Since its introduction in 2005, this toolbox has been one of the most popular in the RSVP Design range.
It contains three copies of 16 carefully designed and selected images that have been drawn in an attractive cartoon style. The images represent a range of experiences and emotions, many of which will be familiar to anyone working in an organisation, sitting on a committee or attending regular meetings! This should be no surprise as they are all based on descriptions that real people in real organisations have given to us over the years about what it felt like to be part of a team or an organisation at a particular point in time.
The images include a wide variety of strong, negative emotions, eg:
• Frustration
• Confusion
• Isolation
through to very positive shared experiences, eg:
• The successful achievement of a challenging task
• The satisfaction of working in a skilled and specialist team
• The motivation of working in a competitive and stimulating environment.
The images are designed to be metaphors through which individuals and teams can explore organisational issues. The cartoon style is accessible and people at all levels in organisations relate to the images and experiences depicted. This allows a ’door’ to be opened into dialogue that might otherwise be too risky or challenging to be tackled directly. For many, talking about the pictures is a safe way of expressing feelings and hopes that may have been considered too personal to be discussed in a business context.
We find the use of metaphor extremely useful at both senior and junior management levels in organisations and cultures of any kind.
The Images of Organisations cards can be used in many different situations. e.g.
• At the start of a conference or training programme in which delegates do not know each other.Asking delegates to choose an image that means something to them as individuals elicits far more information than simply asking them to state their name and job role as part of a 'creeping death' introduction!
• As a way of finding out about different perspectives amongst team members. Are different individuals experiencing very different things at the same time? Is one person’s exciting change another’s nightmarish upheaval? Two people can look at the same image yet feel/imagine very different possibilities.
• As a lead-in to team action planning at the end of a team development programme.
The positive and negative nature of the images allows teams to choose an image to aspire to and an image to avoid.
• In exploring organisational values. What do the individual images that team members have chosen say about their individual values? What is important to them about working in this team/on this project/ as part of this organisation? Values are more than words, and the use of metaphor can begin to explore what values really mean to people, and deepen their shared understanding.
• In performance appraisal. The positive and negative nature of the images allows managers and subordinates to explore images that might reflect times and activities when things were going well, as those when things were more difficult.
Customers who have purchased Images of Organisations include:
AYS Business Solutions, U Flourish, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, Coventry Building Society, University of Manchester, Cometra- Belgium, University of St Andrews, Legacy Health Systems - USA, The Care Commission, BSI UK Management Systems Training, BSI - Vietnam, Scottish Enterprise, Virgin Mobile, World Duty Free, Electronic Arts - USA, SEPA, EMap Communications, Brighton and Hove City Council, Fife Council, CRAC, Queen Mary University - London, Historic Scotland, Holden Morris Consulting, Holde Insolvency Service, Improvement Service, Kidbrooke School, HMCS, Postcomm, Learning Trust, The People Development Team, University of Edinburgh, Scottish Widows, Kingswood Plus, Point Consulting - China, IMD - Switzerland, Executive Training International - USA, Delphin - USA, Cegelec - France, Senus - Portugal, Egor - Portugal, Lab SSJ - Brazil, PDR Yonetim ve Bilisim - Turkey, Universal Consult - Hungary, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Invisio Ltd, Ireland, DHL - Italy, Farscape Development Ltd, Jim Cain - USA, Constructive Intervention, Ireland - Booze Allen Hamilton - USA, Skandia Versicherungs Management & Services GmbH - Germany, Avis Europe Ltd, Rolls Royce, BAA, Cranfield Management Development, Institute of Public Administration - Saudi Arabia, Spintegra - Poland, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, University of Cambridge, Chinese Culture University - Taiwan, Compass Desenvolvinento Humano e Empresarial Ltda.- Brazil, Anestis Anastasiou & Sia EE Greece, Irish Management Institute - Ireland, Lancaster University Management School, Maaria Hannanen - Finland, GROW aps - Denmark, University College Cork, RAF.
Images of Organisations Case Study
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