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NEW - 2010 - HELLO - THE ARENA FOR CHANGE - ALL THINGS CAN BE SOLVED BY 24 CONVERSATIONS - CHANGING THE WAY THE 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATION THINKS & WORKS - An EDITORIAL on our work - How we avoid SOLVING THE WRONG PROBLEM REALLY WELL - How to build A VISION MODEL - MAKING NEW MEANING - What we do IN 10 WORDS OR LESS - Read THE 'PIXAR' OF CONSULTING... - Then delve into our work on THE 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATION + New Downloads' or go straight to THE BIG AND MAIN POINTS OF WHAT WE DO or understand WICKED PROBLEMS. Get the THE FACTS ON GROUP PARTNERS and see VISUAL DISPLAYS See 'OUR MISSION' or 'OUR TEAM', understand our tools - 'STRUCTURED VISUAL THINKING™', the 'THE DECISION MANIFESTO' - WINNING BIG BIDS - our approach '4D™' - see which 'CLIENTS' we work for and what they say - 'CLIENT REFERENCES' And then take a tour around - WHAT DRIVES US - OUR TOOLS - OUR CONTEXT and our ABOUT OUR COMPANY If you want to go to either John Caswell's 'Just Think' Blog or - 'Kevin's Blog'. Go To - 'The Group Partners Quotation Archive' - and if you get lost try KEYWORDS or THE HOME PAGE

Saturday 31 of July, 2010

What do we do at Group Partners?

See the literal What We Do

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1. Group Partners helps its clients to solve complex problems and create valuable opportunities. We do this in partnership with our clients and by applying our tools and techniques. See Structured Visual Thinking™, 4DQ and 4D™. For an interactive explanation of the technique please visit The Interactive Vizmo™
2. Our clients are struggling with complex decisions and trying hard to think through strategy, transformation and change. These objectives demand clear thinking, leadership, alignment focus and significant communication skill. We apply structure, visualization and best in class facilitation through these processes to deliver increased performance.
3. Group Partners changes the way its Clients think and work.
4. Group Partners Clients are the Leaders of large, typically multi-national businesses or government agencies. They are thinking about tough things, their position, their performance, their future, it's complex. See Acceleration
5. Our Clients are aiming to improve their business fast and they want to make the best decisions about how to get there - fast. They need objectivity, expertise and support in this. We have developed an inspiring way to help them. See The Mission

"Complexity well understood is about simplicity." - Dave Snowden

“Deep Simplicity.”

One of the challenges we face in dealing with complex issues in business is actually explaining it simply. On this page we have collected the various descriptions we have for what we do. These are deliberately and yet deceptively simple descriptions and we hope explain the work in a straightforward way. Of course we have begun with a picture of the 4 main frameworks we use. This is called 4D and that stands for Discovery, Development, Decision and Deployment. Four frameworks in which business can rethink their opportunities and discuss their issues.

See Simple Definitions
If you would like further details about the Structured Visual Thinking™ 4D™ or Partnering with Group Partners please contact John Caswell via email

The 'skinny' on what we do.

See Also In 10 Words Or Less

We bring our unique visual, structured thinking processes to solve complex problems for large multi-national clients. Our clients want to liberate opportunity, differentiate and be more innovative - resolve a problem, create a strategy or transform their business. We want to help them do this in a way that liberates confidence renews energy and builds ownership. See Business Challenges, References, Classic Approach

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See Also 4D Explained

What's it all about?

Well, for us it’s about not solving the wrong problem really well. It's about creating a shared appreciation of the bigger picture and using powerful tools. We utilise visualisation, Pattern Recognition and Contextual Frameworks to develop aligned solutions to business problems, supported by confident leaders. See 4D Approach, Outcomes, 4D Deliverables

Who are we?

Group Partners is deliberately a tightly focused and small team which consciously avoids having a ‘long tail’ of things to sell. We have an Expert Network of talented partners but are passionate and faithful to certain values - helping our clients arrive at what is right and needs doing to create value, not what we want to sell them. See Group Partners Values, Visualism, Classic Approach

What we do?

We apply techniques that we have designed and proven over the last 15 years, over 1000 client cases and to every possible type of business problem. Rapid Resolution of complex and persistent business problems. And above all Rapid Value Acceleration

See 4D, SVT, Clients, References

Why is this important?

The world moves very fast and clients can no longer afford to spend 6 months or a year undergoing a comprehensive strategic review by external consultants where the net result is a non shared thesis on what may or may not be the right answer.

Clients can also ill afford to wait while the market moves on and the context in which they operate is shifting so rapidly. They need to get their own hands on the wheel so we build the controls with them.

How does it work?

We have two things to bring to our clients. A four step approach to thinking. Discovery, Development, Decision and Deployment. We call it 4D. It is a visual, collaborative process of partially non-invasive and partially interventionist waves of activity. Its fast, high energy and rewarding.

We also bring Structured Visual Thinking, a visualisation based approach which builds rich scenarios, journeys and stories either created live in team situations or remotely through thorough research or briefing.

We have built a significant - dynamic library of business objects and a digital environment for this which is called SVT Live

Why Does It Work?

Why our work is so important is because it creates the ability to collaborate, share ideas and think through concepts as a leadership team. The mere act of getting people together with open questions and a clear framework is a powerful opportunity to build value and relationships. We see it as a real privilege to extract the insights and make them come real within a structured and practical context. See Collaboration and Conversations

This act is far more visceral than any pure form facilitation. The processing of a conversation in real time, where the instrument of deliberation is a 30 foot by 8 foot white wall, a structured framework and a writing/drawing implement has awesome power in it.

What is the right answer? who said it? why is that right? what does it mean? what are the impacts of that statement or that symbolic representation? It becomes either a dangerous weapon or a breakthrough moment, a piece of important stimulation or something to be edited out forever.

That's its power, right there, an immediate and important consignment to the trash or an agreed operating principle or decision. See Facilitation and Conversations

Powerful indeed.

We don't take this responsibility lightly. Both the wall capture and the patterns in the documentary become critically important phases in the iteration of strategy - important steps in building shared commitment to valuable outcomes.