A long time ago, a man named Harry Beck came up with a way of cleanly mapping London's Underground station network. It was revolutionary in that it hid complexity by focusing less on details and more on the big picture. Beck's method has become the standard for clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness in public transit.
As I was waiting for a train this morning and saw our local "Beck style" map, I wondered how this applies in corporate settings.
When organizations communicate vision, direction, initiatives, etc. how often do we confuse people by being too detailed, accurate, and "busy" in our maps?
Our challenge is to come up with a map of our organization's vision that Harry Beck could be proud of.