People are visual. In his book, “Your Brain at Work,” David Rock
writes that “One way to reduce the energy required for processing information
is to use visuals, to literally see something in your mind’s eye.” It is habitual for people to consider things
in a visual way. Consider how we naturally
describe examples: Picture this, to illustrate this, to paint the picture,
etc.
To that end, picture this
example: You are arriving at the airport’s short-term parking lot and are
worried about being on time for your flight.
You are driving through the lot looking for a place to park, and it
seems that the lot is nearly full!
Which
of these two images are more helpful to you when looking for a place to park?
In Image 1, you can see
that the lot is full but there are no quick check indicators for where there
may be a spot open. In Image 2, there
are little red lights above each parking spot indicating that the spot is
full. In the first situation, you have
to drive through and actively inspect both sides of the lane for an opening
which may not be readily apparent. In
the second situation, you merely have to scan down the rows of indicator lights
to quickly ascertain that this particular lane is full and you will need to
move to the next one. The reality of the
second situation is that at the end of the lane, there are green numbers
illuminated which tell where there are open spaces in that lane.
It is so much easier for
your brain, which is processing many items to quickly find a place to park and
get into the airport for your flight in the second situation with the indicator
lights.
Thus, in a business
setting, visual images can also help to focus a situation and align the
team. Rather than discussing the image, it
is helpful to create or present a visual with the stakeholders so that everyone
has the same image in mind. The other
day at my client, we were discussing all the areas of responsibility for the
upcoming production cycle. In order to
illustrate specifically what people were responsible for which area, and when
these things would occur, not to mention quickly highlight the load each person
would bear, I created a hand-written chart prior to our meeting and added names
on sticky notes for each lane of responsibility. Together we added several rows and move the
names around, and at the end it looked like this (the fuzziness is intentional):
 |
| Example of a hand-made visualization tool (fuzziness intended) |
After we finished this
work, we discussed what needed to be done to realize this goal, including where
new hires or temps were needed to keep the current staff from becoming too
overloaded to successfully complete their responsibilities. I was able to put it into Excel and capture
the actions to get moving, and we are meeting again 2 weeks later to confirm
that everything is on track.
The bottom line is that
it is often super helpful to create visuals to help get everyone aligned. They
don’t have to be super fancy or expensive.
White boards, large post-its, drawings on notepads, anything can be used
to get the job done. People just are
visual, so go with it!
