I don’t know how many times this happened while I was growing up, but we’d be riding along in our old Chevy Impala—my father driving, my mother in the passenger seat, and my brother and me in the back seat—when my father would suddenly yell out:
“Hurry up! Somebody give me a pencil and a piece of paper! Quick!”
On cue, as if they practiced this routine a thousand times, my mother would roll her eyes and say (with a complete lack of enthusiasm): “Why, Harvey?”
To which my father would inevitably respond: “What do you mean why? Don’t you see the sign?!”
I know, I know—you’re probably groaning right now and rolling your eyes like my mother did. But as corny as that “Dad joke” is—and as many times as we heard it over and over (and over) again, it always made me laugh or at least smile. And to this day, fifty-plus years later, I still smile—and think of my dad (who passed away a few years ago)—every time I come upon a sign that says, “Draw Bridge.” I hope that from now on, you will too, as one of my father’s favorite things in life was to make people laugh.
And I would venture to bet that from now on—whether you want to or not (sorry about that!)—every time you pass a Draw Bridge sign, you are going to think of this silly story and, perhaps, crack a smile. Why? In short, that’s the power of visual thinking in action.
When you use a visual image, and/or a story—and especially if you couple it with humor—it’s an extremely powerful and effective way of getting an idea to stick.
And that’s the foundation of VisuaLeadership in a nutshell: using visual thinking and visual communication techniques to get an idea out of your head into someone else’s so that they will be able to “see”—and to remember—what you’re saying.
Think about the two words on the sign, “draw” and “bridge”:
At its most basic level, “drawing” tends to be about taking pen or pencil to paper (or, more and more these days, to a digital screen) to create a picture. Whether it’s a doodle or a stick figure, a diagram or a sketch, drawing is about creating an image to visually represent a thing or an idea. The word “image” comes from the Latin word for “copy.” So, in essence, what we are doing when we draw is visually copying the real world (skillfully, or not…depending on one’s level of talent and expertise) in the form of art. And where does all art come from? Our IMAG-ination.
And what about the word “bridge”? Just as a physical bridge connects two pieces of land, “bridging” is, metaphorically, about any connection. In fact, one of my college textbooks was entitled Bridges Not Walls, which is a powerful visual metaphor that reminds us that ideas—and the communication of those ideas—can either connect us as a bridge does…or divide us as a wall does.
So, to me, the words “Draw Bridge” serve as a simple representation of what “VisuaLeadership” is all about on multiple levels: the art and science of managing and leading through the use of visual thinking and visual communication techniques including, but not limited to, visual imagery, mental models, metaphors and analogies, and visual storytelling.
Speaking of fathers, by the way, in Hamlet the title character exclaims that he saw the ghost of his deceased father in his “mind’s eye.” Shakespeare was the one who popularized the phrase “mind’s eye.” But what does it mean? And how do we get a thought from our mind’s eye and into someone else’s so that they can see what we’re thinking…and understand what we’re saying?
If you think about it, when you see something in your mind’s eye, it’s about visualizing something that is not actually, physically, there. It’s about “en-visioning” a picture in your head—of either the past (as in a memory), the present (as in a thought), or the future (as in a vision). In all instances it’s about “seeing.” And, when it comes to being a more visual leader, seeing the invisible will enable you, and others, to do the impossible. In essence, that’s what visionary leadership is all about.
A classic example—probably, the classic example—of a leadership vision by a visionary leader would be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. If you listen to it or, even better, if you watch it, while focusing on his artful and impactful use of visual imagery, metaphors, visual language, and other rhetorical techniques, you’ll find that he used the power of visual thinking and visual communication better than pretty much anyone who has ever lived.
But here’s the thing: You don’t need to be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be a “VisuaLeader”; you can just be yourself. And, by the way, you do not need to be able to draw. All you need to do to be a VisuaLeader is to think and to communicate more visually, so as to get others to “see” what you’re saying. If you can do that, you can change not only their world, but the world.
