Crackerjack Visual Thinking

11/03/2026

The most valuable insight from a visioning workshop often appears after the workshop.

During the session, ideas connect, assumptions get challenged, and the emerging model becomes clearer. But something interesting happens when the thinking from the workshop is turned into a strategic visual artefact — often a rich picture.

Suddenly new insights appear:

- Missing connections.
- Hidden assumptions.
- Strategic tensions.

In other words, the picture creates a second learning loop.

The workshop improves the thinking. The visual artefact changes the thinking.

I wrote a short article on LinkedIn about how this shows up in the Crackerjack Visioning Process™ ⬇️

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johnashtonfacilitator_visualthinking-strategicthinking-systemsthinking-activity-7437467332370726912-Gls_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAHKH-0B9XrqQ3JEckuVJzRFPr_gxi3G0WI

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05/11/2025

As consultants, you are experts at helping clients tackle complexity — but sometimes, aligning everyone’s thinking at the start of a project can be harder than it sounds.

That’s where the Crackerjack Visioning Process™ comes in.

It’s a visual, collaborative process that fits seamlessly into your consultancy’s current workflow — adding clarity, alignment, and creative energy at key stages of your workflow including project initiation, strategic visioning, and leadership alignment.

Imagine being able to visually align everyone’s understanding from day one — surfacing assumptions, capturing ideas, and co-creating a shared picture of what success looks like.

That’s what the Crackerjack Visioning Process™ enables.

By combining facilitated conversation, visual thinking, and rich picture creation, it helps teams:

➡️ Discover purpose
➡️ Co-create a shared vision
➡️ Visualise thinking and insights
➡️ Engage and align people across the organisation

We are already working with like-minded consultancy partners who are already using it to add a powerful visual layer to projects such as:

➡️ Strategic visioning
➡️ Performance improvement
➡️ Mapping organisational systems and processes
➡️ Developing B2B scenarios
➡️ Digital transformation
➡️ Internal communications initiatives

The result?

Clients see complexity more clearly, conversations become more meaningful, and everyone moves forward with shared purpose.

If you’d like to add the Crackerjack Visioning Process™ to your consultancy's workflow, let’s chat.

16/09/2025

As part of our Crackerjack Visioning Process™, we turn complex ideas and strategies into powerful visual narratives for our clients. Hit the 'play' button below to see an animated-build version of the rich picture we created for Project4 Learning Lab earlier this year. Animated-build rich pictures enable you to take your team, clients, partners and stakeholders through your story step-by-step. You can find out more about our work at https://lnkd.in/e9tYGnU



https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johnashtonfacilitator_visualthinking-richpictures-communication-activity-7373717036339720193-XCot?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAHKH-0B9XrqQ3JEckuVJzRFPr_gxi3G0WI

As part of our Crackerjack Visioning Process™, we turn complex ideas and strategies into powerful visual narratives for our clients. The example below shows an animated-build version of the rich picture we created for Project4 Learning Lab earlier this year. Animated-build rich pictures enable you...

16/09/2025

As part of our Crackerjack Visioning Process™, we turn complex ideas and strategies into powerful visual narratives for our clients. The example below shows an animated-build version of the rich picture we created for Project4 Learning Lab earlier this year. Animated-build rich pictures enable you to take your team, clients, partners and stakeholders through your story step-by-step. You can find out more about our work at https://lnkd.in/e9tYGnU

19/08/2025

Crackerjack Visual Thinking recently worked with Project 4 Learning Lab (P4L) to create a rich picture of their vision for the future. P4L help organisations find their flow; delivering products to market faster, accelerating flow of knowledge work and accelerating flow of product. They work with organisations including Rolls-Royce, Astra Zeneca, Alstom and Infosys. Crackerjack ran a half-day visioning workshop with the team using the…...

Crackerjack Visual Thinking recently worked with Project 4 Learning Lab (P4L) to create a rich picture of their vision for the future.

