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CHARLES J. PALUS AND DAVID MAGELLAN HORTH

Visual Explorer

Art [is] the attempt to wrest coherence and meaning out of more reality than we ordinarily try to deal with.

—Peter Vaill

Crate and Barrel

Crate and Barrel’s cross-functional Internet Team is meeting for two days to cocreate a shared vision for Web-based innovation over the next five years. A key frame for the meeting is Appreciative Inquiry, with a desire to celebrate recent successes, as well as to appreciate and explore diverse perspectives among team members about what the future may look like. The challenge, however, is how to begin such a conversation in a way that, per the culture of Crate and Barrel, is both serious and productive as well as celebratory and fun. Thus, the meeting opens with more than 200 images (diverse, engaging, provocative) from Visual Explorer (VE) spread out around the room on the floor and tables. Team members browse the images with this instruction in mind: “Walk around the room and each of you choose one image that represents what innovation looks like from your perspective” (figure 1). The team then engages in a form of dialogue, with each of the chosen images being put in the middle in turn. Each person examines and describes each image for what it literally contains, as well as the meanings and metaphors it evokes. The differences and similarities in what each person sees among all the images is both surprising and illuminating—and dramatically heightens the awareness that one’s point of view colors one’s perceptions. Profound insights overlap with laughter. For the rest of the meeting and afterward, several pictures and metaphors for what innovation means keep recirculating.

Figure 1. Differences and Similarities in Perceptions Are Explored

The Basics

Visual Explorer (VE) is a method used to produce a dialogue rich with images and metaphors—and thus fresh ideas—while exploring similarities and differences in perceptions and perspectives. The Visual Explorer product consists of a loose-leaf deck of 224 color images printed on 8.5 × 11-inch heavyweight paper. The images are quite diverse in content, cultural context, and artistic media (photography, painting, sculpture), and have been selected for their ability to connect literally and (especially) metaphorically with a wide variety of topics.

VE is typically used when a group is exploring a complex challenge. The first phase in any such exploration is to see the challenge in depth from a variety of perspectives. VE allows group members to illustrate and articulate their various points of view using vivid metaphors and imagery. The critical contribution of VE is that the images themselves are tangible objects that invite careful attention. Thus, one teammate can examine another’s image and say something like “What I notice in this image is…” or “If this were my image, it would have another meaning for me….”

VE uses are varied. Some people use VE as a one-time tool; still others tap into its more far-reaching powers for transformation by reenacting the process with a series of groups, and reusing the resultant stories, images, and metaphors as media for cross-boundary dialogues.

The outcomes of a VE session typically include some or all of the following:

• Sharing of perspectives about an issue in a way that leads to synthesis and the construction of new perspectives

• Fresh, memorable metaphors and stories about a complex challenge

• Mutual understanding of emotions, intuitions, and tacit knowledge that might otherwise be left unspoken and unillustrated

• Tangible images that can be reused in paper or digital forms

• Shared understanding about the issue that can help in establishing a vision, making decisions, and creating action steps

• Increased skill in the practice of dialogue

The steps in a VE session typically include:

• Framing of one or more priming question related to a larger issue or challenge. For example: What should be our highest priority as a team? What is the future of our product? What would a good solution look like?

• A few minutes of individual reflection and writing in response to the question(s).

• Participants browse the 200+ images spread out around the room. Each person finds an image (or images) that represents or tells a story about how he or she answers the question(s), or sees the issue.

• A dialogue with the images in the middle. Each person describes his or her own image and what it means with respect to the issue. They also do this for the images chosen by the other participants (figure 2)

Figure 2. Teammates Examine Each Other’s Images

When this initial dialogue with the images is finished, a certain kind of momentum is often present, and it works well for the dialogue to keep going in whatever direction is important to the group.

Subsequently, the most significant images and metaphors can be reused in ongoing creative problem solving, invention, and communication. The images lend themselves to “cascading” to other groups in the same organization, especially if they are scanned into digital media for use in, for example, Intranet sites, PowerPoint shows, and dialogue mapping tools such as Compendium (see “Where to Go for More Information”).

Table of Uses

About the Authors

David Magellan Horth ([email protected]) is a senior enterprise associate at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is president of the Creative Education Foundation. David’s background includes 21 years in the computer industry, beginning as an R&D engineer and later as a strategist specializing in creativity and innovation. David describes himself as an artist-in-training. He enjoys drawing, writing poetry, and playing a variety of instruments including African drums, folk guitar, and didgeridoo.

Charles J. Palus, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is a senior enterprise associate at the Center for Creative Leadership, and manager of the Connected Leadership Project. His team conducts research on how organizations develop interdependent leadership practices and cultures. Prior to his coming to the center, he was a research engineer for the DuPont Company, and an instructor and program designer for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCES

Palus, C. J., and W. H. Drath. “Putting Something in the Middle: An Approach to Dialogue. Reflections.” SoL Journal 3, no. 2 (2001): 28–39.

Palus, C. J., and D. M. Horth. “Exploration for Development.” In The Center for Creative Leadership’s Handbook of Leadership Development (Second Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

———. The Leader’s Edge: Six Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenges. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.

———. “Leading Creatively: The Art of Making Sense.” Ivey Business Journal (September/October 2005). Reprint # 9B05TE05.

INFLUENTIAL SOURCE

Perkins, David. The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994.

ORGANIZATIONS

Center for Creative Leadership, Visual Explorer—www.ccl.org/visualexplorer

Compendium Institute—www.CompendiumInstitute.org