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Rich Pictures and Influence Diagrams: Visual Tools for Understanding Complex Situations, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Creative Thinking

Moulton CollegeCreative Thinking

An introduction to rich pictures and influence diagrams, two visual tools used in Peter Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology for gathering information about complex situations. Rich pictures are used to encapsulate the real situation through a cartoon representation of all ideas covered, while influence diagrams represent the main structural features of a situation and the important relationships that exist among them.

What you will learn

  • How do influence diagrams differ from rich pictures in terms of their purpose and format?
  • What is the purpose of using rich pictures in problem solving or creative thinking methods?
  • What are the main elements of an influence diagram and how are they used to represent a situation?

Typology: Study Guides, Projects, Research

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/27/2022

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Rich pictures
Purpose
Rich pictures were particularly developed as part of Peter Checkland's Soft Systems
Methodology for gathering information about a complex situation (Checkland, 1981;
Checkland and Scholes, 1990). The idea of using drawings or pictures to think about
issues is common to several problem solving or creative thinking methods (including
therapy) because our intuitive consciousness communicates more easily in
impressions and symbols than in words. Drawings can both evoke and record insight
into a situation, and different visualization techniques such as visual brainstorming,
imagery manipulation and creative dreaming have been developed emphasizing one
of these two purposes over the other (Garfield, 1976; McKim, 1980; Shone, 1984;
Parker, 1990).
Rich pictures are drawn at the pre-analysis stage, before you know clearly which
parts of the situation should best be regarded as process and which as structure.
Part of a rich picture of a telephone helpline situation
Rich pictures (situation summaries) are used to depict complicated situations. They
are an attempt to encapsulate the real situation through a no- holds-barred, cartoon
representation of all the ideas covered already layout, connections, relationships,
influences, cause-and-effect, and so on. As well as these objective notions, rich
pictures should depict subjective elements such as character and characteristics,
points of view and prejudices, spirit and human nature. If you are working with a
client you should try to draw these from the actors themselves, at least initially,
rather than focusing on your own interpretation of the situation.
Elements:
pf3
pf4
pf5

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Rich pictures Purpose Rich pictures were particularly developed as part of Peter Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology for gathering information about a complex situation (Checkland, 1981; Checkland and Scholes, 1990). The idea of using drawings or pictures to think about issues is common to several problem solving or creative thinking methods (including therapy) because our intuitive consciousness communicates more easily in impressions and symbols than in words. Drawings can both evoke and record insight into a situation, and different visualization techniques such as visual brainstorming, imagery manipulation and creative dreaming have been developed emphasizing one of these two purposes over the other (Garfield, 1976; McKim, 1980; Shone, 1984; Parker, 1990). Rich pictures are drawn at the pre-analysis stage, before you know clearly which parts of the situation should best be regarded as process and which as structure. Part of a rich picture of a telephone helpline situation Rich pictures (situation summaries) are used to depict complicated situations. They are an attempt to encapsulate the real situation through a no- holds-barred, cartoon representation of all the ideas covered already layout, connections, relationships, influences, cause-and-effect, and so on. As well as these objective notions, rich pictures should depict subjective elements such as character and characteristics, points of view and prejudices, spirit and human nature. If you are working with a client you should try to draw these from the actors themselves, at least initially, rather than focusing on your own interpretation of the situation. Elements:

