Visual Metaphors: Cave Drawings for the 21st Century
John Lesko
Decision Coach & Group Facilitator
Anteon Corporation
A-Team Conference & Innovation Center
Work: 703-253-1338, Fax: 703-253-1385
[email protected]
Abstract
Cave drawings found in the Ardeche Valley of present-day France are among the earliest
known works of “graphic facilitators.” Over 3,000 years ago, these drawings recorded the
imagination of men looking toward successful future hunts. Through the use of pictures and
stories – the key elements of a metaphor – the lessons of our prehistoric brothers were passed
along so that other hunting parties might succeed. As time progressed, flipcharts, posters, and
wall-sized murals took the place of such cave drawings. Today, groups and teams continue to
search for solutions to their everyday problems but hunt for answers equipped with modern etechnologies.
This presentation will provide an overview of today’s computer-based tools that are specifically
designed for graphic facilitation. We will explore how best to communicate in face-to-face and
distributed meetings using e-tools and visual facilitation techniques. We will look at today’s
environment from the specific point-of-view of the graphic facilitator asking: What has remained
constant? What has changed? How do e-tools improve or worsen communications? And what
are the potential hazards to group dynamics? Come see if today’s “cave drawers” will help you
in your facilitation practice.
Bio-sketch
As a former tank commander, research scientist, author, and Little League coach; John Lesko
enthusiastically offers insight into what it takes to develop and sustain high-performance
organizations. He is a decision coach and group facilitator with Anteon Corporation where he
runs the SAFTAS / A-Team Innovation Center providing group decision support and
consultative services for executive-level clients within the defense acquisition community. He is
Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and an active member of the International Association of
Facilitators (IAF). John also practices aikido, a Japanese martial art based on the philosophy of
being in harmony with your partner rather than being in conflict with an opponent.
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Visual Metaphors: Cave Drawings for the 21st Century
By John Lesko
The following pages summarize the key concepts from a one-hour seminar at the Collaboration
2003 conference held in Annapolis, Maryland. This seminar was conducted on at the Loews
Annapolis Hotel. Approximately 30 people were in attendance -- the majority of who were
professional facilitators with representative trainers, groupware vendors, and management
consultants rounding out the audience. The text below has been drawn from the seminar
leader’s notes pages, select slides used by the author on October 20th, and memory of the
discussion between the participants and the author during Q&A. There were two practical
exercises completed during this seminar. These exercises – by design an experiential learning
event – required participants to experiment with drawing a timeline and listing the visual
facilitation tools that are found in each participant’s facilitation toolbox.
Introductions and Welcoming Remarks
I’ve very happy to be here today. I don’t know if this presentation belongs in the applications
track or the theory track. But I’m here to share with you some concepts, ideas, and techniques
that seem to work pretty well for me. In other words, I’m here to share a little of what I know
about visual metaphors, the importance of models, pictures, and storytelling. My name is John
Lesko and my bio-sketch is in the program. You can read about my background at your leisure.
For those of you who’ve already read about my story yet still decided to participate, I’m flatter.
But I’m also curious as to who you are and why you’re here. So let’s quickly go around the
room and talk about your expectations.
The seminar leader had everyone stand up and offer their name, organization, and one
sentence as to their motivation in attending this seminar.
The Flow
I hope to meet some of your expectations. I will try to tailor my remarks accordingly. Today I
intend on providing an overview of a few select computer-based tools specifically designed for
graphic facilitation. I will not go into a long laundry list of features or product descriptions.
Rather I will speak in general terms from the point-of-view of a practitioner. Questions you
might have – and those I intend to answer – include:
•
•
•
Why use graphics in your day-to-day facilitation practice?
How do I get started? Particularly if I don’t think of myself as artistic or a good drawers.
What might be my strategy if I were to start using visuals or graphic techniques in my
facilitated sessions?
