Note to Readers: Many of you are thinking to yourself, “Why didn’t she put this content in visual form?” Well, excellent question (and thank you for driving it home, mom). But here’s the answer: visuals take time and I’m living in an agile world. On my blog, I put something out there and modify it when I can. Transparency and imperfection is a part of my process, and I’m comfortable with that.

Now, carrying on.

If you find visuals valuable, consider yourself a visual thinker, are comfortable with using imagery at work, and are a whiz at visual presentations, then you probably don’t need to be reading the WHY section. You should just be perusing some of my work.

This message is for the skeptics.

When I first encountered the world of visual thinking, I distinctly recall my reaction: How is this helpful? I was skeptical about “art” in a business setting, I was judgmental about the seeming simplicity of what I saw, and I was fully loaded with left-brained bullet points to ensure that my dismissal of it was justified.

And then I started using visual thinking. And I realized that I was seeing so little of the bigger picture and denying so much of my own comprehension. I love this James Kochalka quote:

“Art is not about communication. Art is not a way of conveying information. It’s a way of understanding information. That is, creating a work of art is a means we have of making sense of the world, focusing to make it clearer, not a way of communicating some understanding of the world that we already hold.”                                           - The Cute Manifesto

In other words, visualizing content helps us piece it together in ways we might otherwise never see. It helps us play with information, re-examine it, recombine it, and essentially, rediscover it. Are there some types of data that don’t need visualization? Sure – like your grocery list. But information that can be used to solve problems deserves to be looked it in various ways. And when we arm ourselves with only text, verbal language, lists and bullet points, we’re not really giving both hemispheres a chance to shine. And why on earth would we do something like that?

I love our left brains for their sequential, rational, analytical and linguistic superiorities. And I love our right brains for their simultaneous, creative, synthetic and big-picture talent. I use visual thinking to make them both work for my clients.

In case you are smirking at this point, please, don’t take my word for it. Hear directly from my clients – most of whom, I assure you, do not consider themselves artistically inclined. They wear their well-developed left hemispheres like badges of honor. But experiencing visual thinking helps them, too, SEE its value. Click here for client quotes…