  • pictorial symbols;
  • keywords;
  • cartoons;
  • sketches;
  • symbols;
  • title. Conventions
  1. To help interpret a situation, choose symbols, scenes or images that represent the situation. Use as many colours as necessary and draw the symbols on a large piece of paper. Try not to get too carried away with the fun and challenge to your ingenuity in finding pictorial symbols.
  2. Put in whatever connections you see between your pictorial symbols: avoid producing merely an unconnected set. Places where connections are lacking may later prove significant.
  3. Avoid too much writing, either as commentary or as 'word bubbles' coming from people's mouths (but a brief summary can help explain the diagram to other people).
  4. Don't include systems boundaries or specific references to systems in any way (see below). Guidelines
  5. A rich picture is an attempt to assemble everything that might be relevant to a complex situation. You should somehow represent every observation that occurs to you or that you gleaned from your initial survey.
  6. Fall back on words only where ideas fail you for a sketch that encapsulates your meaning.
  7. You should not seek to impose any style or structure on your picture. Place the elements on your sheet wherever your instinct prompts. At a later stage you may find that the placement itself has a message for you.
  8. If you “don't know where to begin”, then the following sequence may help to get you started: a. first look for the elements of structure in the situation (these are the parts of the situation that change relatively slowly over time and are relatively stable, the people, the set-ups, the command hierarchy, perhaps); b. next look for elements of process within the situation (these are the things that are in a state of change: the activities that are going on); c. then look for the ways in which the structure and the processes interact. Doing this will give you an idea of the climate of the situation. That is, the ways in which the structure and the processes relate to each other.
  9. Avoid thinking in systems terms. That is, using ideas like: “Well, the situation is made up of a marketing system and a production system and a quality control system”. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the word “system” implies organized interconnections and it may be precisely the absence of such organized interconnectedness that lies at the heart of the matter: therefore, by assuming its existence (by the use of the word system) you may be missing the point. Note, however, that this does not mean that there won't be some sort of link or connection between your graphics, as mentioned above. The second reason is that doing so will channel you down a particular line of thought, namely the search for ways of making these systems more

Conventions

  1. As in systems maps, blob lines represent component boundaries. Inclusion of blobs and a system boundary is optional but highly recommended.
  2. An arrow (e.g. 1 or 2 in the figure above) joining component aaa to component bbb or ccc shows that aaa can or does influence bbb or ccc.
  3. A double-headed arrow (e.g. 3) should never be used to denote a two-way influence unless the influence is identical. Two separate arrows (e.g. 4) are preferable (see guideline 5).
  4. Words (e.g. aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, etc.) label components and system (if shown). They may also label arrows, if the nature of the influence is not obvious from the context. Alternatively, different influence can be represented by dotted (e.g. 5) or bold (e.g. 6) lines as long as a key is given.
  5. Arrows do not show material flows.
  6. An influence diagram, like a systems map, is a snapshot.
  7. Arrows denote capacity to influence, not a sequence in time.
  8. A title defining the system of interest is essential. Guidelines
  9. Avoid using arrows from features in the environment to the system boundary. By definition factors in the environment affect the system, so such arrows are superfluous. Arrows from environmental factors should terminate at a specific system component where possible. Arrows to the system boundary carry information only if they distinguish different types of influence (see guideline 3 below).
  10. Different thicknesses of lines can indicate different strengths of influence. Thus in the figure above, 6 denotes a stronger influence than 1.
  11. It is possible to distinguish different types of influence (e.g. influence via finance, information, supply of materials). Do so only if such distinctions are important and not self-evident, by the use of different lines (colour, dashing) to show this, and a key to explain them.
  12. Resist the temptation to overload the diagram with information. It may be helpful to you to put down all influences you can think of at first, but for communication to others, select the significant ones.
  13. Resist the temptation to use double headed arrows. Use them only when the influence is truly reciprocal and of the same type. If you are not careful the use of a double headed arrow can obscure important differences in the types of influence and their magnitude, which is seldom, if ever, equal. Use two arrows pointing in opposite directions instead.
  14. Space and relative distance can also be used to suggest things about the nature of the relationships shown, e.g. an important but remote relationship.

Multiple cause diagrams Format for a multiple cause diagram Purpose This type of diagram is used to explore why a given event happened or why a certain class of events tends to occur. It is not intended to predict behaviour, but may be used to develop a list of factors to bear in mind when considering comparable circumstances in the future. It is also useful for finding out why something went wrong or keeps recurring, e.g. through a causal loop, so that steps can be taken to prevent its recurrence. It can be derived from an influence diagram or developed anew. Elements:

  • system boundary (optional);
  • phrases;
  • arrows (which may occasionally be labelled);
  • title. Conventions
  1. Inclusion of a system boundary is optional but recommended.
  2. The phrases (aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, etc.) relate to a state or an event e.g. “flat battery” or “battery goes flat”. But, as the diagram is developed, it is preferable to describe these factors in terms of a variable (something that has a value that can go up or down) e.g. “amount of charge in battery”.
  3. Arrows indicate the causal connections between the phrases, and are read as phrase at tail of arrow c auses phrase at head of arrow , e.g. “leaving lights on” causes “flat battery”.
  4. In a more developed diagram, with variables rather than states, the arrow is better read as “affects” e.g. “length of time lights are left on” affects “amount of charge in battery”.