As a manager, I find myself needing to use a common set of diagrams over and over. One of them is the image of the famed “three circles that overlap,” or put more technically “a Venn diagram of three intersecting sets.” The point of the diagram is to symbolize the powerful concept of synergy coming from the combination of multiple sources.

Many a movement or initiative has been launched atop this simple platform of thought by placing words within the three circles. For instance, the combination of “chocolate,” “peanut butter,” and “marketing” lies at the perfect storm of my personal definition for true convergence: Reese’s peanut butter cups. If you click on the left-side of the diagram, you get it served up on white; on black by clicking on the right-side. May you motivate many an audience in 2007 with this simple tool to be used in a future PPT presentation.