Background Information
Before we start on these three questions, it’s important to understand a few key concepts about
people’s learning styles and a little about human intelligence. Figure 1 depicts the eight kinds of
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intelligences as described by Dr. Howard Gardner of the Harvard Medical School. I first
discovered Gardner’s work years ago while campaigning for a seat on the school board. Within
the educational literature one can find quite a bit about how children learn and about how we
measure intelligence. Another educator-author on this subject is Thomas Armstrong. His book
is entitled: In Their Own Way and in this work one can learn more about how teachers should
consider various learning styles or “smarts.”
By extension we as facilitators can assume that children enter into the adult-work-a-day world
and that these people bring along their learning styles and intelligences. I propose that a
competent facilitator needs to plan their meetings as learning events. Furthermore, I think
you’re more likely to succeed as a facilitator when you appeal to as many people as you can
while integrating multiple learning styles and intelligences into your group activities.
As you can see, there are eight different kinds of intelligences. We all possess several of these
and therefore everyone has multiple ways in which we learn. But an agenda and activity plan
that must include eight different options is going to be a complex meeting. So let’s consider
next a simpler model.
Figure 1: Multiple Intelligences (Source: Dr. Howard Gardner, Harvard Medical School)
Practitioners of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) tell us that each of us has a specific
sensory strategy for receiving, processing, and sending information. Those who use NLP also
claim that individuals are “hard wired” with their own communication and learning preferences.
Some facilitators have used NLP-techniques by trying to match their behavior to that of the
client or group participants. Thus building rapport and embittering their communications with
both individuals and groups.
This model, the NLP-based model, offers three modes of communication and learning
preferences: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Figure 2 is drawn in rough proportion to show
how a typical North American population communicates and learns. Studies have shown that
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most people are visual learners. The second most popular communication/learning style is
kinesthetic or “hands-on.” Finally, the minority case is those who learn best by way of auditory
means.
Figure 2: NLP practitioners claim we use three learning styles: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory.
It should not surprise you that today’s youth are naturally drawn to video games, television, or
movies. These are visual and sometimes interactive thus tapping into the two most common
learning modes.
So now we have a model that is most helpful for facilitators. And as an aside, I first learned of
this while in the Army. As a trainer of young soldiers, I learned the TELL-SHOW-DO method of
instruction. First you’d tell your trainees what you were about to teach. Then you’d show them
how to operate a piece of equipment. Then you’d oversee a hands-on session where troopers
would learn-by-doing. This is an inside-out method of teaching for most learners. When you
think about it we were first teaching or instructing the smallest group of soldiers, the auditory
learners. Then we were adding the largest group with a visual demonstration. And finally we’d
hopefully catch the remainder of the unit by addressing those who learned best by getting their
hands dirty.
To learn more about multiple intelligences, I’d highly recommend you read any of Dr. Gardner’s
work. Check out Thomas Armstrong’s book. Go to the original material on NLP by either
Richard Bandler and/or John Grinder. Surf the web at www.nlpcomprehensive.com. Then do a
Google Search on the topic of “cognitive science.”
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“Where’s the beef?”
With all that theory about multiple intelligences and learning styles laid as a foundation, you
might be asking, “Where’s the beef?” Well here it is.
Early work of a graphic facilitator
Figure 3: This cave drawing illustrates “how to” hunt a large animal.
Our ancestors used cave drawings and storytelling to pass along important stuff. For example,
figure 3 is a picture story that shows a group – the cave dwellers – a step-by-step process to
encircle and kill a large animal. In the larger mural, the women and children lined up to scare an
animal toward the men who are armed with spears. Others in the picture were preparing a fire,
collecting wood, and/or shown with stone knives to skin and butcher the kill.
Visual facilitation has been around for a very, very, very long time. Egyptian hieroglyphics …
cave drawings … and any of the manuals or books you find at Home Depot have the visual
learner in mind. It doesn’t matter if you’re studying the walls of a cave, examining the insides of
the pyramids, or turning the page of the latest issue of The Family Handyman magazine. Those
with graphic facilitation skills are contributors to the noble genre of “how to” manuals and
guides.
