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h c o u r s e

cras

visual thinking
Ga󰈎n 󰈏󰈝󰈼ig󰈊󰉄 󰈀n󰇷 󰈈󰇵t 󰉃o 󰉄h󰈩 󰇹󰈢󰈹e

Tar󰈇󰈩󰉄 y󰈢u󰈸 󰉐󰈎s󰉊a󰈗 󰇻r󰈀󰈏󰈝 a󰉄


t󰈊e 󰈬󰉉󰇵s󰉃i󰈡󰈞s 󰉃󰈋󰇽t 󰈥u󰉜z󰈗󰈩 󰉙󰈢u

Kim S. van den Berg Visuals in Progress


you think different when you draw
For some questions you do not immediately Then let your visual brain help you
have the answer ready

Nic󰈩 󰉃󰈢
me󰈩󰉃 󰉙󰈢u
How 󰈀󰈚 I 󰈈󰈢in󰈇
to 󰈇󰈩󰉄 t󰈊󰇵 󰈒ob 󰇷󰈡󰈞󰇵?
In this ebook you learn how to focus your visual
How 󰇹󰈀󰈞 w󰇵 i󰈚󰈦r󰈡󰉏󰇵 thinking power on the questions that keep you
o󰉉r 󰇹󰈢o󰈦󰈩r󰇽󰉃i󰈡󰈞? busy.

Give your thinking a boost


Wha󰉃 󰈎󰈼 m󰉘 And start drawing to:
ne󰉕󰉄 s󰉃󰈩󰈦?
c󰈸e󰈀󰉄󰇵 ov󰈩󰈸󰉐󰈏ew
ge󰉃 󰉄󰈡 t󰈊󰇵 󰇸or󰈩
fin󰇷 󰈞ew 󰈥󰈩󰈹s󰈥󰇵󰇸ti󰉏󰈩󰈼
You think about it, you discuss the matter with
others, but you have not resolved it yet.
It stays on your mind. By yourself and together with others.

1 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 2


Lay-out of the book
I. the basics I󰈾. the next level
t󰈊i󰈞k󰈎󰈝󰈈
19
vi󰈻󰉉󰇽󰈘l󰉘
p.5 6 St󰈸u󰇸t󰉉󰈸󰈏󰈞g Ge󰉅󰈎n󰈇 󰉄󰈢
Yo󰉉r 󰉏󰈏󰈼u󰈀l 󰇼󰈹󰇽in t󰈊e 󰇸󰈡r󰇵
15

Vis󰉉󰇽󰈗
2122
la󰈝󰈈󰉉󰇽ge
8 Cha󰈝󰈈󰈎n󰈇
pe󰈸󰈼p󰈩󰇹󰉄󰈏ve

I󰈾󰈽. keep going 25 27 29 31

Sum󰈚󰈀󰈹y Dra󰉒󰈎󰈞g 󰉃󰈏󰈦s Ge󰉅󰈎n󰈇 󰉊󰈞s󰉃u󰇸k Fur󰉃󰈋󰈩r 󰈻󰉄󰇵p󰈻

3 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 4


Yes, your brain is visual too the basics I

Your visual brain works at full speed when you Visual thinking is a combination of drawing,
cross a busy street. And you are not tired when looking and imagining
you reach the other side.
Drawing is an
Your visual brain power is enormous
easy way to
make your d󰈸a󰉓
Two-thirds of your brain is busy with what you
thinking
see. And with processing your visual input.
visible.

vi󰈻󰈎󰈢󰈞

ot󰈊󰈩󰈹 lo󰈡󰈔 im󰈀󰈇󰈏󰈞e


s󰉃uff
Inspired by Experiences in visual thinking by Robert McKim.
vi󰈻󰉉󰇽󰈘 p󰈸o󰇸󰈩s󰈻󰈏󰈞g
co󰈚󰇻󰈎n󰇵󰇷 󰉓it󰈊 As soon as there is Your thoughts get a
ot󰈊󰈩󰈹 s󰇵󰈝󰈼es something to see, your different shape than
eyes get to work. They the words you
Inspired by a figure from Draw to Win by Dan Roam. scan the paper and normally use. You
look for meaning. create room for new
When you think visually you use that power. ideas.

