See the Big Picture

The act of drawing taps into a different part of your brain than spoken and written words. Unlocking greater potential within yourself, your team and across the organisation. Visioning and communicating ideas and possibilities that otherwise would remain…

Unseen.

For an organisation this shift is exponential. When one person sketches it unlocks a personal vision. When multiple people vision it connects and collaboratively inspires to greater outcomes together.

As an initial step forward, one approach is to ask your team to sketch or find an image that captures a change they have noticed in the area of interest for visionary exploration. This is a powerful technique – as it harnesses the intelligence and vision of the team ahead of meeting. Giving hesitant artists the option of finding rather than creating.

The easiest path forward is not always the most rewarding. Having speed coached literally thousands of people to draw, I have learnt that anyone can unlock the hidden artist within. The key is to step people forward while demonstrating how simple the process can be:

1.  Ask everyone to draw a circle – reassuring the group that you are not looking for perfect circles, just a roughly circular shape.

2. Now ask everyone to look at their shape and decide what it is they have just sketched. The sequencing of step 1 and step 2 is critical. Drawing before deciding.

Notice how we did not follow the usual path, where you first decide what you want to draw and then start drawing. Instead we reversed the sequence – so everyone’s inner critics were blissfully unaware what we were up to and therefore did not even have an opportunity to make an appearance.

It is also important that you restrain yourself from leading people – so avoid suggesting what they might have drawn. Which means just ask “What have you sketched a picture of?” not “What have you sketched a picture of – is it an orange, a face or maybe the world?”

You are unlocking people’s own visionary ability, which means it is important to give them the space and confidence to imagine for themselves. While some may struggle at first, this is easily solved if you…

3. Then ask everyone to say what they have sketched. The more confident people will naturally lead out. It is no coincidence that the shape you have asked everyone to draw first is a circle. Life is full of circles. Which means even if some people have not yet decided what they have sketched when the sharing begins, everyone has space to decide by the time the sharing has ended.

4. Next ask everyone to label their picture by adding an arrow pointing to it and then writing whatever word they just used to describe it. Then point out that everyone is now an artist. With it being perfectly acceptable to use words as part of your visionary image to help explain what you have drawn.

5. Then keep stepping people’s confidence and capabilities forward. Ask them to add another line on their image to give it a bit more detail. In this case it is helpful to give examples – explaining that the line might be the mouth on a face or the stalk on an apple.

6. Now create space for the visioning to continue. Letting people know that it is fine to add additional details and notes.

Remember this is just a warm-up exercise – as you do not want to constrain your visions of the future to a series of random objects. So give people space to now sketch another visionary picture – letting them know it does not need to begin with a circle.

Life may be full of circles.

But it does not need to be circular.

Visionary Leap

Reflection: How did you go with the above? Did you do it or did you just read about it? How do you feel about the idea of drawing your ideas rather than speaking or writing them? If you have any hesitancy to do this, what unhelpful beliefs might be holding your vision back?

Conversation: Guide others through the sequence above. Then continue on with the visionary conversation. Instead of simply asking people what they have drawn when visioning, ask them why they drew it. Be careful not to ask this in an authoritative directive way that can lead people to doubt themselves – “Why did you draw that?” Instead casually ask in an affirming open way – “That’s great. Can you tell me more about why you thought to draw that?”

Action: Take time to doodle and sketch your own visions of the future. The key words here are doodle and sketch. As a progression on the opening exercise, the action is to sketch rather than draw. To doodle rather than create a masterpiece. Drawing can suggest a more finished work than a sketch. Follow the lead of artists. Behind every visionary work is a series of incomplete sketches, exploring possible directions while resolving complexities.