In The Beginning

Bigger Picture was founded by Lennart and Ole Qvist-Sørensen in 2003. The seed idea to form a company was already planted in 1995, when Ole entered the three year entrepreneur education Kaospilots. The second year of the Kaospilots was located in Silicon Valley and during this year Ole and Lennart (at that time vice president in the Danish IT company KMD) started a collaborative project: Ole was an "outpost" for KMD scouting for cutting edge IT ideas.

That same year Ole served as an intern at the Institute for the Future. IFTF worked closely with the Grove Consultants International where they creating 3 day events for clients where they used large murals to convey future scenarios. Here the power of using visuals in process work became clear to Ole and at he had found a practice to fit his skills (ever since his early age, Ole had been fond of putting everything on one page and drawing out meaning. in the beginning just for himself:.and later for others).

Returning to Denmark after a year in California, Ole - together with Pioneer of Change Carsten Ohm Andersen - entered Roskilde University and did research on how to improve learning in organisations and teams. In 2002, a year's research resulted in one sentence being the source code for group learning:

"Group learning is an autopoietic process in which the groups themselves, actively, through decision communication design their own knowledge on the basis of structural coupling switching to the environment."

In the following year Ole continued to work on how a visual methodology could be developed to help people understand and actively use the power of the collective. This methodology became the foundation on which Bigger Picture was formed and what characterises the work Bigger Picture does today.

Many people have played (and still play) a part in this journey. Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the past, present and future of Bigger Picture!

... For making the start-up happen: Liselotte Strøyberg, Niels Sværdpiil, Finn Kollerup, Steen Hvid, Charlotte Rosenberg, Jacob Voldby and Oddne Lægreid.

... For ongoing strategic conversations: Søren Brandi, Tom Hefting, Matti Straub and Natalka Chichkova.

... For continuous encouragement and support: Lotte Darsø, Mads Kjaer, Ove Munch Ovesen, Juanita Brown, David Isaacs and Carsten Ohm Andersen.

... For being the first courageous customers to sign a contract based on a sketch - in early 2003: Niels Anker Jørgensen (Skat), Kenneth Jessen, Susanne Jacobsen & Marie Wahlers Nielsen (Novo Nordisk Service Partner) and Allan Vendelboe (Ballerup Kommune).

... And for bringing Bigger Picture to the global stage with assignments for ABN AMRO Bank, Shell, JAC and the Shambhala Institute: Bob Stilger, Tim Merry, Carsten Ohm Andersen (all from the Pioneers of Change network) and Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Wendy MacPhedran, Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer (all from the World Cafe and Society for Organisational Learning).