5 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 6


what do you do with a blank piece of paper? the basics I

You use it as thinking space: Draw out your What is on you mind?
thougths on the issue at hand.
Put your thoughts on paper in symbols, lines,
Your drawing doesn not have to be beautiful shapes and words

It is more effective when it is not. That is your visual language:

A simple shape works better than a detailed


picture. That is why you only see rough drawings
in this book.
s󰉘󰈛bo󰈗󰈼
li󰈝󰈩󰈼 for quick
show recognition
connections
Yo󰉉r 󰉏󰈏󰈼u󰈀l an 󰈩󰉕󰉄󰇵n󰈻i󰉐󰈩 󰈏ma󰈇󰈩
wo󰈸󰇶s
b󰈸a󰈎󰈞 fil󰈗󰈼 in 󰈀 s󰉒i󰉄c󰈊󰈩󰈼 󰈏t 󰉃o
to specify
si󰈚󰈦l󰈩 󰈻󰈋󰇽pe te󰈗󰈩󰉐󰈏si󰈡󰈝 󰈛󰈢de
s󰈊a󰈦󰈩s
You can just start immediately, even if you think as containers
you cannot draw.

Get a piece of paper and a few markers.

7 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 8


use as few words as possible the basics I

You only need them if the picture is not clear Do not use more than 4 words for a piece of text.
Then you can read it:
When you draw a cat to show a cat people know
what your mean. But you can interprete pictures in 󰈀 󰈻󰈏󰈞g󰈗e 󰈈l󰈀󰈝󰇸󰇵
in many different ways. If it is not straightforward
what you mean, write it underneath.
Is your handwriting illegible?

Write slower.

And it helps to separate your letters:


co󰈡󰈥󰇵󰈹at󰈎󰈢󰈝 or en󰈇󰈀󰈈󰇵me󰈝󰉄?

Make sure your eyes don’t switch to reading


mode
DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES IN CAPITALS
So they can move in all directions.
That makes them harder to read. Only use
capitals for
titles
no󰉃 󰈘󰈎k󰇵 󰉃󰈋is bu󰉃 󰈘󰈎k󰇵 󰉃󰈋is Use lower case w󰈊e󰈞 y󰈡󰉊 e󰉕󰈦l󰈀󰈏󰈝 󰈼om󰈩󰉃󰈋󰈏n󰈇

9 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 10


you come a long way with shapes and lines the basics I

If you combine your text with shapes and Sho󰉒 󰉄h󰈩 󰈝󰇽󰉄ur󰈩 󰈢󰇾 󰉄he 󰈸󰈩󰈘󰇽ti󰈡󰈝󰈼
lines your thinking quickly becomes visible

b󰉘 󰇶iff󰈩 r 󰉄 i󰈀t󰈏󰈝󰈈 yo󰉉󰈸 󰈘 󰈏 n e󰈻


󰇵󰈝
Gat󰈊󰈩󰈹 t󰈊󰇵 Put 󰉃󰈋󰈩m
mo󰈻󰉄 󰈎m󰈥󰈢󰈹ta󰈝󰉄 do󰉒󰈞 󰈡n 󰈥󰇽󰈦er
el󰈩󰈚󰇵󰈞t󰈻
Giv󰈩 󰉘󰈢u󰈹 c󰈡󰈝󰉄󰇽in󰈩󰈸󰈼 󰇵x󰉃󰈹a m󰈩󰇽󰈝i󰈞g

b󰉘 󰇸ha󰈝󰈈󰈎n󰈇
t󰈊e󰈎󰈹 f󰈢󰈸󰈛

Go 󰈎n 󰇽󰈗󰈘 di󰈸󰈩󰇸t󰈏o󰈝󰈼

Thi󰈻 󰈎󰈼 󰇽 wa󰉘 or
to 󰈩󰈚󰈦h󰇽󰈻i󰉜󰈩 no󰉃
Dis󰇹󰈡󰉐󰇵r 󰇹o󰈞n󰈩󰇹󰉄󰈏on󰈻 an 󰈩󰈗󰇵󰈛en󰉃

11 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 12


Keep your symbols simple the basics I

When do you draw a picture? These basic shapes are your visual alphabet*

to 󰈩󰈚󰈦h󰇽󰈻i󰉜󰈩 󰇽n e󰈗󰈩󰈛󰇵n󰉃
You use them to build your drawing.
to 󰈇󰈎󰉐󰇵 me󰈀󰈝󰈏󰈞g 󰉃o 󰈀 󰇸󰈢n󰉃a󰈎󰈞󰇵r
te󰈸󰈛

