Visual conversation for higher team productivity

Visual language is defined as a system of communication using visual elements. Just as people can verbalise their thinking, they can visualise it.

Our brains are constantly busy with observations, ideas and arguments so it is helpful to put everything that comes into our head down on paper. More and more people use thought sketching in the form of text, graphics or pictures in order to make the ideas visible. Research has proved that people grasp things bette by doing rather than by seeing or hearing them. Visualisation offers learners a chance to "do" something in a manner that is accessible to all.

Making things explicit: Visualisation is really about making things explicit. Visualisation helps in surfacing the hidden, ensuring that the meaning of everything is clear and less abstract.

Retaining information: We are dumbing down and our brain is losing its capacity to retain information given that there is too much information available and it is easily accessible. Visualisation provides a record which is easy to recall. Group visualisation creates a visual archive of the conversation in a working session and records the insights that can be revisited because of its visual nature.

Creating dialogue: With visualisation, you can turn a one-way presentation into dialogues. If you are conducting a presentation with a marker instead of a projector you can address people's questions and comments on your poster and you can do so immediately by hand without technical complications. You have then created a picture that everyone has actively contributed to.

Connections: Visualisation illustrates the space between things or how the connections can work. For example, showing how one thought connects with another thought or idea. In a conversation since there is no recording, this opportunity would be lost. If we capture the conversation in a 2D space we have an opportunity to go back to it and find connections, si it becomes easier to have a discussion.

Fear of drawing: Drawing for visualisation is not an art, a painting or a representation of nature but a form of writing and a way of generating meaning. Visualisation is a language and a cultural skill and drawing provides the tool for applying that skill.

Fear of missing out: The popularity of Instagram over other social media proves the power of an image over text in this visual age. Visualisation is being used more and more in corporate workplaces and training programs and its efficacy is interesting more people to learn it.

Engagement & Interest: When visualisation is used as a tool for imparting information or for training, the engagement and interest of the participants is significantly higher than a PowerPoint presentation.

All over the world, there are creative movements distancing themselves from the desktop, the mouse and graphics software.

Bikablo, a systematic, simple and effective German method to visualise. It provides a ready-made visual vocabulary to express thoughts, group discussions and ideas.

I'm a Bikablo certified visual trainer based in Singapore conducting 1 day and 2-day visual facilitation training.

My next 2-day workshop is on 19th & 20th November 2018 & 1-day workshop is on 10th December 2018.