These Professors Just Proved the Power of Having a Visual Metaphor for Your Strategy

Strategy comes to life when you can make it visual. That's probably not news for most of you, but an article from HBR this week dug a bit deeper into the idea of using visual metaphors when discussing and outlining strategy. The authors not only suggested this point to be true - but they also actually did some research to explore the effects of a good visual metaphor and what it takes to create one. Among their more non-obvious conclusions was the point that visual "metaphor and storytelling did not change what people understood; they changed how much they cared."

"We found that a successful visual strategy metaphor has to pass what we call the 4 Fs test: It must fit the leadership style, culture, and situation of the organization; feel familiar, yet fresh to employees; and facilitate understanding about the strategy and its elements."

So if you're the sort of leader who tends to use visual metaphor and storytelling, this is an article you can bookmark and share to validate what you're doing. And if you're not, it might be an argument to start.