.

A far crisper, more aligned/clear and meaningful definition has emerged.

The result is immediately material to the creation of a strategy and plan.

Not all graphic facilitation is superficial. Often though, it simply records the conversation.

In our world, just registering the conversation would be deemed to make the problems look pretty.

We just wouldn’t get away with it.

Recording the ebb and flow of a conversation around the future mode of operation would not result in the practical blueprint of its future, as shown below.

2006 - THE FIRST TIME WE APPLIED THE ELECTROSTATIC PAPER - OKHDS

Working for the state government in Oklahoma, we used what we now call ‘Roger’ for the first time.

The electrostatic paper is named in honour of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd as a tribute to the Wall! 

You can see the magic material holding onto the walls in the back of the room below.

Little did we know how big this would be.

We are usually covering between 60 and 100 feet of wall

From the floor to the top, that’s 8 feet, so on average, 640 square feet of conversation.

Not a metric that makes any sense but a fun fact nonetheless.

Thinking back, it was a giant leap to move from working behind the pad to being up and about on the wall.

Both liberating and immediately several unimaginable side effects.

The scale was instantly valuable - people could effectively get inside the system of their business.

Everyone could see that their thought was being honoured. Right there.

By being this expansive, we could emphasise abstract concepts like visions and operating models.

We could make far more of a virtue out of the definitional side of things.

2006 - PURPOSE BECAME A THING

In 2006 PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi introduced Performance with Purpose (PwP).

It was the first widely known concept of its type.

It was designed to ensure PepsiCo and its contribution to society were rooted in the core business model.

Although we’ve always pushed teams to have a clear and distinctive aim in mind - be ethical and moral - it’s only recently that the word ‘purpose’ took hold. 

Clients could see that having an ethical intention could pay dividends (primarily financial).

A few clients even decided to do the right thing despite the promise of financial dividends.

But sadly, there are still too many who believe it’s a business model and not a moral imperative.

2006 - EVERYTHING CHANGED ABOUT THE WAY WE WORKED: 

We used to work on A2 pads of paper and marker pens.

The day's result was put together as part of a big reveal.

The summary of the collaborative conversation with the client team during the day was a major moment.

And then one day:

We were in the US and came across some very clever material.

It came on A2 pads and was probably made by 3M.

This one small thing freed me up to facilitate and drive the discussion, asking the questions to tease out the thinking of the client group in a way that I couldn’t from behind a pad.

We could create a massive wall with the stuff.

Also, although I never saw it, there was a programme called Dragons Den on the BBC in the UK (it’s known as Shark Tank in the US).

It is perhaps the most famous case on the show - the investors invested in a product called Magic Whiteboard™.

It’s been a famous story for a while.

Because of new technology (electrostatic paper), we were liberated from the tabletop to the whole room.

We could work in real-time. The teams could see the result of their conversations. 

Suddenly our sessions became immersive experiences - 60-100 feet long and 8 feet tall.

The biggest challenge became finding large white walls.

We would hear that yes, the room was large with walls.

But they were filled with all kinds: windows and doors, air conditioning units, stuffed animals - definitely not white or plain.

A large part of the logistics became asking for white plain walls.

Getting hold of photos of the place in order to check suitability and sometimes bringing in our own walls.

WE USE SO MUCH WE IMPORT OUR OWN STOCK

EQUIPPED FOR THINKING™ 

We toyed with the idea of allowing anyone to buy all this kit and how to run similar sessions using our 4D™ logic.

We made an online website committed to training people in Structured Visual Thinking™.

We were aiming to make customers able to purchase everything from Roger to templates and guidebooks and online support. 

Luckily or unluckily, we have always been too busy to support these ideas.

However, it helped us to codify a considerable amount of the enabling material in our platforms and also describe our world. 

2003 - 2008 - THE BIRTH OF FRAMEWORKS AND MODULES - 4D™

We realised we had developed a common approach to conversations. 

Our first framework with clients always had similar discussions.

Intriguingly they worked with almost every challenge we came across.

The exam questions (the client’s question that needed an answer) back then were pretty similar:

• Where do my leadership team and I need to get?

• How do we become more successful in the process?

• How can we better describe our strategy and vision?

• How should we plan to get there?

We could flex the questions within the modules to suit the conversations we needed to have

The conversations that emerged always centred around 11 conversations, which form our first in the series of 4 frameworks - Discovery.

DISCOVERY -

Defining the goals and objectives, audience needs, audience types and market channels.

Mapping out the market needs, vision, opportunities and value propositions.

