#99: Photograph versus Movie

A photograph is a snapshot in time. A movie shows events as they unfold over time.

During strategy execution, in telling your story, you often have to provide snapshots:

• A portfolio readout is a photograph. It will change quickly as the organization adapts and evolves. New work is introduced, old work is de-prioritized, so if you want to know the latest status, you have to collect it and present it. In dynamic environments, its probably obsolete the moment it is presented, but a snapshot is probably the only way to present this info.
• Graphs showing market share is another example of a 'snapshot'.
  

In other situations you have to describe how things are unfolding, past present and future:

• A strategy planning session to understand how the organization will gain a competitive advantage requires a description of a flow of events. A non-linear explanation has to be provided for how the environment, regulation, competition, supply-chain, innovation etc. interact to create opportunities and threats. Given the dizzying complexity of the pieces, its easy to see how movie-like storytelling is critical to convey the key points.
• Describing scenarios to understand investment options also are best told as stories. These are the '-if-then' scenarios that take the myriad options and play out the critical few for the audience to understand, adopt and fund.
  

There is the combo option! Use photographs to make a movie. (This is also called a 'slideshow'...)

In telling your story during strategy execution, be careful to understand whether the story is better told using a photograph or a movie. Movies are more 'interesting' but more expensive. Photographs may be less 'dynamic' but if composed well, they can get the point across very quickly.