Visualizing Success: How to use a CE Plot in your next Workshop or Whiteboard Session.

philip bowler
Sep 9
3 min read

“Is your bubble big enough, or just full of hot air?”—A practical guide to seeing what’s urgent (and what’s just noise), with a little twist of mischief.

Why Bubbles Matter More Than Numbers

Bubbles of excellence near a lighthouse.

When executives look at a CE Plot, most see only numbers—the monotone tick of governance, the clinical view of improvement.

But commercial diagnostics are a visual sport: the real champions spot the biggest bubbles first, knowing that size tells the story of “unrealized maturity.”

If your chart looks like champagne—big bubbles where maturity is low—don’t pop the cork just yet.

Demystifying the Gap: Don’t Fall in It

The Gap is not a chasm you shout into. It’s a simple calculation: Gap=Ideal−AS IS.

That’s the distance between your ambitions and your current reality. It sits on the Y-axis, pinpointing how far you have to climb. But—and this is the critical insight—the gap exists independent of the actual rooting of your operation. It tells where effort must go, but not how mature that root is.

The Bubble: Is Big Really Bad?

Don’t trust your eyes alone. The Bubble Size represents your “AS IS” state, but in reverse: Bubble Size=10−AS IS. The bigger the bubble, the less mature your operation.

Why reverse it? Because visual priority matters—humans are drawn to the largest shapes, not the smallest, so a big bubble yells “work needed here!” If a client’s first response is “Why does my biggest gap not always show as the largest bubble?” the answer is sharp: they measure two different ‘tragedies’—distance to goal (Gap) and lack of foundation (Bubble).

Here we see 3 example aspects of a Plot. It's Obvious that you need to action #3 First! Right?!!!.

Don't let your teams get caught up with driving their pet agendas. This is a technique to get them to objectively think!.

How to Use the Plotting Template

Let’s get practical.

It’s a cornerstone of the Book. “Commercial Excellence Playbook” (bowler 2025).

But this technique can also be used in workshops and whiteboard sessions.

Try this simple process:

1) Brainstorm the aspects of a particular problem you have.

2) Rate Each Aspect from 1-10 using the 3 Lens approach (if you don’t know what that is check this article out here) In essence As Is, Ideal and Importance or Relevance to moving the needle.

3) Calculate your Gap IDEAL – AS IS.

4) Calculate your bubble Size (10 – AS IS)

5) Plot Each aspect on your Chart.

a. X Axis point is Relevance

b. Y Axis Point is the GAP

c. Draw Out the dot to the bubble Size (there’s a bit of guess work here if your white-boarding).

6) All you have to do is look for the Top Right with the biggest bubble. That’s what to tackle first.

Either have each member go through the entire exercise on their own or ask for their scores and average them to produce a team consensus point.

This technique also avoids going down a rabbit hole discussion using wide concepts. You can re-direct the conversation about the factors effecting the AS IS and IDEAL scores. A much more productive and insightful conversation to draw out real Issues that move the needle.

Pro+ Tip (cue the Richard Quest wink): If your leadership team walks past a big bubble and doesn’t flinch, good luck turning vision into value.

Analogues in Elite Strategy

BCG and McKinsey benchmark the world’s best by looking for gaps, yes—but the best teams see where maturity and how solid the foundation is.

“Nothing to See Here” Should be “Nothing to see”! That is a small hard to spot dot on your Plot.

This plotting technique gives a C-suite that helicopter view, and spotlights the priority zones for strategic investment.

Want to try it for yourself? Download a sample plotting template and finally make your strategy session visually actionable. No need for blackboard debates—see instantly where the urgent, impactful work is hiding.