When I was an Army Officer, it was crucial that I conveyed messages to my team as accurately as possible because our missions were often matters of life and death. I would draw crude charts, tables, and maps to ensure I leave no room for miscommunications, confusion, and doubts in my team members’ minds. As an entrepreneur today, I still lean on visualization techniques to ensure my messages are accurately absorbed.
Visualization of decision-making is the presentation of critical information in a more vivid, graphic manner to make it easier for decision-makers to identify patterns, trends, and deviations. This allows them to quickly draw actionable solutions, efficiently speeding up the decision-making process.
This article discusses the ideas behind visualization of decision-making and why it is a great strategy to employ in your team, especially if you’re aiming for better, more rational, and highly relevant plans of action. We will also discuss some of the common misconceptions and disadvantages linked to visualization, along with some pointers on how to combat these. I will then give tips on simple visualization techniques that you can promptly enforce in your company.
What Is Visualization of Decision-Making?
Visualization of decision-making involves presenting information in a graphical, more concrete representation to help make ideas and concepts easier to understand and analyze. Patterns, trends, and deviations can then be quickly identified, and conclusions can be swiftly drawn. Concise and proper visualization can help decision-makers efficiently formulate actionable solutions to various problems.
Essentially, what visualization does is it tells the entire story concisely and precisely so that large amounts of information can be studied in just a glance.
Misconceptions on Visualization of Decision-Making
Visualization is a powerful strategy that presents vital information in a more convenient, easier-to-understand manner. However, many leaders still hold qualms about enforcing this process, preventing their team from fully utilizing and benefitting from this creative and effective decision-making tactic.
Here are some of the most common false assumptions that you might also be harboring about the visualization technique in decision-making:
1. Information May Be Distorted
Some people worry that information can easily be filtered and tweaked to allow biases and self-serving motives to shine through. Although this is possible, the secret lies in transparency.
To avoid distortion, make sure to cite sources and references. Gather comprehensive data, whether they adhere to your goals or not, to have a more inclusive stance on the issues at hand.
2. Infographics Are Distracting
Some leaders feel that graphs, charts, and images may take away from the goal — that is, to make rational decisions to benefit the business. Admittedly, flashy, over-the-top designs might distract people from the true essence of the information you would like to share, so to eliminate this risk, stick to straightforward yet visually-appealing designs that can effectively convey accurate information.
3. Visualization Techniques Require Skills and Money
Some leaders are unwilling to invest additional resources and funds into developing visualization strategies for their teams. Aside from these forcing the business to incur more expenses (and perhaps additional manpower), leaders worry that creating infographics requires special skills and know-how.
Graphs, charts, and diagrams can be executed as simply as possible by using a whiteboard and marker, or as elaborately as you would like by utilizing modern technology. These days, there are many decision-making visualization tools that offer free access, drag-and-drop features, user-friendly interfaces, and creative templates that can help simplify visualization techniques for you.
How Visualization Enhances Your Decision-Making Process
Visualization provides you with a way to better understand and analyze available information so you can make more comprehensive and well-informed decisions for your business. Leaders have long turned to it to better illustrate their points to their teams, but lately, visualization has become more prevalent with the advent of artificial intelligence in effective decision-making.
Benefits of Visualization of Decision-Making
Let’s explore some of the benefits of using visualization to enhance the decision-making process:
1. Makes Information Easier To Interpret
Time is always of the essence when it comes to decision-making. The quicker you’re able to understand and analyze information, the faster you’re able to make the best decisions for your business.
Charts, graphs, and diagrams work great for summarizing complex information into a simpler, easier-to-understand format. You and your team will be able to assess data from different perspectives since the whole picture is virtually available to you.
2. Information Interpretation Is More Accurate
Long-winded explanations leave plenty of room for misinterpretations, confusion, and errors. By visualizing the decision-making process through infographics, you can be as objective and accurate as you can be and promote factual analysis and precise conclusions.
3. Speedier Decision-Making
Since visualization allows people to absorb and interpret large amounts of information at a glance, decisions can be arrived at sooner and with fewer complications. Errors, flaws, and inaccuracies in the information presented can also be quickly identified, so decision-making becomes more logical and relevant.
Cons of Visualization of Decision-Making
The benefits of visualization are overwhelming but it does come with some drawbacks. Here are some of those that you might want to mull over:
- Entails added expenses. Needless to say, visualization entails costs, even the most basic ones where only a whiteboard and markers are needed. Extra skills are also needed to conceptualize and develop visuals, which may also require additional expenses from the company.
- Security issues. Having large-scale, crucial information all in one graph or table can be risky for the business. Privacy breaches may be encountered, especially when sensitive information is involved.
Visualization Techniques
There are different ways to use visualization techniques to effectively get critical messages across to your team. Depending on what type of information you want to share, you have plenty of options to choose from.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the more popular visualization techniques:
- Graphs and charts. These are great for tracking progress and identifying patterns and trends. Graphs and charts present information using an x and y axis, usually to compare data against each other. Here are some types of graphs and charts:
- Gannt charts. These are commonly used in project management to efficiently monitor timelines and tasks.
- Pie charts. Used in dividing information and showing relative “slices” that represent percentages, figures, or shares, all of which add up to 100.
- Flowcharts and bubble charts. These can help show the various stages of a project and how everything is linked together.
- Tables. Information is arranged in columns and rows, and is perhaps the most basic and easiest way to visualize information.
- Geospatial visualization. Information is displayed in map form, revealing interrelationships between various locations. This is an ideal tool for when you want to open a new branch or relocate your office.
- Dashboards. These provide easy-to-understand summaries of interrelated information and metrics so that it will be easy to analyze, monitor, and implement various projects.
- Decision intelligence. One of artificial intelligence’s most practical applications in business is decision intelligence. Hand in hand with visualization techniques, collaboration tools, and other types of new technology, it can help enhance your decision-making processes. Here are 2 of the more popular methods:
- Decision trees. These are frameworks with “branches and leaves,” hence the term, that explores various solutions to given problems. Incorporated are potential costs, risks, and outcomes. Cloverpop is widely favored by business leaders for their drag-and-drop features and unique templates that help make decision-making more seamless and efficient.
- Decision matrices. Information grids help analyze solution alternatives by ranking them according to viability and impact on the business. This works best for situations with binary options.
Final Thoughts
Visualization of decision-making involves the process of reconstructing information into a format that is easier to understand, explore, and analyze. Trends, patterns, comparisons, and challenges can quickly be identified, enabling leaders to make better-informed, inclusive, and relevant decisions.
When you’re ready to find out how visualization strategies can help streamline your business’ decision-making processes, schedule a demo right away with us at Sancus Leadership. We can tailor-fit a decision-making framework for your company’s unique needs that will allow you to achieve your goals quicker.