How do I get started?
Sometimes to go forward we have to first take a few steps backward. The art of graphic
facilitation and the use of visual metaphor are linked. Storytelling – through pictures – is
intuitive to just about everyone. We all once enjoyed drawing pictures, doodling, and painting.
Kindergarten was cool. But somehow as adults we’ve fallen away from creating a picture story.
So let’s return to our pasts and rediscovery visual storytelling.
All we need is a piece of paper and some crayons or a pencil. See figure 4.
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The group at this point was introduced to a simple exercise using paper and pencils. Practical
exercise #1 was for each audience member to draw a time line of their professional history as a
facilitator. As each member of the audience worked on their personal histories, the
author/workshop leader shared a poem and visual metaphor about a purple cow.
How do I get started?
n
Go back to the basics.
q
q
q
n
Take time to tell “war
stories”
Look for pictures,
diagrams, and models
Allow people to draw or
doodle
If picture is worth a
thousand words, then a
story is worth a
thousand pictures.
Figure 4: Getting started with visual metaphors is easy.
When I was a younger fellow I remember reading a silly poem about a purple cow. Later in life I
came across an article that referred to the novelty of such an animal. So let’s use this idea of a
purple cow and let’s also use other examples of “bull” and “B___ S___” from my life to illustrate
how one might use graphic facilitation and visual metaphors in ones practice.
Gelett Burgess gave the world “The Purple Cow” in an 1896 issue of a tiny magazine known as
The Lark. And the opening stanza to this poem goes like this …
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I’d rather see than be one!
Now if we stop to think about a purple cow, what imagines come to mind? How many of you
have ever heard of the expression: “purple cow?” That’s a pretty descriptive visual, yes? You’d
surely notice a purple cow if you saw one.
Using Time Lines … Visual “BS”
Figure 5 is a very simple time line of various “BS” stories from my life. Let’s first start with the
bull (labeled early graphic facilitation). Then you see a cartoon of a grave sight with the words
“Bury Your Cows” (which represents one of the games I once played while traveling on family
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vacations). Next comes a picture of a hamburger and soft-drink (which comes from a very
funny book entitled: Sacred Cows Make for the Best Burgers). And finally we have a cartoon of
a matador.
A short story was shared by the seminar leader about each picture, cartoon, and the hidden
meaning that these doodles represented. Figure 5 was drawn on an old-fashioned white board
and the image captured using a digital camera. This technique of taking pictures represents the
simplest first step to integrating graphics into your meetings.
Practical Exercise # 1 – Technique “A”
(White Board + Digital Camera)
Figure 5: All you need is a white board and digital camera.
Figure 6 is a continuation of the time-line practical exercise. Here the author/seminar leader
shared a couple of stories about his college days. Pick-up lines in the 1970s and early 80s
many times dealt with Zodiac signs. Enter Taurus the bull. And then the author shared a story
of a cross-country automobile drive with a destination of Texas and a purpose of enjoying BBQ
on the Fourth of July. This portion of the time line was created from clip-art and Microsoft
Power Point then captured using an electronic white board (also known as a SMART board).
Figure 7 is the last of the slides shown by the author during the first practical exercise on time
lines. Here you see how images from the Internet were dropped into a slide show and
combined with hand-drawn figures, clip art, and an example from the Grove Consultants of San
Francisco. The metaphor represented is that of “a hero’s journey.” It depicts a facilitator who
cut his teeth using GroupSystems technologies, jumped to join the International Association of
Facilitators, and then started to integrate key concepts from the martial arts into his practice.
The five keys to mastery at the right edge of this slide represent a path to mastery where the
goal was to become a certified professional facilitator (CPF).