to 󰉉󰈻󰇵 󰈘es󰈻 󰉄󰈩x󰉃

to 󰈚󰈀󰈕󰇵 it 󰈗󰈎󰈈h󰉃󰇵󰈹 In o󰈝󰈩 󰈈󰈢 Bu󰈎l󰉃 󰉓󰈏t󰈊 󰈼ha󰈥󰈩󰈼


Building up your drawing makes it easier to get
the proportions right. And you can make changes
along the way.
You draw to speed up your thinking. So make
sure it doesn’t get in the way.
Anyone can draw these shapes
Do not make an extensive drawing: use as few
So if you experience a threshold, step over it.
lines as possible.

When you use simple forms it is easy to get * Dave Gray is the founder of Xplane and he was first to collect a visual alphabet.
Now there are several examples, but the idea is the same: Use simple shapes to
something down on paper. build your image.

13 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 14


where do you start? the basics I

Just start somewhere But if you start in the middle, you can
think in all directions

Dra󰉒 󰈀 󰇸󰈏r󰇹󰈘e
an󰇷 󰉓r󰈎󰉃󰇵 󰇶ow󰈝
w󰈊a󰉄 c󰈡󰈚󰇵󰈼 up

Lik󰈩 󰇽 or 󰉃󰈋󰈩 󰈢t󰈊e󰈹


And then your draw another shape and another
mi󰈝󰇶 m󰈀󰈥 wa󰉘 󰈹󰈡󰉊n󰇷
one. When you start drawing, the process
continues by itself. Do you not know what your issue is about? Start
at the edges. When your theme becomes clear
You can use the reading direction. you put it in the center.

It doesn’t matter

a c󰈡󰈗󰈘󰇵c󰉃i󰈡󰈞
of 󰈗󰈡󰈢󰈼e b󰈎󰉃󰈼
Fro󰈚 󰈘󰈩󰈃 or 󰇾󰈹󰈡m 󰉃󰈢󰈦 al󰈻󰈡 󰉓󰈢r󰈔󰈼
to 󰈸󰈎󰈈h󰉃 to 󰇼󰈡󰉅󰈢󰈛
Then your eyes know where to go. Than you can structure it later.

15 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 16


How do you create overview? the next level I󰈾

You can use three basic structures.* If you want to map out a process, you work with a
how question. How do you get the job done? Or:
Each structure answers a question
2. How does it work?
The three questions are entrances to structure
your thinking: What type of question are you
working on? Foc󰉉󰈻 󰈢󰈞 t󰈊e 󰈡󰈹d󰇵󰈸
of 󰉃󰈋󰈩 󰇵le󰈚󰈩󰈞t󰈻
The first is the what question:

1. What is going on? You use the third structure to make a


comparison. Put two images next to each other
Start with your collection of loose elements. to answer the question: Why do you do it? For
instance when you are considering your next
step.
Foc󰉉󰈻 󰈢󰈞
t󰈊e 󰇸󰈡n󰈝󰇵󰇸ti󰈡󰈝󰈼 3. Why is B better than A?

Foc󰉉󰈻 󰈢󰈞 t󰈊e
You can use this structure to map out team c󰈊a󰈹󰈀c󰉃󰇵󰈹is󰉃󰈎󰇸s
dynamics if you improve how you work together. of 󰈩󰇽󰇹󰈋 se󰇹󰉄󰈎󰈢n
* Deze indeling komt van Xplane, zie www.xplane.com.

17 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 18


How do you get to the core? the next level I󰈾

You get to the core by making new versions. First 2. Zoom in


you turn your messy drawing into a structured
one. Now you focus on the essence: What is it Encircle the most important part of your drawing.
really about? That is your focus.

What is the question behind your question?

