xBlog
In 1999, XPLANE created one of the first business blogs. We have been adding great insights ever since. Check out our latest posts, filled with ideas for designing, facilitating, and creating lasting change for people and organizations.
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How Do You Communicate Effectively in the Workplace? Use Visuals.
How Do You Communicate Effectively in the Workplace? Use Visuals.
Five reasons why it’s time to normalize the work doodle and start communicating with your employees using vi...
Design Consultants vs. Regular Consultants: The Thinkers, Makers, and Doers of Strategy
Design Consultants vs. Regular Consultants: The Thinkers, Makers, and Doers of Strategy
Most companies don't lack good strategies, but fail at implementing them. That is where a design consultancy c...
Pop-Up XPLANE Recap: Our Design Thinking Discussion, Visualized
Pop-Up XPLANE Recap: Our Design Thinking Discussion, Visualized
For our third night of our Pop-Up XPLANE adventure in Detroit, we hosted a panel of brainiacs at DC3 to d...
What Books Shape the Way You Work?
What Books Shape the Way You Work?
We recently asked the XPLANE studio: What books most shape the way you work?...
Olfactoral Thinking: Pushing the Boundaries of Design and Visual Thinking
Olfactoral Thinking: Pushing the Boundaries of Design and Visual Thinking
Design Thinking has been gaining momentum in the business world as a method for problem solving. Visual Thinki...
Create an Inspiring Meeting with The Hero’s Journey Agenda
Create an Inspiring Meeting with The Hero’s Journey Agenda
Organizing a full-day offsite meeting? Leading a two-day summit for your department? Take your team on a journ...
Stop Advising. Start Leading.
Stop Advising. Start Leading.
In many organizations, the role of Human Resources leaders has been to advise and counsel other business leade...
Slow Design: XPLANE Amsterdam Takes on Visual Thinking School
Slow Design: XPLANE Amsterdam Takes on Visual Thinking School
In a results driven world where efficiency seems to be the highest priority, we work hard with a clear target ...
Performance Review Abuse: How HR Policies Might be Hurting Your Employees
Performance Review Abuse: How HR Policies Might be Hurting Your Employees
Recently, our company changed the way we handle performance reviews. We moved from a documented performance re...
The Story of the First Culture Map
The Story of the First Culture Map
Many people have asked me why I am working on something I’ve been calling the Culture Map, a tool f...
Stop Performance Reviews. Start Conversations.
Stop Performance Reviews. Start Conversations.
I once worked with a manager who had what he felt was a brilliant idea for a new performance review system....
What is Culture Mapping and Why Should You Care?
What is Culture Mapping and Why Should You Care?
60-70 percent of change initiatives fail to meet their stated objectives, and the primary source of that failu...
A Brief History of Co-Creation
A Brief History of Co-Creation
Co-Creation is a powerful concept: engaging broad stakeholders in a design or problem-solving process as co-de...
Surviving the Big One: Visual Thinking Through the End of the World
Surviving the Big One: Visual Thinking Through the End of the World
Did you read that article in The New Yorker about how the big Portland earthquake will destroy our beloved Pac...
How I Discovered Visual Thinking
How I Discovered Visual Thinking
I vowed to make this co-creation a regular part of my learning process, and in doing so I soon learned that I ...
Four Things Every Marketing Mastermind Should Know: A Recap of HubSpot’s INBOUND Conference
Four Things Every Marketing Mastermind Should Know: A Recap of HubSpot’s INBOUND Conference
Last week I attended HubSpot’s annual Marketing Conference called INBOUND. This year, over 14,000 market...
Game Design, Unreserved Creativity, and the End of the Sun: An Interview with Ryan Spangler
Game Design, Unreserved Creativity, and the End of the Sun: An Interview with Ryan Spangler
The sun is dying, and the various inhabitants of the planets in this solar system are launching one last effor...
Visual Thinking School: Slowing It Down in a Fast-Paced World
Visual Thinking School: Slowing It Down in a Fast-Paced World
We’re living in an ultra-connected and increasingly fast-paced world that is demanding more and more spe...
VTS: Captain’s Lunch, Engage!
VTS: Captain’s Lunch, Engage!
Captain’s Blog, star date -307557.1
On Thursday, June 11, Spaces Herengracht asked XPLANE to kick...
XPLANE Doodling 101
XPLANE Doodling 101
Whether in a seminar with a team of clients or in an internal meeting with a consultant, the XPLANE designers ...
How to Go on Vacation Like a Program Manager
How to Go on Vacation Like a Program Manager
We’re strong believers in work/life balance, and not the kind where you spend 50% of your vacation stres...
Unicorn Hunting: How I Spot the Right Candidate in a Sea of Donkeys
Unicorn Hunting: How I Spot the Right Candidate in a Sea of Donkeys
I have seen a lot of disasters when it comes to interviews. I have had candidates cry; I have had them tell me...
Gamestorming User Experience—Because You Can
Gamestorming User Experience—Because You Can
Anyone can make a pitch to change the world in which they live. Start with empathy. Draw the story. Pick a car...
XPLANE Designers Take Over Show & Tell at Portland State University
XPLANE Designers Take Over Show & Tell at Portland State University
On Thursday, May 21, our Associate Creative Director Tim May and Designer Jeffery Frankenhauser teamed up with...