If you think I make a lot of frameworks, check out Paul Byrne.

Paul’s a leadership coach based in The Netherlands and he’s grown quite a library of gorgeous visuals on the topic.

The first visual of his I saw was a spiralized take on a Leader’s journey through life (above).

But that was just the beginning.

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Scroll, scroll, scroll through his content and you’ll see dozens of them: timelines, 2x2’s, Venn diagrams, bubble charts.

A sea of beautiful frameworks can be a paradise for a visual thinker, but it also brought to mind some call-outs to consider when building out your portfolio of Intellectual Headshots — frameworks, in particular.

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Borrowed / refined frameworks:

Paul has an original signature framework, The Leadership Circle Profile, which is a central asset of his newsletter.

Paul also posts his own visual depictions of other people’s published work.

The original version of the Leader’s journey spiral from the University of Utah is below:

In my mind, publishing your own original framework is always preferable, but a re-imagining of an existing one is ok as long as you give proper credit, which Paul does.

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Quantity & dilution

If you’re pumping out frameworks regularly, there’s a real risk that you might end up confusing your audience — “If I end up working with him, which of these does he actually use?”

Sometimes, less is more.

And don’t be afraid to post the same original framework repeatedly. This provides more opportunities for the audience to connect the visual to you, and reinforces your message rather than diluting it.

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Surprise stops the scroll

Of all of Paul’s frameworks, the one that caught my eye the most was this one I refer to as the "macaroni chart".

Rather than just a typical time series, Paul used this noodle-shaped overlay to call attention to James Hollis’s concept of “The Middle Passage”.

The simple but unexpected overlay focused my attention instantly and oriented my interpretation around that central panel.

And the true test -- if I had to re-create it from memory a couple hours from now, I could.

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Distribution & Application

LinkedIn and newsletters are obvious distribution channels for visuals to get out into the world, reach people, and start speaking for you, but…

In my experience, the real magic of frameworks in particular comes when pulling them out on a live call.

After hearing a prospect out, pause to say: “Can I pull up a framework that might help structure some of what I just heard?”

For that magic to compound, this should be an original, memorable, and simple framework that you use in your actual work that a client can immediately identify with and apply to their context in real-time.

From there, you can guide a deeper conversation with a common language.

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In sum:

• Prioritize original frameworks over borrowed
• Either way, make them surprising & memorable
• Invest time in a signature framework as your main Intellectual Headshot — it will serve multiple purpose across marketing, sales and delivery
• ​Other visual formats with less cognitive load (e.g. memes and visual metaphors) can be better suited for high-volume marketing

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Been feeling stuck pulling those frameworks out of your head and into something crisp and shareable?

November Headshot sprints are open.

Grab yours or schedule a free consult to see if it's a good fit.