You have a new strategy, new ways of working, new goals and targets. So how do you get your entire workforce aligned and taking action? It’s time to share your Big Picture.
Harnessing the combined powers of the visual image and storytelling, Big Picture communication from Axiom will rally employees behind your strategy. It’ll help them understand the organisation’s plans and galvanise them to play their part in success – all via the creation of a stunning visual metaphor and the narrative to go with it.
Contact us to talk about Big Picture >What is a Big Picture?
A Big Picture is an expertly crafted visual metaphor that brings your key messages to life in a way that people understand instantly and remember for years to come. Backed by a compelling storyline, it’s a potent way to make your communication relevant and inspiring.
The Big Picture can show where your organisation has come from, your position today and the journey you’re embarking on. Crucially, it shows colleagues at all levels exactly how they can play their part in success.
Whether it’s a new strategy, a new collective ambition, cultural change or other transformation programme, a Big Picture unites people by providing a focal point and common language. It’s an incredibly effective way to get employees engaged, energised and contributing more.
”Our people really liked this hugely innovative approach to explaining our strategy. It helped us overcome both language and cultural barriers and now everyone is talking about the strategy, at all levels of the business and all around the world, including a tremendous number of people who would not usually engage.
Global HR Director, Surgical Division, Mölnlycke Health Care AB
Creating your Big Picture
We start by helping you identify a compelling, overarching story that connects your purpose, vision, values, behaviours, targets and operational initiatives. It’s a story that will set out why your organisation exists and where it’s going.
We then work with you to come up with a compelling visual metaphor to tell the story. Over the years, we’ve collaborated with clients to devise all kinds of metaphors. A mountain to climb, an ocean to navigate, a rocket to launch – the possibilities are endless.
To find what works for your organisation, we’ll facilitate discussions with senior managers and representatives of frontline staff. This guarantees the image will be meaningful and credible across the organisation as well as securing ownership and advocacy.
Putting your people in the picture
For many years, we put clients’ Big Pictures onto large-scale printed posters or into animated PowerPoint. In today’s digital era, we’re increasingly bringing Big Pictures to life in virtual and augmented reality.
This gives colleagues an immersive digital experience akin to playing an interactive video game. They get to move around autonomously inside a three-dimensional version of your Big Picture and interact with different aspects of it or go on a guided tour with their line managers. With this advance, the Big Picture has become an even more captivating communication tool.
Once the visual metaphor and accompanying narrative are agreed, we work with you on a high-impact communication campaign. Typically, the Big Picture is the centrepiece of a professionally facilitated launch event. Then come organisation-wide cascade briefings and action-planning discussions between managers and their teams. All this is supported by an array of print and digital materials.
And we train leaders and managers to give them the skills and confidence to communicate your Big Picture and lead the interactive exercises which are an essential part of the approach.
This comprehensive approach means your Big Picture becomes the catalyst for high-quality conversations right across your organisation.
”The Big Picture helps us ensure everyone around the world knows what we are trying to achieve as a business and how they can contribute. In more than 25 years in senior management, Axiom are the most creative and professional communication and engagement advisors I’ve ever come across.
CEO, HARTMANN Group
How will the Big Picture help my organisation?
The Big Picture approach will:
- Help leaders explain the organisation’s strategy in a way that’s clear, concise and compelling.
- Trigger storytelling – a very effective communication technique – throughout the organisation.
- Provide a common language and reference point for staff to understand and discuss strategic issues.
- Show colleagues the part they play in the success of the organisation and motivate them to contribute to the best of their ability.
If you want to drive understanding, alignment, and action, then you need to show your people the Big Picture.
Big Picture workshops
Our in-house training workshops can equip your leaders and managers to paint the Big Picture for their people. If you need to embed a new strategy, initiative or change programme, our skills development training can play a pivotal role.
Learn the techniques you need to give memorable presentations
Harness the power of storytelling to inspire and motivate people
Acquire the capabilities and confidence to bring people with you on the change journey
Big Picture success stories
For two decades, our Big Pictures have helped organisations of all kinds engage, inspire and align their people. It’s won them awards and, more importantly, won them big performance gains. Click on a logo to see the difference it makes when you put people in the picture.
FAQs
Why are images so powerful in communication?
“A picture is worth 1,000 words.” There’s a lot of truth in that old saying. Images are such a potent tool in communication because they can convey complex ideas swiftly, evoke strong emotions and transcend language barriers. From ancient cave paintings to modern-day memes, images seize our attention and leave a lasting impression in our minds.
Indeed, most of us prefer to process information visually and tend to think in pictures. As American professor of communications Paul Martin Lester said: “Our brains remember 80% of what we see compared to only 10% of what we hear and 20% of what we read.”
At a time when employees are overloaded with information in disparate channels, a single image can cut through all that noise and turn complexity into clarity.
Why do you emphasise a storytelling approach?
As a species, we are born storytellers and have been practising the art for over 27,000 years! Storytelling is the universal currency of effective communication. In a business context, a story can distil a new strategy or a wide-ranging programme of change and make it meaningful and memorable. It provides a reference point and common language that connects people and gets them talking. If you add storytelling to a striking visual metaphor, you’ve got a ‘super-channel’ on your hands!
What are the advantages of Big Picture communication?
A Big Picture offers many advantages:
Impact: A Big Picture image is unique and vivid. It captures attention and interest and leaves a lasting trace in people’s minds.
Clarity: It provides a clear and concise distillation of complex concepts or ideas, aiding understanding.
Context: It helps people grasp the broader context so they can see the rationale for change.
Consistency: Your messages are communicated consistently right across the organisation, promoting shared understanding.
Different: The Big Picture approach is very often seen as radical, compared to more traditional ways of communicating, but has proven results.
Connection: It helps in aligning employees behind common goals and motivating them to contribute to the best of their ability.
