Use A Picture Instead of 1000 Words
A few years back, I was the organizational change management (OCM) lead for a global SuccessFactors implementation and our team was lucky enough to be supported by a communications consultant. He had a marketing background, but more importantly, he had an inherent graphic eye, that I so lack. As a duo, I would like to say that we produced the most effective communication artifacts of my career; my change instincts combined with his ability to communicate in a highly visual manner, completely elevated the impact of our communication content. I am a quick learner and a good mimic, and I was able to leverage many of the templates that we had created together for years to come.
But what if you don’t have a natural graphic eye? How can you incorporate visual storytelling into your OCM practice? I reached out to Marcos Goldstein, Visual Storyteller and Change Maker at FosterWe, to find out:
1. Leverage your stakeholders for imagery as part of the OCM process
For those who are not naturally visual, don’t get stuck thinking that you have to come up with all of the imagery yourself. Leverage your stakeholders to help by incorporating visually provoking questions into the course of normal OCM activities and stakeholder engagements.
For example, during change readiness discussions prompt stakeholders with, “At the end of this program, if it is a massive success, what scenes come to mind? How do you feel? What shape or color is it?” You may be surprised by the answers you get when you encourage and allow others to think visually. For an HR system implementation effort, responses may include, “I can access my paystub,” “I got an onboarding packet,” “I feel empowered” or “cared for.”
By incorporating visually provoking questions into your OCM practice, you can leverage stakeholders to identify the pictures for you. They identity their own compelling, memorable, and emotional visuals, for you. The OCM team should then focus on the little moments that really matter to their stakeholders and incorporate those into communications in order to create an impactful story.
2. Determine storytelling approach: scrappy or sophisticated?
Once you identify the visuals for your project, the next step is to determine your approach. Can you afford an outside agency or do you need a scrappier yet effective approach?
Scrappy: Start Googling! There are multitudes of free or affordable subscription-based repositories of photos, scenes, and icons that can be used even for commercial purposes.
Middle of the road: If you don’t have a graphic eye, find someone that does. In larger organizations you may have access to Corporate Marketing or Communication departments, or if you look you may discover someone on your team with this previously undiscovered and untapped talent.
Sophisticated: Leverage an outside agency to create custom branded illustrations recognizing that some can even work within the budgets of smaller organizations.
Although custom illustrations can be amazing, do not underestimate the power of incorporating imagery into your communications that is not heavily produced. By simply incorporating more design, symbols, and representative pictures into our communications, we can begin to tell stories, communicate, in a more connected and memorable way.
By using pictures, we can communicate a lot, without the need for so many words. Even better, pictures can provide inspiration and build a memorable experience. We’re still communicating, but in a way that feels very different.
This is part two of a two-part blog series focusing on the intersection of organizational change management and visual storytelling.
TLDR “too long; didn’t read”
Use A Picture Instead of 1000 Words
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our consultants can help tell your stories more visually, emotionally, and impactfully.
A very special thanks Marcos Goldstein, Visual Storyteller and Change Maker at FosterWe, for his beautiful storytelling, thought leadership, and for collaborating with us on this blog.
Imagery by FosterWe