24/06/2025

Delighted to welcome our new client Project 4 Learning Lab (P4L)

Delighted to welcome our new client Project 4 Learning Lab P4L)!

10/06/2025

Creating a future-proof power generation system for the UK is a hugely complex and costly task (as todays announcement of the UK Governments £14.2bn investment in Sizewell C shows).

Here at Crackerjack, I've been working with a client to help them simplify complexity and visualise how they can help increase the speed and efficiency of three of these major infrastructure construction projects: Sizewell C, Hinkley Point C and the STEP fusion energy project.

In each case, I've been able to create visual rich pictures that have facilitated a deeper and clearer understanding of my clients work for the project teams from each of these construction projects. This also works in reverse, with the creation of the rich pictures enhancing my clients understanding of how they can best support these vital construction projects.

In one case, the rich picture I originally produced for my client is now being used by a senior exec member of one of the infrastructure construction project teams as a key element of their keynote presentations to key stakeholders (including to the UK Government).

The more complex a project becomes, the more important it is to simplify complexity in order to engage people with your work and ensure they understand the role you can play in it. Visual thinking and rich pictures can be the bridge between complexity, and simplicity and understanding.

Find out more about my work here on our website or contact me to explore simplifying your complex project.

John

Rich pictures that have facilitated a clearer understanding of my clients work on the Sizewell C, Hinkley Point C and STEP fusion projects.

15/05/2025

Just what is it I do as a Strategic Visual Thinking Partner?

Here's a quick overview tailored to the three types of people I frequently work with in my role:

1. Transformation Leaders (e.g. Heads of Change, Programme Directors):

I work with transformation leaders to bring clarity to complex change programmes. By visualising strategic roadmaps, interdependent workstreams and stakeholder impacts, I help engage the wider organisation, drive alignment, and accelerate delivery.

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2. Internal Communications Directors:

I help internal comms teams turn abstract strategies and change narratives into compelling visuals that inform, engage, and inspire. Whether it’s a transformation story or a cultural shift, I make key messages clear and memorable through visual thinking.

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3. For B2B Sales Teams / Sales Enablement Leads:

I partner with B2B sales teams to visualise complex propositions in ways that resonate with clients. My visuals simplify technical offers, map customer value, and support sales conversations that win trust and unlock opportunities.

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Find out more at https://crackerjackvisualthinking.com

13/05/2025

Visualising complex product ecosystems

Customers can struggle to understand how complex product ecosystems align with their own goals. A visual approach can help...

08/05/2025

Strategy isn't a flat line from A to B. It’s layered, shifting and often messy. It involves people, context, culture, timing—and a fair bit of uncertainty. So why do so many strategic plans still live in long documents, static slides, or linear timelines?...

Strategy isn't a flat line from A to B. It’s layered, shifting and often messy. It involves people, context, culture, timing—and a fair bit of uncertainty. So why do so many strategic plans still live in long documents, static slides, or linear timelines?

07/05/2025

You’ve probably heard of strategy consulting. And you may be familiar with visual thinking. But put the two together, and something quite powerful happens.

Visual strategy consulting is about using visuals—not just to present a strategy, but to shape it. It’s about helping teams see the big picture, spot connections, and make decisions faster. When the usual spreadsheets and slide decks start to blur into one, a well-drawn visual can suddenly cut through the noise and make things clear.

As one of my clients recently shared: “This started board-level conversations we didn’t expect!”

Imagine mapping out a complex transformation or trying to align a senior team on a shared vision. Words alone can often fall short. But with a structured, visual process, those fuzzy ambitions start to take shape—literally. Diagrams, models, and story-based visuals can show what’s possible and get everyone pulling in the same direction.

Visual strategy consulting isn’t about making things look pretty. It’s about making thinking visible—so strategy becomes something you can explore, test, and refine together. It creates space for creativity and clarity, which is often what’s needed most in complex change.

If you work in transformation, innovation, or organisational design, it’s worth exploring how visual approaches can support your next big move.