Seeing Is Believing: How the New Art of Visual Management Can Boost Performance Throughout Your Organization (Hardcover)

by Pamela A. Posey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"""Liff and Posey reveal a dimension of organizational life in the Knowledge Era that we can no longer take for granted -- the sea of visual cues that pervades the workplace. Seeing Is Believing provides rigorous arguments and compelling cases to show how vision maps, customer photographs, performance charts, instructional posters, ‘walls of fame,’ and historical artifacts can engage employees, reinforce a performance ethic, and bring an organization’s mission to life.""

-- William M. Snyder, Principal, Social Capital Group, co-author of Cultivating Communities of Practice

""Liff and Posey have created a masterful work on visual management. Any manager who is unaware of how this new paradigm can improve communication, focus, and productivity will be seriously disadvantaged. Read this book!""

-- Kimball Fisher, author of Leading Self-Directed Work Teams and co-author of The Distance Manager and The Distributed Mind

""You may recognize a productive workplace when you see it, but if you have ever wondered about the principles behind creating such a workplace, this is the place to start. Both practical and visionary, Seeing Is Believing has ideas and tools for senior managers and change agents at all levels of the organization.""

-- Marty Cohen, Director, Associate Services, The Conference Board; former Senior Vice President, Client Services & Programs, Work in America Institute

""A compelling easy-to-read handbook on improving organizational performance by rallying employees around the mission and the metrics. Liff and Posey richly illustrate the method with vivid examples from successful practitioners in manufacturing, government, health care, and education. An original and totally replicable approach!""

-- Bob Stone, author of Confessions of a Civil Servant, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

""This book offers a well grounded approach to changing an organization to improve performance and employee contribution. But what is fascinating is the creative addition of visual conditions and the application of fine arts concepts to even further enhance results.""

-- Bob Wroblewski, Director, HR Planning & Administration, Weyerhaeuser

""If a picture is worth a thousand words, why are so many organizations devoid of visual excitement and coherent visual information? And, what difference would it make if, from the moment you walked into an organization, you saw and felt its purpose, its customers, its accomplishments? Seeing Is Believing expands the meaning of ‘communication’ to include the visual, and tells readers how to use visual information to help people stay energized and focused in their information-overloaded world.""

-- Patricia McLagan, Chairman, McLagan International, Inc."

Product Description
The visual elements in a workplace have a profound effect on its employees. Most organizations, however, do not recognize the power of design, art, sculpture, and graphics to create the vibrancy and energy that can drive productivity and innovation. Seeing Is Believing explains how to use these elements to improve communications, connect individual tasks to organizational goals, and greatly enhance employee commitment and job satisfaction. It shows how the system of Visual Management:* replaces "information overload" with information sharing and effective workflow* translates critical requirements into visual stimuli that cannot be ignored* resonates particularly well with "the MTV generation"* enhances the way customers, other stakeholders, and the public relate to the organizationSeeing Is Believing shows how organizations of all types are adopting VM and lays out a roadmap for successful implementation.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (October 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814408087
• ISBN-13: 978-0814408087
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #546,474 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A powerful idea poorly presented, June 22, 2006

By	Bardia Behravesh (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Seeing Is Believing describes visual management, a "system that reinforces tried-and-true management principles and techniques through the use of fine arts techniques." That is, the book explains why and how one should use visual artifacts to communicate the organization's vision, mission, and values (and gain employee support of the aforementioned), create a customer-focused environment, communicate performance goals and progress, and provide a rewarding work environment for employees, among other things. Examples of visual management include bulletin boards, posters, art works, and war rooms (entire rooms devoted to such displays). The arrangement of furniture in the workplace and the general décor also play into visual management.

The first three chapters of the book are concerned with defining visual management, explaining why it is important, and where it came from. If you ask me, the chapters could have been condensed into one. Chapter two spends an unnecessary amount of time trying to convince the reader that we have become an increasingly visual society (duh!), citing examples such as computer interfaces and the video displays on cell phones.

One particularly amusing example involves comparing classic movies with the movies of today. The authors maintain that while classic movies used a "careful and often time-consuming process of detailed character development", today's movies rely on fast-paced and complex special effects to tell the story and develop the characters. Personally, I would argue the majority of movies today involve no character development whatsoever (and that's why good movies are few and far between nowadays).

The authors then go on to claim that this visually-oriented technology boom has forced us to become visual learners, as if learning visually is a new phenomenon (I guess the authors are not familiar with Howard Gardner's research around multiple intelligences and learning styles).

After suffering through the first three chapters, the reader is finally presented with some actual examples of visual management in practice via several brief case studies. Again, the writing is less than scholarly. No data is presented to back up any of the conclusions presented. For example, the authors claim that the visuals at a particular manufacturing plant "help to reinforce success and foster a sense of pride among the employees", but provide no qualitative or quantitative data to support this claim.

Chapters five and six provide a roadmap for becoming a visual management organization. The six-phase process (plan, frame, create, focus, detail, and renew) is discussed in detail and along with some examples. The final chapter helps the reader assess if visual management is right for his/her organization.

Although I believe visual management tactics make sense and are worth any manager's attention, I feel this book does a poor job of getting the message across. With the exception of a handful of citations throughout the book, the authors fail to share the research that informed their writing.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VM: Bringing the art & science of management to a new level, April 3, 2005

By	Anonymous - See all my reviews

It's hard to imagine that anyone could read this book without having an "aha" experience. Much of what Liff and Posey say is so logical it's hard to believe we haven't already been applying this technique. Liff and Posey do an excellent job of setting the stage as to why Visual Management is a necessary and logical approach in our current visually rich environment. In essence, they clearly explain the why, what, how, when, who, and where of visual management. They also provide plenty of visual examples to get our creativity flowing. This is a must read for managers who want to share information effectively and increase performance.