Getting a sense of the state of the operational systems, culture and roadmaps. 

As we evolved, we added a second framework.

DEVELOPMENT -

This framework was designed to enable a more profound understanding.

The market dynamics and contexts, the imperatives and the metrics that would guide progress.

It’s about declaring identifiable outcomes and intentions and placing more structure around the organisational architecture needed to achieve the visions and strategies required for the future. 

Subsequent to that, a third framework.

DECISION -

This framework allowed the team to decide how to make choices based on all the information we now had. 

This was the opportunity to decide between options, deepen the governance needed and make sure that the strategy was resilient and able to withstand the forces coming at it from the marketplace.

DEPLOYMENT -

And finally, the fourth framework.

This one was specifically designed to tackle how to execute and sustain everything in the plan over time.

It ensures really clear plans, accountabilities and ways of keeping everything under control as the world inevitably changes.

4D™

We called it 4D™ -

Discover, Develop, Decide and Deploy.

1. Discover what could be done.

2. Develop what should be done.

3. Decide what will be done and…

4. Deploy what we agreed we would do.

We were suddenly quite grown up.

We still do it today.

2010 - APPLICATION DRIVEN FRAMEWORKS

Alongside the 4D™ approach, we created a number of specific applications to respond to client challenges.

This one was born during a long assignment with a client in South Africa.

It was one of the largest telecommunications businesses in the country.

They took it very seriously and was a great credit to them.

We developed a rigorous approach as a result.

It gave rise to many new ways to think about such problems.

It helped the client completely transform their customer experience planning.

Firstly it helped internally and, as a result, changed the game with their audiences.

It’s still a big topic today - customer experience has always been a regular theme.

Clients realised their operations were average to poor because they hadn’t joined up their systems and processes.

It makes complete sense to give customers a seamless experience across all channels.

So, as with the logic models of 4D™, the Customer Experience Framework™ was a very important evolution in its day.

It proved that a kind of science was emerging.

It was valuable to develop how our work could be more focused and applied accordingly to any given challenge.

2010 - YOU CAN DEPEND ON OUR LACK OF DEPENDENCY 

We decided that clients were best placed to do most of the work.

After all, executing a path to a better future is their job.

Consequently, that means we transfer the capability to deliver.

We have zero vested interest in the outcome - other than the best answer.

We are impartial.

Our model is not to make us a critical dependency.

We equip client teams (who own the execution anyway) to do the (new) work needed rather than create an ongoing dependency on us. 

2013 - TRANSFERRING CAPABILITY

By 2013 we had been working for one major client - HP (and before that, EDS) - in a partnership that had already existed for over a decade.

We helped them build an engagement model with their clients.

It was an immersive front end to building enduring relationships. 

It worked.

It created an experience where potential clients could positively unburden themselves.

Structured Visual Thinking™ helped our partner scope the challenge.

The client would leave with a clearer idea of what was involved and who they were working with.  

Our partner had proved they were a business that cared enough about getting the correct brief.

The client could see HP was keen to get under the skin of the problems before trying to solve anything or sell the kit.

This was so successful that by 2012 we had sold more than $10 billion of new business.

We also helped them avoid re-competing for business when it came time to renew.

It was so successful they asked us to train them to apply Structured Visual Thinking™ themselves.

So we did.

2014 - WE PROVED THAT SMALLER WAS BIGGER AND BETTER 

We invented WFH. 

We didn’t, but we’ve been doing it for the best part of a decade.

We distributed our resources.

We set everyone up in home offices, gave them all the kit and sent them home.

We started being fully remote a long time before most.

We had a bigger impact, better experiences, and a much faster time to value.

There was less rework and frustration all around.

We radically increased our performance.

We gained a better appreciation of what’s needed to get done. 

We’ve become a practice team that delivers the work rather than getting preoccupied with growing a more typical structure.

We left behind the world where recruiting account and administrative people to ‘service’ clients was the way to show value and charge extra to clients.  

Our ability to visualise complex conversations and help them communicate and deliver is what’s valued by our clients.

Wherever we work, the only result we need is to improve our client’s outcomes and kept our costs realistic. 

2015 - METHODOLOGY SOUGHT AN APOLOGY 

Because of the tired and pedestrian nature of many methodologies, the dirty secrets of how many failed started to emerge.

Clients realised they were paying unnecessarily high charges for inflated external teams that added nothing but inflated methods. 

We noticed more interest in our approach because no methodology constrained it.

The method was to apply no technique other than conversation and visualization in common sense and logical frameworks.

