Look at your data, at your problem, at your opportunity:
- What is there?
- What is not there?
- What do you know?
- What do you not know?
- What does it look like?
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See what it means:
- Do patterns emerge?
- Does anything stand out?
- Have you seen this before?
- Is it analagous to something else?
- Should you go look some more?
- Can you draw some conclusions?
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Use your mind's eye (or a whiteboard or pen & paper or software) to imagine the possibilities:
- Are there analogies that make sense?
- Are there better ways to represent the patterns I saw?
- Is there a basic framework upon which I can hang what I've seen?
- Can I manipulate the patterns to create something new?
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Show your insights to others (and help them draw their own conclusions):
- This is what I saw
- This is what I think it means
- Can you see the same things?
- Do you see something different?
- I recommend we do this; what do you think?
Try to get your audience to repeat the process: look, see, imagine...? |
It never fails: ask a CEO or COO to describe the way their business operates, and they will start with an org chart. Ask a CFO how their costs break down, and they will sketch a pie chart. Ask a CTO about their enterprise architecture and they will outline a flow chart. The fact is business people use visuals all the time to show what they do and how things work. This is true even of those who say, "I can't draw anything", and believe it themselves.
Regardless of our talent or artistic training, we do know how to share ideas visually: we've been doing it all our lives. Long before we could read and write, we could show our classmates our favorite toy and tell them something about it. And if my daughter's kindergarten experiences of late are any indication, that sharing is still persuasive enough to convince classmates to take home someone else's toy instead of their own. |
When it comes to visual thinking for business, I have two goals: the first is to create visuals so clear and powerful that a single one can replace pages upon pages of PowerPoint slides. The second is to show other businesspeople that they can do the same. The key behind both is knowing the right fundamental visual framework to apply to the issue at hand.
In the thousands of business visuals that I've created over the years, I have identified a basic set of frameworks that serve as a solid starting point for making clear just about any business issue. There are eleven in all, and the beauty of them is that everyone - whether a trained artist or a trained accountant - already knows them. Defining each of the eleven, and providing guidance on which to use for what situation, is the core of my coming book "The Million Dollar Chart". |
