A Video Is Worth a Thousand Pictures
By Chris Soderquist and Rebecca Niles
When you present a systems thinking diagram—whether stock and flow or causal loop—do you find that eyes glaze over? Does it contain too much detail for many in your audience? While these pictures are worth a thousand words, they can be a bit much for some, especially those who did not participate in their initial development. As systems thinking consultants, we have been on an ongoing quest to spread systemic insights in a way that the broadest of audiences can digest and put into action.
We recently tested a novel approach to communicating systems ideas to a broad audience in a very short timeframe. In less than 20 days, a team created an 
animated video that could be widely distributed and easily understood, drawing people into a deeper look at the structure of a large, complex system. The project focused on helping educate the public and New Hampshire state legislators about the possible unintended consequences of proposed cuts to state health and human services funding.
Pooling Our Knowledge
The process was started by NHCanDoBetter.org, which convened a group of the state’s leading health and human service professionals, former state legislators, communications experts, and systems thinking practitioners for the purposes of pooling their knowledge of the issues and quickly developing a high-level model of the implications of the proposed budget cuts.
The initial process took about six hours. We started with a visual nominal group process using hexagon post-its to make sure that the group surfaced all of the potential outcomes of funding cuts. We then divided into two consultant-led groups that independently developed stock and flow maps with feedback loops to capture the dynamics.
The result was two rough stock and flow diagrams that captured the stories the group wanted to tell. These graphics included the impact of budget cuts to health and human services on local communities, the business climate, and individuals.
We later integrated, simplified, and illustrated these maps in isee systems’ iThink computer simulation software. The stock and flow model was then converted into a video script. Interested participants helped to refine the story through online work sessions using Adobe Connect.
We then turned the completed script over to a graphic artist, Steven Wright, who developed a set of animated pictures to accompany the story. The same stakeholders then provided feedback to improve the quality and impact of these images. A voiceover was added to complete the package, and the animated video was widely disseminated via the internet.
A Clear Beginning, Middle, and End
The resulting video was very well received. Brett St. Clair, representative of NHCanDoBetter.org and partner at Louis Karno & Company LLC, had this to say: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures. We had nothing but positive feedback on the video. It uses the systems mapping technique to tell our story effectively with a clear beginning, middle, and end. I just received an email yesterday from a reporter with our state’s largest newspaper who has been assigned a story on the impact of state budget cuts, and she said she had been forwarded a link to our video from one of her colleagues who covers the state capitol beat. Just the kind of thing we’d hoped for.”
While stock and flow diagrams are rich in detail and storytelling capability, they may be considered too technical for wide audience acceptance. We believe that by using systems diagrams as the basis for video presentations, groups can create compelling stories that will be of great interest to the general population. By doing so, we can increase our ability to spread systemic thinking and, in turn, change the world for the better.
Chris Soderquist has more than 15 years of experience as a system dynamics consultant and trainer, with a diverse set of clients from the private and public sectors. He is a guest lecturer at the Darden School of Business (University of Virginia) in their Executive Education Program and is on the Boeing Engineering Leadership Program’s development team. Chris is a contributing author to The Change Handbook (Berrett-Koehler, 1999) and delivers system dynamics webinars for isee systems, where he is a consulting partner.
Rebecca Niles is a partner with the Systems Thinking Collaborative. Since 1995, Rebecca has been coaching teams in the use of systems thinking to understand complex issues ranging from teacher absenteeism to employee retention to new drug discovery to economic growth in Nigeria to reduction of child maltreatment. She provides training, facilitation, consulting, computer modeling, and learning laboratory development and delivery services. Rebecca has a master’s degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Other systems stories and simulations
View the Introduction to Systems Thinking webinar series, featuring Rebecca Niles and Chris Soderquist.