The frameworks are created specifically for each question and challenge.

Even the big consulting firms started to bring us in.

2015 - PRESENT DAY - THE STRATEGIC TOOLKIT.

A SEARCH FOR SYMBOLISM:

As our work became more complex, simplicity became all-consuming.

We saw that those uncomfortable with complexity suggested a wrong mindset for achieving clarity and simplicity.

Symbolism aimed to create signposts for users as they navigate the strategic outcomes of the work.

We’re constantly refining this approach.

We’re always balancing the necessary and the sufficient.

Symbolism helps people locate what aspect of the system they were in.

It helped identify where to head next.

It’s always a work in progress.

The symbols help the user recall aspects of the framework.

It helped move them deeper into the details they need.

The intention is to (one day) make these symbols synonymous with each aspect of strategy.

Our aim is to build the visual shorthand of Framework Science™

2014 - RESILIENT THINKING

We experimented with several business themes.

Resilience was an example and a breakthrough in terms of Framework Science™.

It helped us to have conversations with clients about the importance of thinking about systems.

Resiliency, alongside several other major themes, is one of the most important things a client could have in a dynamic world.

It was an early example, but important because it showed what would need to be true for resilience to be in place in a business.

2017 - PRESENT DAY

BRINGING PREBUILT STIMULATION TO THE PARTY:

We often create infographic assets to bring into client sessions.

It’s our way of bringing abstract ideas, or undeniable realities, into play.

Discussions around these in session mean we can quickly understand the known context.

Other applications mean we can widen people’s frames of reference.

Recently, these have evolved into ‘value systems’ and ‘strategic blueprints’.

These stimulation tools are further refined with the benefit of the sessions themselves.

2007 - PRESENT DAY - THE GROUP PARTNER’S ONLINE PLATFORM (GPOP™)

Over the last decade, we’ve been designing our online platform.

Right now, we are bringing it to bear on almost all assignments.

The aim is to sustain the alignment.

It remains an option because clients are already software and application-heavy.

It allows all the thinking to continue beyond the creative strategy sessions.

It enables teams to continue the detailed programs behind strategic planning.

The platform maps directly to the structure of the frameworks we build to answer the exam question.

2019 - IT’S SCIENTIFIC 

We created a ‘science’ - Framework Science™

It can be scaled, taught, repeated and applied.

It started to get real in 2020, but we have been developing it for over a decade.

It’s what we’ve been working towards right from the start. 

We’ve constantly tested and learned - it’s how we develop our thinking.

We’re bringing all our learning together for the benefit of clients.

It allowed us to accelerate clients along the learning curve and bring them the insights they need based on all our experiences and cases. 

It means we have greater assurance around what mixture of conversations is needed to make the outcome the best.

2020 - WE BUILT A PLATFORM THAT WORKS HOW PEOPLE WORK

On top of science, we could systemise many approaches.

Each case is unique, but elements of what it takes are common principles and standards.

We’ve built a digital platform with various applications and systems that allow our clients to engage 24 x 7 x 365.

They can create their work program, continue to collaborate and thereby sustain the impact of our involvement. 

We’ve tested the significant investment in the software and systems for around a year.

We call it SVT Live™

There’s much more to come. 

2022 - FRAMEWORK INTEGRITY

PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRITY

• OUTCOMES NEED TO BE MAINTAINED - No matter how short or tactical the engagement, there’s always a valuable outcome, and those agreements can be seen through

• TEAMS NEED TO BE SELF SUSTAINED - The team is equipped and able to build on the work without a forced dependency on us

• WE MUST TRANSFER THE CAPABILITY - Capability and experience are passed to the teams so they have confidence and belief in the result and can make progress

• TEAMS NEED TO BE EQUIPPED FOR THE LONG RUN - Team investment in time and continuity of performance requires solid foundations

• CLIENTS NEED FLEXIBLE ONGOING MODELS - Every situation is unique and demands different support options*

*We sometimes stay involved and to different degrees - providing additional, objective insight and guidance, but we never work as traditional external consultants replacing the work of the workforce.

2018 - 2022 - TESTING, TESTING

Assessments are a significant part of the preparation and ongoing integrity of the work.

We’ve been developing our approach to assessments for a long time.

We got very close to a full roll-out of EQUAITOR™.

And now, the Group Partners Online Platform™ carries on the tradition.

For forever, business leaders have been preoccupied with the drive for long-term certainty.

Businesses tend to want a 'rigorous roadmap' - the security of the ‘business plan’ stretching into the future.

