In this section, we’ll take a look at what “VisuaLeadership” is all about. We’ll then answer the big question you may be wondering, “Why Visuals?” And I’ll share with you three personal stories that most influenced my thinking and led me down the path to discovering and formulating my visual thinking-based approach to leadership.
But first…
For many business professionals, when you hear the words “visual thinking” and “visual communication,” the initial thought often is “this isn’t for me, because I can’t draw.” Let me put your mind at ease right up front by saying that your drawing ability doesn’t matter—at all!
As you’ll soon discover, leading with visuals involves so much more than drawing. It’s about formulating and communicating a leadership vision; using internal visualization processes; and leveraging visual images, models, charts, diagrams, PowerPoint slides, and visual language—including the use of stories, metaphors, and analogies—all of which I will explore and provide examples of within this book. In fact, you have one of the most powerful visual thinking and visual communication tools in the world right in your pocket: your smartphone! With its picture-taking and video capabilities and other features, when combined with social media…you can, instantly and visually change the world.
That being said, since it came up, here’s that I want to say about the subject of drawing, just to get it out of the way. Let’s call this, “How to Overcome ‘ICD’ (I Can’t Draw) Syndrome”:
When we facilitate workshops on visual thinking and visual communication, we often start out by asking the group, “How many of you can draw?” Typically, we get only about 10 percent of businesspeople raising their hands. But if you were to ask a group of kindergarteners that very same question, almost every single kid would have their hand raised. So, over the decades, have we lost our ability to draw—or just our confidence?
To answer that question, I encourage you to just pick up a pen and see what you can do. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Like anything else, drawing is a skill that you can quickly get better at with just a little bit of practice. If you are capable of playing Pictionary or Charades at a party, then you are fully capable of using a whiteboard to explain a concept by sketching it out—even if only in stick figures and doodles. Moreover, visual communication isn’t just about graphics. If you can use body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions to communicate (which I am sure you do naturally, without even thinking about it), then you are capable of doing so more purposefully and skillfully in the future.
Do you remember that classic GEICO campaign, “It’s so easy a caveman can do it”? Well, when it comes to drawing, cavemen did do it—forty thousand years ago—without any lessons. So, don’t ever let “I Can’t Draw” syndrome stop you from picking up a pen, pencil, or marker to help you get your point across. To paraphrase Babe Ruth, when it comes to communicating more visually, don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from swinging for the fences!
Speaking of cave drawings by the way, that’s visual communication before the written word was even invented. And the earliest written languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphics, consisted of pictograms: a form of visual communication that used symbols and images to represent things and ideas. Bear in mind also that in order to communicate visually, one must first think visually to figure out what you want to say—and how best to say it. So, now that we have thousands of emojis and emoticons (“emotional icons” ) at our disposal, it appears that we have come full circle, and that visual thinking and visual communication are back and here to stay.
If you’re the type of person who happens to be not too happy about this movement towards using visual symbols in the place of words, your reaction might be expressed something like this: @#$%&! But, did you know that this use of symbols to represent cursing or swear words actually has a name and an origin story; and do you know what it’s called? Yes, a “grawlix”! (And if you’re thinking, “What the @#$%&! is a ‘grawlix’?” I invite you to take a moment to look it up!)
Now, to get us in a “visual thinking” mind-set and mood, and so that you can “see what I’m saying,” let’s start out with a few related quotes and thoughts as a mental warm-up. Just read through the quotes below, “see” what “comes to mind,” and let them sink in. Many are familiar, while others may not be. Here goes:
A picture is worth a thousand words.
A good sketch is better than a long speech. (Napoleon; although he probably said it in French.)
Seeing something once is better than hearing it a thousand times. (Chinese proverb)
Changing the way you see the world changes the world itself.
Changing what people see can change what they think, feel, know, and do.
Every picture tells a story.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Seeing is believing.
Picture this…
If you can dream it, you can do it. (Disney; though written by Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald and not a quote by Walt, himself.)
If you can see it, you can be it.
You can’t be what you can’t see. (Marian Wright Edelman)
If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible.
If you see far, you can go far. (Slogan from the ASYV in Rwanda)
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
If you see something, say something. (Ads in the NYC subway system)
I’m just not seeing it.
Can you imagine…?
Show me what you mean.
Pictures don’t lie.1
So, to sum up, as Arthur Brisbane, the editor of the New York Evening Journal wrote way back in 1916: “In this day of hurry, we learn through the eye, and one picture may be worth a million words.”
And I would have to say that in today’s increasingly fast-paced digital world, this statement is truer than ever before.