Author: Jim Ulvog

Creative visualization – astounding use of a map to show statistical data

(cross-post from Attestation Update)

A graph of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia shows the devastating losses suffered during the advance on Moscow and retreat.  It is the best illustration I’ve seen of creatively presenting a complex body of information.  Dare I say it is a beautiful graph?  Why is this of interest to us?  It shows a powerful way to communicate statistical data.

You can see the graph here at Cartographia.  Click on the map to enlarge.

One sentence of explanation allows you to interpret the entire view – Continue reading “Creative visualization – astounding use of a map to show statistical data”

Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 2

Previous post introduced an article by La Piana Consulting, which discusses their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.

In their report, La Piana identifies five emerging trends.  I will mention the five with a brief comment or two on each.  As I mentioned earlier, I will clearly identify the direct quotes from their article.

“Demographic shifts redefine participation ” – Continue reading “Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 2”

Creative visualizations-military history illustration

(cross-post from Attestation Update)

I’ve been interested lately in creative ways to show data.  We accountants are great at absorbing a lot of numbers and finding the patterns.  Other people who don’t have our mind-set can not see what we see.  We need to find new ways to explain things.

How would you summarize the location and intensity of wars over the last several centuries?  One of my favorite historians would do that verbally over the course of a full-length book or a dozen columns.  (And I’d love every word of it too!)

Jordi Colomer has done so in a 5 minute video:

Continue reading “Creative visualizations-military history illustration”

Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 1

I previously discussed an article by La Piana Consulting here and here and now would like to discuss their report  Convergence – How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.

One of their key concepts is convergence.  That is the title of their report, so I guess it would make sense that is the overriding issue.  Their point is that not only are there some very major trends that are going to have a dramatic impact on the nonprofit community, but these trends will interact with each other to reinforce and compound change.

Continue reading “Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 1”

Peering forward – technology is destroying and creating jobs

“Technology is eating jobs”

So says Andy Kessler in his Wall Street Journal article, Is Your Job an Endangered Species?

He says there are two kinds of workers today:

Continue reading “Peering forward – technology is destroying and creating jobs”

Peering forward – We need to try really hard to see reality clearly

One of the questions raised by David Kinnaman in the article I discussed earlier is this: “Do you have practices in place to clearly see reality?”

It’s really hard to even ask that question.

Continue reading “Peering forward – We need to try really hard to see reality clearly”

Peering forward – We all need to be Futurists!

The last half of the article by La Piana Consulting in the Winter 2010 Outcomes has a section title that says Be a Futurist.  In this section they talk at length about how organizations can learn about the changes going on, study them, and then adapt. 

This will require studying the changes around us, listening to uncomfortable analysis, and putting forth the serious intellectual effort to grasp new things.  That is essentially becoming a futurist. 

Making that transition will be hard.  Continue reading “Peering forward – We all need to be Futurists!”

Peering Forward – Technology will change even faster

I’ve been talking about the Winter 2010 Outcomes from Christian Leadership Alliance. You would learn and stretch if you could take a few minutes and browse the issue.

Kevin Ring has a great article, Future-Proof Ministries that talks through some of the current and long-term tech issues.

Continue reading “Peering Forward – Technology will change even faster”

Peering Forward – How do we respond to developing trends?

Earlier discussed that we need to pay attention to the trends in our culture and then looked at some of those trends identified by David Kinnaman.

How do we respond to those trends?  Kinnaman raises four superb questions in his article.  I will quote his questions and share my thoughts.

Continue reading “Peering Forward – How do we respond to developing trends?”

Peering forward – We all need to become armchair futurists

Where our culture is headed and the resulting impact on ministries is the focus of the Winter 2010 issue of Outcomes from Christian Leadership Alliance.  Lots of great articles that I’ll talk about a while.

The rate of change around us makes me dizzy. 

Continue reading “Peering forward – We all need to become armchair futurists”

How do you present complex data? Look at these visualizations

Check out how to present multiple pieces of data from every country on the planet over a 40 year trend in such a way that anyone can get your point.  Professor Hans Rosling has a way of showing extremely complicated data so you can get the idea in a few minutes.

Some examples:

Continue reading “How do you present complex data? Look at these visualizations”