Well, that’s all out of the window.

The world moves so fast that taking a quick health check is always profoundly insightful.

2019 - THE BEST STRATEGY IS TO BE PREPARED

Every business book/management theory over the years is almost redundant in the real-time world.

What’s required now is the right mindset and capacity to deal in the now.

Whatever is thrown at you.

We've lived in a world where 'strategy' has to be based on long-term reassurance of market trends - in a world of increasing unpredictability.

Everything is different in the rate of technological change, the competition, and the consumer’s expectations.

We did a considerable amount of work on this.

2021 - WIDENING THE SCOPE AND REACH OF THE INSIGHTS - 

Our platform includes a comprehensive front-end suite of tools for evaluation and assessment.

This allows us to analyse the context and current situation. 

The platform helps the client collaborate around the frameworks as we develop the strategies.  

And beyond that, it helps them stay connected and aligned with their strategies and decisions.

This ensures value from the work long after we have finished our involvement. 

2001 - 2022 - CREATING STRATEGIC DELIVERABLES

Every single assignment we’ve ever done delivers a result.

The outcomes the clients want for sure, but also the assets, documents, blueprints and frameworks that help them to carry on with the great work.

Quite often, the immediate summary and plan are enough - and that works for us because we don’t try to create a lingering dependency if that’s not valuable.

More often, though, the client sees the value of the work translated into tools.

These tools can be communication type tools, training and onboarding of others or sustaining the work through the GPOP™

In the image below, you can also get a sense of the scale at which these things get used in the client’s facilities.

2022 - HARD TO COMPARE

In 21 years, we haven’t found anyone else doing what we do.

Many more people turn up and draw on walls, though.

They are the graphic recorders who faithfully record everything they hear, and the audience likes the memory of it. 

I describe it as making the problem look pretty.

I’m not saying it has no value, but It’s quite the opposite of what we do. 

We don’t put anything on the wall unless it’s a step towards solving a critical business challenge.

The visualisation brings the conversation to life.

What makes it to the wall is filtered by logic.

The logic shows the system and structure.

We describe the whole approach as an answering machine. 

We are not the only people making high-quality decisions alongside clients.

But we are still the only ones doing it like this.

PART THREE

A bit of a summary as we think about what comes next.

THERE'S NEVER TIME TO THINK

It’s even worse now than 21 years ago.

We live in a time of memes, soundbites, emojis and superlatives.

People are overwhelmed.

Choosing is seriously tough.

Thinking gets outsourced.

The ideas and strategies come back from the consulting firm and are used to placate the pressure to be doing something. 

Any resulting activities are watered-down into a more palatable variety of what was meant to be delivered.

Because the thinking is (at least) once or twice removed, nobody can defend against inevitable attacks.

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

The challenges - for example.

Lack of clear vision, strategy development, transformation, integration, new products, acquisitions, market entry and scale, acquisition, brand and story development, leverage the new opportunities, and solve competitive or operational challenges.

They’ve just become even more systemic and entangled.

IT’S SIMPLE: EVERYTHING IS MORE COMPLEX 

The associated complexity around these challenges has mushroomed over these two decades. 

More technology, less time, talent shortages and increased politics.

Greater competitiveness, shortage of attention and less attention to communication

Far more challenging to be a team - it’s tough out there. 

THE LOST ART OF PACKAGING 

I don’t mean cardboard. 

Investment in ’packaging’ the offer - the business, what it stands for.

I’m talking about branding, storytelling and creativity in the media and channels.

What’s available to tell the real story of the company to the correct audiences?

Many a business is woefully out of line with what’s needed. 

There’s little chance (given the investment allocated) for companies to make a dent in the crowded and noisy markets where clients try to succeed.

LACK OF LEADERSHIP MATURITY AND ATTENTION 

The same leadership choices that silo and default genuine marketing activities exist today.

The same processes ensure that businesses are doomed.

They’re tied to inadequate and untrained resources (internal sales and marketing departments/external agencies).

They’re solving the wrong problems really well with techniques and approaches designed to fix challenges that no longer exist.

In many ways, it’s worse now than in 2001.

We see very few marketing leaders in strategic sessions.

This ensures that the business rests on a model and mindset that guarantees failure and missing out on most of its opportunities.

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

STILL SOLVING THE WRONG PROBLEMS REALLY WELL 

Enlightened clients recognise that it’s the intangible aspects of the problem that are the reason why change doesn’t work/stick.

The more traditional leaders rely on what they’ve always done.

They give attention to areas they feel safe in and miss the prize in far too many cases.

