How visual thinking impacts our life and relationships
The importance of relationships and communication in life
Non-linear thinking as a conduit for unique insights
On Wednesday the 14th of August, I attended my second Think Visual meetup in Sydneyâs CBD, hosted by home-grown, communication design agency â Sh8peshifters. In this piece, I reflect on the things I learned, and share key takeaways that left an impact on me. I hope these ideas stimulate your thinking and add as much value to your daily routine in both work and life, as they did for me.
The guest speaker, Dr. Ben Rockett is a clinical therapist and a brilliant guy who really gets how people tick. As he explained some pretty complex concepts from psychology and human behaviour, his use of the digital whiteboard to draw out these ideas in simple diagram form made everything he was saying so much more accessible to us muggles:
Linear vs Non-linear Thinking: Dr. Rockett explained the difference between linear thinking (a step-by-step process leading to predictable outcomes) and non-linear thinking (a more dynamic approach allowing for multi-dimensional thinking and unexpected connections). If youâre in Design, you may have immediately conjured up a mental image of the Double Diamond, which is a great example of divergent (non-linear) thinking. We can be tempted to keep that kind of thinking in a box, only bringing it out during an ideation session or the discovery phase of a project - but what happens if we make it our default approach to life? Can it perhaps change our relationship with our partner or our kids? What about the way we respond to a new task at work or even the guy who cut us off in traffic?â
Visual Thinking opens up possibilities: Dr Rockett demonstrated how visual thinking helps open up possibilities by way of the visualisation itself being a trigger for different responses. This sits in stark opposition to our use of words which relies on precise use which is predicated on us aligning on a topic or certain viewpoint. Combining these approaches may be the key to more meaningful communication as we leverage words to gain specificity, but use visuals to expand on ideas which help us surface deeper insights.
âCommunication in Relationships: The quality of our interactions determines the strength of our connections. Healthy relationships foster trust and cooperation, while strained ones can lead to conflict and stress. Dr Rockett demonstrated this with a simple yet powerful sketch of two people held together in the middle with glue (communication.)â
Expressive Therapy for Trauma: KidsXpress is a children's mental health charity that uses art, music, dance, and drama as therapy to treat young trauma survivors. This alternative approach to therapy has been proven to help children process events and build new narratives. This doesnât just apply for kids; art can often help us focus, express our feelings and work through difficult experiences. What activities do you find destressing? Consider things like hiking, dancing, writing or painting⊠In the same way, when faced with a complex issue, instead of trying to work through it in your own head, the exercise of mapping it out on paper can help you resolve a lot of hurdles and even make non-linear connections that lead to new and unexplored solutions.â
Building Resilience: The speaker outlined steps for dealing with challenging life events: stabilization (acknowledging the event), processing (making sense of it), and integration (recognizing it's in the past and taking control of the present). Tools like visualisation, journalling or sketching can be very useful when going through each of these steps.
Words vs visuals - Linear vs non-linear thinking
The author concluded with three key takeaways:
Power comes from creativity: Challenge yourself to think differently and communicate in new ways.
Life is not linear: Embrace the ebbs and flows of life.
Communication is key: Enhance your communication skills for happier and healthier relationships.
If you want to learn visual thinking in order to enhance your creativity and communication, check out our courses here: www.sketchlab.online
Overall, the meetup emphasised the power of visual thinking in helping people take control of their lives and improve their relationships through creative, non-linear approaches to communication and problem-solving.
About the author:
Andrew âWoodyâ Woodhead has a background in technology and building products and services that deliver great experiences. He is a human-centred design advocate and currently works for Australian Payments Plus who are a major player in the payments industry. Woody is the author of âLightâ an illustrated mental health toolkit. In his past Woody played international level table tennis, and won the London League in his most recent exploits back in his homeland! Woody loves all things visual, and often keeps an illustrated journal of his travels.
