Thinking Methodology?

Thinking is rarely a taught subject matter. But the very essence of good decisions is based upon thinking through the core questions about an issue. If you do not have a thinking methodology, how do you know that you are addressing the key issues and making decisions that matter?

The LVT Process Explained

The LVT process is very interactive, with a workshop style of delivery. The team involved can quickly develop ideas and new threads which can be developed and thought through into action plans or simply stored as areas for additional consideration. The workshop stages are identified below in some detail, but the principle is that the workshops are fun, with an ability to clarify and visualise complex issues and promote learning through the exploration of the issues which often leads to a better end result than could have been prescribed without the process.

The Logo Visual Thinking (LVT) Process comprises a number of distinct stages and allows the participants to see the linkage between the different stages and to adapt their thinking along route. This provides for a very powerful methodology and enables individuals and teams to more fully engage with the development of robust strategic thinking outcomes.

The process is continuous, but generally is best commenced with the focus stage moving through to “Gathering”, “Organising”, “Understanding”, then “Acting”.

The first stage of LVT is to identify the focus of the thinking session. This sounds straight forward, but is frequently the stumbling block for many strategic planning processes. For example where do you start? The business is well understood by the people involved within the operation, but for some unknown reason there are problems that cannot easily be identified by the various departments. By developing a ‘focus statement’ the team can move into gathering information

This stage of the process makes use of “Modules of Meaning” (MOM’s). These are hexagonal shapes that are used to capture ideas in “Statements” that have a hard core meaning, rather than a vague idea or assertion. At this stage MOM’s are generated in response to the focus, but no attempt is made to structure these. It is important that the MOM’s are stand-alone statements which have meaning. We have found that it is good practise to randomly distribute these MOM’s onto a magnetic white board which allows the issue to be seen by all participants. We normally ask that the person making the statement explains to the other group as it is placed randomly onto the white board

This stage concerns the mixing, matching sorting and merging operations of thinking. It produces meaningful linkages between MOM’s and develops meaningful groups of MOMs that have an added meaning. The group or sub set of MOM’s is now provided a title or its own statement, that enables the organise function to achieve a concentration facilitating insight, together with connection of different sub sets. This organise process allows participants to question the connection between the groups and to further refine associations and meanings

By placing the group titles into a ring on the white board a narrative and sequence of the ‘knowledge’ is developed. The ring has numerous purposes, but its main purpose is to show all the organised titles in an easy to read and coherent way that also shows their interconnections and mutual implications

Once the whole picture is developed and action plan is needed to ensure that the ideas are put into action, and work is done. We have found that Gant charts and Swim lane charts are best used as representative models and promote the development of new and innovative ideas for the start of a further focus session

Customer Testimonials

"We have come to realise the potential of our business and how to fulfil that potential, through the use of LVT"

Mark Newman - Managing Director - MNA Safety Ltd

Knowledge Processes Ltd (KPL) specialises in providing interim management services to help businesses drive core objectives, manage change and relieve pressure from existing management teams.