Because investment strategies are embedded into the culture (and feel familiar), the braver strategies that would work are ignored or placed in the category of too much risk. 

More clients are starting to see their business as a value system.

THE RISE OF SYSTEMS OVER SILOS - 

Some clients unite rather than divide to rule. 

Enlightened clients have come to realise that their business and the context it operates is a system.

They know that only by solving their problems at a whole-systems level will they succeed.

THE DEVIL OF DEFINITION - 

Intercompany communication and lack of clarity (around definition, plans, accountability and responsibility) have worsened in many situations. 

Just as in 2001, the language used to express strategy and planning lacks the clarity needed to make it work.

The world is one thousand times more complex and dynamic.

TEAMWORK HAS GOTTEN WORSE WITH TECHNOLOGY

Tools for collaborative work and teamwork have increased in quantity and features - the amount of cooperation and collaboration hasn’t. 

It’s dizzying. I can count over 20 common platforms for collaboration and community workflow in any company. Ridiculous.

The tick box, ‘like’ ‘meh’ emoji culture, and few-word replies (many of them automated) may satisfy progress for some, but the chaos and confusion in its wake live on and gathers pace. 

The meaning and emotional attachment have been squeezed out of the exchange.

Unless the platforms and tools enable an emotional and meaningful workflow to exist, the filling out of fields and boxes helps nobody. 

Feeding the machine is not helping the motivation of ‘makers’ who want to do meaningful work. 

WE WENT BACKWARDS 

As the world became more technologically complicated and (on the surface, more sophisticated), our capability to focus, filter, and cope as a business has declined.

PEOPLE DID WHAT PEOPLE DO - BUT MORE SO 

The ‘washing’ of everything has taken its toll. White, green, you name it. 

Words have been hijacked, and the powerful ideas in them have been lost.

For example - purpose, digital, collaboration, and innovation.

Almost everything that becomes a fashion quickly becomes quicksand, a flash in the pan. 

People feel obligated to defend indefensible positions.

We’re growing tired of many aspects of the world we took for granted for so long.

Social media has created as much if not more distress than good.

"The best people have sensitivity to beauty, the courage to take risks, the rigor to tell the truth, the ability to sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often hurt, sometimes destroyed." - Ernest Hemingway

OUR MINDS ARE STILL MADE UP 

The dreaded mindset.

Tougher than diamonds.

In many ways, clients are stuck with legacy systems because of their mindsets.

We get it—heavy investments.

But it’s a hell of a price to pay.

They’ve done things a certain way for so long it’s hard to make change happen.

REPEAT AND THEN REPEAT AGAIN

Where we’ve worked with clients multiple times, we’ve seen considerable progress and leaps in confidence and capability to tackle complex change. 

Take LinkedIn™ - automated dumbness, on the one hand, and a brilliant way to never lose touch with colleagues and content.

We are quite spoiled by the ‘Like (but haven’t read)’ button.

Everyone is a target for inane approaches.

We are each presumed 100% perfect fit for a new website or app build because they’ve researched us deeply.

THE SUPERFICIAL 

Social media hasn’t helped. 

In many ways, it has created a superficial age.

I’m not against technology, far from it.

I’m against a lack of thoughtful discussion and meaningful exchange. 

Text messaging is superbly efficient but comes with a heavy tax. It can kill. 

Once a working relationship has been established, the shorthand made possible by social media exchanges is less lethal.

The flippancy is created out of seamless ease of action. 

Such convenience creates tick-box coin-operated thinking - that equates to no thinking at all.

We’ve arrived at a place where we have no means of gaining real attention. 

Unless we can. 

PART FOUR

And 21 Years From Now?

I’m bittersweet about the future. 

I’m an eternal optimist and a hopeful individual.

But when it comes to change, I’m a realist. 

The last few years put a dent in all of us. "The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think." - Gregory Bateson

Some Of The Harsh Realities:

Slaves To Technology

Slaves To Technology - There's too much unnecessary technology in business.

A lot of it is badly specified and poorly applied.

And rather than helping improve the performance/experience, it's just in the way.

As a consequence, it adds burden, waste and frustration.

We are all slaves to inefficient workflows.

The Wrong Motivations

We've created business models and principles that are not sustainable.

Profit at all costs.

Business is expected to grow - create shareholder returns and performance.

And that is at odds with reality.

Beyond A Talent Gap

The education systems and business schools still turn out people who are poorly equipped to understand business - let alone lead in the world as it is now.

