Journey of an idea

"Journey of an idea, from enthusiastic conception into the highest levels of an organisation, via multitudinous layers of self-doubt, misdirection, middle management and final airing at the highest level with a subsequent swift defeat and hasty retreat."

An infographic after Minard. click here.

1. Tufte likes Minard's original chart
2. I like Tufte
3. and i'm certain that (were he alive and well today) Minard would be a subscriber to secretGeek.

So it is indeed a virtuous circle.

I don't have the time (or graphical skills) to embed the kind of high res notations I'd like to include, showing the various checkpoints along the way as an idea moves from conception to defeat. And I don't have the time to alter the axis at the foot of the image to show "organisational altitude" versus "buy-in."

But maybe a procrastinating graphic designer out there (and they are all procrastinating are they not?) can read my mind on this topic and knock up a high res version for me. And then cooney man can put the t-shirts on cafe press, and the daily quaker can provide the whiteboard version. M'kay?

Larger size [2292*1096]

Happy side note: frequent commenter, 'Farmer JEB', (aka, my brother) is currently in new york, en route to see Tufte in person, after winning a Tufte inspired competition at his workplace. Go JEB! Give Tufte hell!

'vush' on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:08:59 GMT, sez:

Made a nice whoosing sound as it zinged over my head.

'don2' on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:03:11 GMT, sez:

@vush

No I see what he's doing there. He's saying that raising an idea within a big company is comparable with Napoleon's ill-fated invasion on Moscow.

It's very subversive and would be good as a print out on your cubicle wall!

'Waterbreath' on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:13:53 GMT, sez:

Just curious lb, have you been to a Tufte seminar, and what you thought of it?

I attended one a few months ago, myself. I found the morning fascinating, as he talked about the theory of all this stuff. But the afternoon was more than a little boring because he spent the whole time talking about how awesome his data graphic creation, "sparklines", is.

It took about 10 minutes to say everything there is to say about them, fully convincing me of their usefulness in the process. But I was in a coma for the following two hours as he presented a million and one examples of them and described in mind-numbingly redundant detail how they are fully awesome compared to nearly every other small data graphic alternative.

Don't get me wrong. Tufte is brilliant, and his seminar contains a treasure trove of wisdom about creating and using data graphics effectively. I just wasn't thrilled with being sold "sparklines" for 2 hours longer than what I needed to see their value.

'Nate' on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:23:46 GMT, sez:

I felt the same as "Waterbreath". Except, I partially blame the long afternoon on the Chinese food for lunch.

'Michael' on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:31:12 GMT, sez:

In my experience, changing a company, large or small, even with the greatest ideas is extremely...tufte.

'Farmer Jeb' on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:10:44 GMT, sez:

Back in Oz after seeing Mr Tufte Stateside. I agree with Waterbreath though it was the long, anti-NASA tirade that wore me down. Plenty of people were actually walking out. Not surprising as it was in Houston! SG can have a look at the Minard Chart in my "complementary" Tufte books when he visits me on Xmas day.

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