Dialog Mapping

This model is a 'dialog', developed by a team in a workshop. It illustrates a decision tree for how a company can move into new markets. The methodology is called Dialog Mapping and was popularised in the book: Dialogue Mapping - Bulding Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, by Jeff Conklin   (We recommend it) The model is illustrative only.

Southbeach|MyCreativity rules have been added to the model, and which can be used with any model. The generated output can be used to guide workshop practice. Look at the hierarchical 'creativity library' on the left. The Dialog Mapping tool is organized into a number of categories, e.g.

- 3questions
- assessment
- background
- conceptual ... (left Creativity panel).

The user is able to check or uncheck (enable/disable) any set of questions to create combinations of generated output. In this case, '3questions' and 'pros and cons' are enabled, generating 12 lines of output having clicked on the agent "We could modify existing products"

21 Drivers for the 21st Century - Climate Change

This model is based on the Nov '09 newsletter from Outsights, a leading Scenario Planning and Horizon Scanning consultancy. It illustrates research sources that lead to uncertainty factors in the climate change debate and measurement models. The screenshot shows a simple Southbeach|MyCreativity rule set to question the model. (The model is illustrative only, and does not represent in any way the full richness of the Outsights research)

Fear of steep energy bill prices reported by Ofgen UK

This model illustrates high level themes in a BBC news item about a new Ofgen report, predicting high prices for energy in the UK, unstable supply and proposing four possible scenarios/outcomes for the environment, UK security and consumers. The Southbeach creative output panel lower middle is providing best practice questions from a technique called Backcasting. This is one of 21 techniques included in the Best Practices Toolkit of the Horizon Scanning Centre (HSC) of the UK government Foresight program (www.foresight.gov.uk). The full toolkit is available here: http://hsctoolkit.tribalctad.co.uk/

SWOT chart with rules-driven creative output

This Southbeach Modeller screenshot shows a Southbeach grid, defining a SWOT analysis. An artificial example is given to illustrate how the model can generate creative output, both by analyzing the agents and effects between them, as well as their placement on the grid. Each agent knows where it is on the grid, and therefore, rules that refer to grid axes can pick up the names of those agents. The panel on the right shows some of the syntax. What this illustrates is the powerful semantics of Southbeach Notation being linked to the creativity of its users, to generate applications (creative 'tools') that others can use to analyse other models.



Note from founder Howard Smith: We are close the dream I had in the original 'triz methods' series of articles, where active models would suggest their own improvements. This SWOT example was covered in this article, originally published at BPTrends.com. Beyond SWOT and towards change

Economic Uncertainty by Outsights.co.uk

This model is based on a fortnightly update newsletter from Outsights research. For more information on how to use this information in your organization, write to drivers@outsights.co.uk.

Preview of MyCreativity User Interface

This screenshot is a preview of Southbeach | MyCreativity, to be released later this year. On the left, you see the palette panel now has it own tabs. One of these is 'Creativity'. This list all the rules/scripts/applications available to the Modeller. Each can be turned on or off or combined. Clicking around a model then generates the appropriate output in the lower panel. This output panel has its own context (right mouse) menu which gives control of the formatting of the output.

Rule sets are developed by the user, and simply copying them to an appropriate directory makes them available for use.

21 Drivers for the 21st Century - War, Terrorism, Insecurity (outsights.co.uk)

Southbeach can be effective at visualizing and asking questions about 'scenarios'.

Scenario planning is a strategic planning method that some corporations and many public sector organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is considered by some as part of 'corporate innovation'. Related terms include futures studies, horizon scanning, forecasting and roadmapping.

Outsights is a leading practitioner of scenario planning and horizon scanning - helping clients (including public sector organizations and NGOs) to anticipate, interpret and act on important developments in the external world. Their latest work is entitled '21 Drivers for the 21st Century'. Here is a small Southbeach model based on the summary ideas within one scenario.

Capturing knowledge from the Web

Use Southbeach Modeller to search the Web to find related articles. Copy and paste text from the Web into your models. Model the associated effects and then generate creative output as required, using domain specific rule sets (MyCreativity) developed by you. Apply these to any model you develop in the future. Share models or rule sets with colleagues.

Humungous models

As the following screen shot shows, Southbeach Modeller is not limited to small models. Add hundreds of agents and hundreds of links. Generate reports and creativity based on these models, selectively or over all links, according to rules set by you with Southbeach | MyCreativity.

GE Whitney Symposium '09

A screenshot of a Southbeach model of GE (General Electric co), based on text from the company's home page. Links in the model can be used to search the Web. Clicking on elements of the model triggers the generation of creative output. This output is not built into the tool. Users of Southbeach Modeller can develop their own methodologies, prompts, questions and suggestions, and apply them selectively to any Southbeach model with full control of output. Patterns are matched as required.

Root cause analysis using Southbeach

VPECT-T and Southbeach | MyCreativity

Fun with Southbeach

Too many ships visiting Antarctica

An early version of Southbeach Modeller, released in 2009.