We turn out people who pass tests and meet standards, but they're not equipped for how it will be soon.

What We Defend

The investment in legacy infrastructure will take years to replace. 

The people who made those decisions feel compelled to defend them despite the new reality.

Tough decisions need to be made that are hard for the companies to take and individuals to cope with.

Fresh Foundations To Build From:

NEW BUSINESS MODELS

How businesses will emerge from this is still anyone's guess - Web-3 - Crypto - Blockchain - Dall-E.

This or Thatverse. NFTs - GPT-3 - the Alphabet Soup of AI/ML and augmented and virtual reality.

THE DRAW OF AUTOMATION

Whatever technologies emerge from the above, things will change dramatically.

Lower costs and increased profit will remain the driver.

What matters will be how humans integrate with automation to retain humanity.

WILL THE DIVIDES UNITE US?

There is a growing gap between significant swathes of society.

Social media isn’t right now.

Calls are growing louder for the protection and security of individuals.

Will web-3 liberate us from the stranglehold of the walled gardens and usher in the era of trust and security that doesn’t exist today?

And add to this:

How Should Business Work 21 Years From Now?

The same as how business should work right now. 

I’ve no idea what will happen next week, let alone 21 years from now.

I don’t know anyone who does, either.

If I were to advise my younger self, I would have had even less belief in the authorities that govern us.

I would have paid less attention to the ‘best practice’ handed down as some sacred truth.

I do like the idea of thinking about it, though, and if still around, I’m bound to be embarrassed by what follows.

“So the best advice I can give a fifteen-year-old is: don’t rely on the adults too much. Most of them mean well, but they just don’t understand the world.” - Yuval Noah Harari

STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING

The best strategy is to be prepared for any eventuality.

Leaders need to embrace creativity. Creativity makes the difference: competitive distinction, innovation where it matters, enjoyment and experience for all stakeholders.

There’s no place for the ordinary.

Who wants a new normal? Crazy idea.

“Normality is a paved road. It’s comfortable to walk along, but no flowers grow on it.” - Anon

Mindsets will have adapted more generally.

Leaders will be better able to articulate their strategies. They will have improved communication skills.

Strategy, as an idea, will be more defined - a working and realistic calculation of how to achieve the best outcome,

Humans eventually accept a new and inevitable reality, and in most cases, a new balance and harmony will emerge.

Utility through technology can scale infinitely, but we humans can’t. 

Humanity will be reprioritised. Governments, policies and businesses will realise that consumers will vote for respect and be forced to deliver.

Efficiency and growth must never be the end in mind. 

There will be more defence against polarization and cultural division.

WHERE WE’LL WORK

Certain functions within businesses will work from anywhere with trust mechanisms built in.

Managers and leaders must find ways because people will continue to vote and trade on this human right.

Other businesses can not work this way, and people will travel to places of work.

Eventually, those businesses that could create variable models will have to find a way to make the balance work or die.

HOW WE’LL WORK

Automation will be an accepted part of everything. But it won’t be everything.

Expectations of where and how automation has been embraced will be better managed.

By design, automation will be much more advanced, subtle and helpful.

More ways to gather ideas from the whole firm will be available to make changes more dynamically in line with the vision.

Days of the week will be even less critical than they are now.

The unit of work will move more towards value created rather than days punched.

There will be a return to fulfilment/enjoyment - going beyond the screen.

TECHNOLOGICALLY

Data security will still be a significant factor.

More businesses will have consolidated to utility and experience not massive investments in new legacy infrastructure.

The answer to digital everything isn’t sentient AI. It is ethical and compassionate integration.

Utility and authentic experiences will be what consumers want - they already do,

Perpetual Reinvention will be a standard, but the transformation cost will be lower.

OPERATIONALLY

DAOs or improved and proven equivalents will be a factor for some businesses.

Creativity is encouraged across the firm.

Supply chain challenges will remain a focus of everyone’s attention.

Hybrid working will be an accepted part of business thinking, but the systems are more mature.

SOCIALLY

Creating experiences is now mainstream and not a massive differentiator.

We will be driven by the human acceptance of more augmented screen-based tools - glasses, lenses and wearable information access. 

Social Media will have been regulated in some ways.

Misinformation wars will still be a factor, but ways to mitigate their impact will be available.

CULTURALLY

Re-skilling, Well being, Ethical working practices.

Trust, Transparency, Career Paths, Motivation.

Fairness and Care.

All of the above will still be the foundations of good culture but (remaining) only present where there is enlightened and conscious leadership.

We will be regularly updating this.