These three steps bring you to the core. You can


follow the sequence, or you can pick one action. Is 󰉘o󰉉󰈹 f󰈢󰇹u󰈼 c󰈗󰈩󰇽󰈹? Ex󰈥󰈘or󰈩 󰈏󰉃 󰇿ur󰉃󰈋󰈩r 󰈏󰈝
If 󰈝o󰉄: a d󰈎ff󰇵󰈸e󰈞t 󰇷󰈹󰈀w󰈏󰈝󰈈
1. Zoom out
3. Find an overarching image
Look at your drawing and check:
Look at you latest version. Does an image come
w󰈊a󰉄 y󰈡󰉊 󰇹a󰈞 d󰈩󰈗󰇵󰉄e up that captures the core of the matter? If
w󰈊a󰉄 󰈎s
nothing comes up:
mi󰈻󰈼󰈎n󰈇
Bra󰈎󰈝󰈼t󰈢󰈸󰈛
on 󰈀
me󰉃󰈀󰈦h󰈢󰈸e

an󰇷 󰈛󰈀k󰇵 a You can use it as a structure for your drawing and
w󰈊a󰉄 t󰈎󰇵󰈻 i󰉄 t󰈡󰈇󰇵󰉄he󰈸 ne󰉒 󰇶r󰈀󰉒󰈏󰈞g elaborate on it to further explore the essence.
19 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 20
how do you broaden your view? the next level I󰈾

Now you can think visually in two steps: Think of someone with another look on the
situation at hand.
1. Visual note taking
Make a drawing from his perspective. What
Tra󰈝󰈼l󰈀󰉃󰇵 󰉙o󰉉r 󰈫󰉊e󰈼t󰈎󰈢󰈝
strikes you when you put it next to yours?
in󰉃󰈡 󰉐󰈏su󰈀󰈗 󰈘󰇽n󰈇u󰈀󰈈󰇵
Different points of view are easier to explore
when you see them next to each other
2. Reflecting visually

Mak󰈩 󰈝󰇵󰉓 ve󰈸󰈼󰈎󰈢n󰈻


an󰇷 󰈈󰈩t 󰉃󰈢 󰉄he 󰇹󰈡󰈹󰇵

Are you going round in circles? Then you can take


another step: Change how you look at the question.
A co󰈝󰉄r󰈀󰇷󰈏󰇸ti󰈡󰈝 w󰈊e󰈞 y󰈡󰉊 󰈻e󰈩 󰈏󰉄 yo󰉉
3. Looking outside your frame ma󰈔󰈩󰈼 y󰈢u 󰉃󰈩󰈞s󰇵 ca󰈝 󰈒󰉉s󰉃 󰈘󰈢ok 󰈀󰉃 󰈏󰉄

Put 󰈀󰈝󰈢󰉄he󰈸 󰈦󰈩r󰈻󰈦󰇵c󰉃i󰉐󰈩 Your drawing works as an external memory,


ne󰉕󰉄 t󰈡 󰉘󰈢u󰈹 󰈡w󰈝 which makes space in your head for new ideas.

21 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 22


drawing together the next level I󰈾

You also expand your view when you discuss With a drawing you see what someone means.
your drawing with someone else And you also see it when it is not clear to you.
And then you ask further.
Explain your drawing: Why not use the visual
brain of your discussion partner? He explores An exploring mindset helps when you map
what you think is self-evident. And he makes out an issue together with your colleagues
other connections. What draws his attention?
First everyone draws their own perspective. So all
Add to your drawing or make a new one. You can views get an equal amount of space.
also ask your discussion partner to draw out his
vision and put it next to yours. And then you put the drawings next to each
other.
You listen better to each other when you draw
Dis󰇹󰉉󰈼s 󰉃󰈋󰇵 diff󰈩󰈸󰇵󰈞t 󰈥e󰈹s󰈥󰈩󰇸t󰈏󰉏e󰈼
Wha󰉃 󰇶󰈡 y󰈢u 󰈚󰈩󰇽󰈞?

In a conversation you often think you know what


the other person means and you fill it in. an󰇷 󰇸r󰈩󰇽󰉃e 󰈀 󰈞󰇵w 󰈥i󰇸t󰉉󰈸󰇵 󰉄og󰈩󰉃󰈋󰇵r

23 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 24


a visual summary: keep going

Use 󰉘󰈡󰉊󰈹 vi󰈻󰉉󰇽󰈘 b󰈸a󰈎󰈞 Cre󰈀󰉃󰇵 o󰉐󰈩r󰉏󰈏e󰉓


When you have a Experiment with
question you relations and
can’t get your structures.
head around.

Mak󰈩 󰉘󰈢u󰈹 t󰈊󰈎󰈞k󰈏󰈝󰈈 vi󰈻󰉉󰇽󰈘 Get 󰉃󰈡 󰉄h󰇵 󰇹o󰈹󰈩


Draw, look and Make more
imagine. versions to get to
the point.

