Why use visuals for problem solving?

Three year olds cannot read or write but they can draw.

Why visuals over text?

Human Anatomy has evolved to innately understand visuals.

• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. 80% of which is from memory and 20% from eyes.
• Human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Why visuals for oneself when thinking

Drawing is the act of summarizing complex and nuanced reality or clarifying vague and fuzzy ideas (three-dimensional phenomenon that is changing across time) onto paper or whiteboards (two-dimensional canvases). This forces us to identify, comprehend, reduce and organize. The routine of removing the obvious and focusing on the meaningful force us to learn and know.

Why visuals for collective problem solving

The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps. — Bill Gates, Harvard Commencement 2007

The first step to collective problem solving is to get everyone on the same page. To make this happen, everyone needs to understand the context, situation, complication, question and idea at hand, empathize with the human connection behind the problem and place what is where and how it all fits in the system. Only after this, can they contribute their ideas. Visuals can help you with all this.

This picture helps communicate the idea (reality unfolds chaotically), cause-and-effect (reality->news story->audience reaction) and emotions.

No! Visuals… aren’t only about tables, charts, graphs and maps. Those can only help you communicate quantitative and geographic content.

Visuals can help you explain the complex, clarify the vague, empathize with emotions, bypass boundaries of language, navigate biases triggered by polarizing words and provide a systems view.