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For more information on the metaphor: “a hero’s journey” read Joseph Campbell’s writing on the
power of myth. References to the five keys to mastery are found in the book by George
Leonard entitled: Mastery. The five keys are: (1) seek instruction, (2) practice, (3) surrender to
the discipline, (4) work the mental game, and (5) push the envelope.
Practical Exercise # 1 – Technique “B”
(… + Power Point + Clip Art)
“What’s your sign?”
Figure 6: It's easy to use clip-art and presentation software with electronic whiteboard technology.
Figure 7: Add "cut & paste" features from the Internet and other tools then "mix."
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What’s Your Learning Strategy?
A second practical exercise was shared by the seminar leader. This exercise was designed to
help participants assess where they are today and where they wanted to be in the future. This
was done either with respects to their use of graphic facilitation and visual metaphors or in more
general terms as it related to their professional goals.
Please take a look at your second worksheet. Here you will make two lists. On this slide you
see an example to help launch this activity:
The contents of this slide follow…
n I am …
q … a certified professional facilitator (CPF)
q … a pretty good strategist
q … a decision coach, instructor, and trainer
q … willing to learn new tricks.
n I am not …
q … willing to give an amateur performance
q … going to pretend to be someone else
q … someone who has all the answers
q … (yet) an “old dog.”
While the participants made their lists the author talked about the relatively low cost of entry into
the practice of graphic facilitation. Figure 8 was constructed based on a popular television ad
for Master Card. Its intent was to show that for a minor investment, one can equip themselves
with tools that are easy to use and quite enabling. These tools have a high tech image and are
proven technologies.
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Toys & Tools for Visual Facilitation
Digital
Camera
~ $200
Graphic Guide
Software
~ $200
SMART Board
~ $1500
Figure 8: For about $2,000 you can own the graphic facilitation tools that will "wow" your clients.
Summing Up
Since our time is drawing to a close. No pun intended. Allow for me to sum up the workshop by
challenging you who attended to further develop your personal and professional learning
strategies as related to graphic facilitation and the use of visual metaphors. Specifically I’d
recommend that a competent facilitator:
•
BE …
o Become a “purple cow” – standing out from the herd or crowd.
o Become a leader in a niche market.
•
KNOW …
o Learn more about state-of-the-art collaborative technologies.
o Read your clients’ favorite magazines and journals.
•
DO …
o Experiment with new toys, tools, and techniques.
o Actively participate in trade shows and conferences.
Figure 9 was used to remind folks that they’d make mistakes and that there was likely to be
some pain felt along the way. But in the end, adding new tools would bolster everyone’s
professional standing as a facilitator.
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What does this mean?
n
n
If the only tool you
have in your toolbox
is a hammer, then
every problem begins
to look like a nail.
You cannot be afraid
to “whack your
thumb.”
Figure 9: You're going to whack your thumb and it will hurt.
It’s been fun sharing these stories and learning from your experiences too. Copies of these
slides are available at the back of the room and will be posted on-line in the conference
proceedings along with my best recollection of what I wanted to say to your all. I will also
include a list of good books and related references.
Thank you and I hope to see you next year.
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Good Books and Related References
n Multiple Intelligences
q Work of Dr. Howard Gardner
q In Their Own Way by Thomas Armstrong
n Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)
q Work of Richard Bandler and John Grinder
q www.nlpcomprehensive.com
n Then do a Google Search on “cognitive science”
n Read Tony Buzan’s
q Use Both Sides of Your Brain
q The Mind Map Book: Radiant Thinking
n Read Michael Schrage’s
q No More Teams!: Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration
q Serious Play: How the Worlds Best Companies Simulate to Innovate
n Read Michael Gelb
q How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day
q Then go buy a sketch pad and some pencils – doodle, draw, create.
n Read Tom Peters …
q The Circle of Innovation
q The Brand You 50 : Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an 'Employee' into a
Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!
n Go Internet Surfing …
q www.fastcompany.com
q www.grove.com
q www.iaf-world.org
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