In his February 20, 2008, BusinessWeek article, Douglas MacMillan notes, "In a corporate landscape awash with slick computer presentations, charts, graphs, and logos, some managers still utilize an age-old tool for business problem solving: the hand-drawn doodle. Whether sketched on a legal pad or drawn on a whiteboard, a doodle has the power to humanize the abstract and simplify the complex ... [and] to add humor into a dry topic. And, when ... used in meetings with colleagues and clients, it's a way to pull people into the process of solving a problem."

We may say "a picture is worth a thousand words," but leadership communication has mainly focused on words, not images. That seems to be changing. Doodles, drawings, illustrations, graphics, and photos are increasingly used to enhance problem-solving, communicate ideas and concepts quickly, and provide direction. Here are a few ways visual thinking and communication is becoming mainstream:

• Newspapers and magazines are replacing long text pieces with full-page charts and visuals to share the same information.
• Speakers are changing bullet-point-laden slides to compelling pictures and images coupled with brief headlines (see Speaker Savvy on p. 18).
• Instruction manuals and other "how-to" publications are being written in cartoon or graphic-novel format, illustrating in a few words and pictures what previously took pages of text to communicate.
• Graphic facilitation is being used to capture meeting output in pictures and words rather than flip charts of just text (see Innovative Meetings on p. 22).
• Photos of what completed work looks like can effectively communicate the same idea to individuals speaking different languages.

You needn't be an artist or a draftsman to be an effective visual thinker. You probably already sketch out room sets and layouts or use software with icons to do the same. Perhaps you use mindmaps to create on one page a concise illustration showing all your conference components.

Build on these efforts by applying similar approaches to problem-solving, illustrating relationships between individuals or meeting elements, and communicating ideas and concepts behind a meeting's strategy. Cut out images from magazines to create a mural of your ideal meeting rather than producing a text document of bulleted lists. Your effectiveness is tied more to your ability to think and communicate visually than being the Monet of your meetings department.

Effective visual thinking and communication insists we apply some general communication principles with more rigor than what we might do with written text. Messages are reduced to key points without any extraneous information; audiences are clearly identified to ensure comprehension of any images used; and the images and key text are appropriately sequenced to best illustrate the thinking and relationships explored.

Visual literacy is likely to become increasingly valued given the demands placed on our attention. Basic elements of design, information organization and presentation, and storyboarding and storytelling (particularly with video) are a few areas in which we should strengthen our capabilities. By reducing the text used to communicate ideas and thoughts, we might increase the attention others pay to our messages.

Leading Learning Take Away

Meeting planners can enhance their communication effectiveness by developing their visual thinking and communication skills.

Meeting publications and presentations should increasingly use illustrations and images to communicate ideas and information.

Whenever possible, iconography should be considered as a replacement for instructions currently communicated only in text.

Jeffrey Cufaude is a former higher education administrator, meeting planner, and association executive. He currently writes, speaks, and facilitates on a variety of individual and organizational leadership issues. Learn more about his work at www.ideaarchitects.org.
To submit topic ideas and feedback on the Leading Learning column, e-mail jeffrey@ideaarchitects.org .
Leading Learning is sponsored by Freeman, www.freemanco.com.