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FRIDAY MAY 8, 2009

Visual Thinkers Unite!

I had the privilege of spending two full days with a handful of widely revered visual thinkers. Dave GrayDave Sibbet, Elizabeth Pastor, Tom Crawford, Michelle Malott and Tom Wujec.

When we met up at the VizThink conference in February this year Tom Wujec pulled us together to see if we wanted to help him communicate the value of visual thinking to a broader community. Last week we spent time brainstorming the value of visual thinking, writing a manifesto and developing a universal model that expresses what visual thinking is regardless of how our own businesses use visual thinking.

Brilliant visual thinkers

Brilliant visual thinkers

working

greenscreen

grouppic

vizthinkmodel2Here’s my sketch of the model

The cool part about this model  is that it was intentionally developed to be flexible. If you’re trying to explain what a visual thinker does in the simplest way possible, this model works. Each professional puts his or her own intent in the center. My intent with my business is to Activate Audiences. Visual thinkers recognize (or redeem) the past by illustrating historical wins (or losses) that need to be remembered; they serve as context for the exploration you’re doing as you envision the future direction to take your firm.

Here are some cool visual thinking workshops coming up

There’s a VERY cool visual thinking seminar on how to do visual note-taking. This is a great skill to use for clarifying your ideas. It’s being sponsored by VizThink and it being presented by some of my favorite other favorite visual thinkers.

Elizabeth Pastor is hosting Visual SenseMaking Workshop on May 16th in NYC.

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Topic: Diary, Strategy
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  • COMMENTS (5)

Chris

May 8th, 2009
11:07 am

Is the visual thinking you guys are working on the same as the type described in Dan Roam’s book: The Back of a Napkin?

Nancy Duarte

May 9th, 2009
8:28 am

Yep, it’s very similar. In business today we have complex concepts that have to be delivered visually yet we aren’t taught how to do that in school. Dan is an amazing visual thinker.

Chris

May 9th, 2009
1:05 pm

I completely agree with you! I have recommended (forcefully in some cases) slideology to numerous people for that same reason. I often think that visual communication should be a foundational requirement in business courses.

Visual thinking seems more than just communications, seems like a way to think about problems–definitely interesting.

Karen Bennett

May 9th, 2009
1:26 pm

Very true, Chris. Visual communication is more visible (duh!) and tangible to people, but I think the enormous value of visual thinking is under-recognized.

DV Staff

May 10th, 2009
8:44 pm

This is our 1st time stopping by and we a really impressed with your content and delivery. Look forward to hearing more from you.

DV Staff
http://myDVspace.com

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