Wor󰈔 󰉓󰈎t󰈊 󰉐󰈏su󰈀󰈗 󰈘󰇽n󰈇u󰈀󰈈󰇵 Bro󰈀󰇷󰇵󰈞 yo󰉉󰈸 󰉐󰈏ew


Do it together
Write a little, use
to bring in more
shapes and lines
perspectives.
and draw simple.

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Three drawing tips keep going

1. Draw 5 minutes every day 3. Develop a base figure

When your drawing muscles are rusty, you need to People want to see people. We want to see how
train them. Not to become an artist, but to put others do it and we identify with them.
down your lines smoothly.
When you draw a human figure, you directly
To bring flow into your visual thinking process address your visual brain

Draw a symbol when you make notes during a You build your base figure with simple shapes.
meeting. Or use frames and lines on your flip-over.

2. Train your imagination

First make up a symbol yourself, before you copy


one. This way you train your visual brain.
That makes it easy to get it into action.

Use 󰉃󰈋󰈩 b󰈢󰇷󰉙 Emo󰉃󰈎󰈢󰈞s


to 󰈻󰈦󰈩c󰈏󰇾󰉙 a ma󰈔󰈩 󰉙󰈢ur
fu󰈝󰇸t󰈎󰈢󰈝 o󰈹 d󰈸a󰉓󰈎n󰈇
ro󰈗󰈩 co󰈚󰈩 󰇽󰈘iv󰈩
After your attempt you search the internet on
your topic + icon and learn from others. Use the eyes to show direction and interaction.

27 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 28


What do you do when you get stuck keep going

1. Color it 3. Look what you need

Coloring relaxes your mind and when you are Why are you stuck? Do you need more
relaxed you have more space to think. Keep information? Don’t you think is good enough? Are
moving, with your hand, with your eyes. you lacking inspiration?

Yo󰉉r Dra󰉒 󰈡󰉊󰈹 yo󰉉󰈸


mi󰈝󰇶 w󰈎󰈗󰈘 ob󰈻󰉄󰈀c󰈗󰇵
fo󰈗󰈘󰈡w
Explore what helps to get past it.

Is it too much for one sheet? Or is it too complex? 4. Keep it light

2. Divide it Draw something funny. Laugh at your obstacle.


That gives room to puzzle on.
Use post-its or cut your paper in four pieces. Draw
one element on each piece. 5. Go for a walk

Sma󰈗󰈘 f󰈡󰈸󰈛󰇽t 󰇾o󰈹c󰈩󰈻 󰉙󰈢u What you put down on paper sets a frame on
to 󰈇󰈩󰉄 t󰈢 󰉃󰈋e c󰈡󰈸󰇵 which your visual brain can dwell.

Look what happens on the way. Or sleep over it


Shuffle the components untill it works and make
and let your unconscious do the work.
a new drawing.

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And now? keep going

Just give it a go. Do you want to make your coaching- or


consulting more effective?
Target your visual thinking power to resolve
what is on your mind Subscribe for a visual thinking course: Together
with six participants we explore the visual
Sit down with a piece of paper and a few markers: thinking opportunities in your work.
the floor is yours.
A visual dialogue is also possible
Map 󰈡󰉊󰉃 󰉄ha󰉃
to󰉉󰈇󰈋 d󰇵󰇹i󰈼󰈎󰈢n We talk and draw together to map out your
question. We get to the core and explore different
An󰉘󰉄hi󰈝󰈈 g󰈡󰇵󰈻 angles.

Dra󰉒 󰉄󰈡 Or have a go at it with your team


p󰈸e󰈦󰈀r󰇵 󰉘o󰉉󰈹
p󰈸e󰈼󰈩n󰉃󰇽󰉄i󰈡n Together we work on an issue that you want to
resolve. Or on team development. An incompany
Do you want more? visual thinking training is also an option.

Read my blogs to see how you can use visual Cal󰈗 󰈛󰈩 󰇽t


thinking techniques to have better conversations. +31 (0)6 1242 8458
How you an use it to improve your teamwork. Or or 󰈻󰈩󰈞d 󰇽󰈝 e󰈛󰈀󰈏l 󰉃o:
your visual brain for your personal development. ki󰈚@󰉐󰈎s󰉊a󰈗󰈼󰈎n󰈥󰈹󰈢g󰈸e󰈼s.󰇹󰈡󰈛

31 Visuals in Progress kim s. van den Berg 32

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