| The LVT Process |
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Logovisual thinking is a methodology that takes individual ideas (a process akin to brainstorming) and engages the participants in making sense of their collective thinking. It amounts to a five-stage process - Focus, Gather, Organise, Integrate and Realise. Even well conducted brainstorming gets little further than Gather so there is much more to be achieved. The aim is to think new thoughts, to break-through to deeper understanding - to transform both the game and the players. We reccomend you use MagNotes, (Magnetic dry-wipe shapes) on whiteboards but you can simply use regular Post-its or Post-it hexagons. Hexagonal Post-it or magnetic shapes allow for clustering in non-linear patterns. They are incidentally symbolic of various natural structures, the relevance of which is subtle but everything counts! Either way you need a number of surfaces to ‘frame’ and ‘re-frame’ ideas as they develop. If you have a dozen participants you may want to split into three groups. This enriches the variety and ensures everyone is able to contribute. The Five stages of LVT are as follows: Focus is the careful identification of the enquiry. Although this will have been defined even before you invite people to the session, it will need careful clarification when the session begins. You may have asked people to prepare or have briefed them at the outset. In any case, ask them whether they are clear about the focus of the enquiry and encourage refinement of the way it has been articulated. Be prepared to devote some time improving how it is formulated. Say 30 minutes Gather is ideally done by having everyone write their own responses to the question or topic, without conversation. Insist on full statements – subject, verb, object. Use of active verbs makes for more energy in the process. These statements are called Molecules of Meaning (or MMs). Use bold pens and get people to print clearly, one idea to a note. Make a random display. Check for clarity and understanding. Say 30 minutes
Organise can be noisy and informal. The idea is to cluster the material according to mutual relevances that emerge from discussing the gathered material (this is a search for meaning rather than categorising which tends to force the material into pre-determined groupings) Often people stand around a board discussing the subtleties of arrangements. All material should be included – nothing rejected. Once clusters have been formed (usually less than 7 in a cluster) the meaning of each should be articulated as a ‘title’. This is a challenging meaning-making step, which will allow the title to stand for the content. Say 60 minutes
Integrate is achieved by use of prioritising, or ordering into a ring composition, which gives structure and meaning to the various clusters developed in Organise. Where various sub-groups have worked in parallel their outputs can be shared then conflated so that there are somewhere between seven and fifteen items. The detail is left on the separate boards for reference and the titles (copied onto new shapes) become MMs themselves for the integration.
All transformatory processes have sequence and structure within them. The easiest way into the process is to have someone make a start by stringing together a sequence. Someone else can build on what has been begun and so on until all items are included. If the items are arranged in a circular pattern the narrative so formed could be begun at any point. Depending on whether you have an equal number of items, there may be either one or two at the top or at the bottom.The ring forms a narrative that includes the substance of all the work so far and can be ‘read’ as a story everyone can relate to. There should be an aesthetic of symmetry and order within the arrangement and reflecting carefully on the pattern may well result in refinements being made. Add lines to show the structure – a ring for the sequence and horizontal lines (rungs) linking items across the ring. A vertical centre line joins the ‘latch’ at the top with the ‘ ‘turn’ (a critical or hazardous part of the process) at the bottom. Say 90 minutes Realise can take various forms which may not be what was expected. Outwardly it involves action. Inwardly it can be transformatory for the people or their organisation, leading to a different way of being. The rungs should be allocated to actual persons who take responsibility for reconciling the items at each end. The vertical axis links beginning middle and end. To move from Integrate to Realise requires an act of will – a decision that can change everything. May take long! Allow 30 minutes for closure within the event and watch over the process subsequently.
The timings suggested are provisional. You need to learn how the process works in your own circumstances. Provide technical inputs if relevant, take breaks, add playful interludes, have fun! This generic process as a whole has been used to facilitate individuals and groups in meeting chalenges from 3 up to 200 people - from solving problems and removing dysfunctions in their workplace, to innovating global strategies for change. The process is not always run as a whole and often stages can be developed independently. It will very much depend on the nature of the group, the Focus and the desired outcomes. For instance, much can be gained from Focus, Gather, Organise, without ever reaching Integrate (as described here). What do I do next? |
