Can Visual Methods Repair a Broken Professional Relationship?
I'm researching visual thinking as a potential superpower for innovation practice. By harnessing my brain's visual system, I aim to sharpen problem understanding, develop better solutions, and more effectively communicate ideas—essentially covering key steps of any innovative process. I want to verify if truly anyone can learn to communicate via sketches.
As a beginner in visual thinking, I wanted to bring in an expert and experiment together to see what might emerge from that collaboration. I'm excited that Orlagh O’Brien accepted my proposal to experiment together and share the results with you. Orlagh has an incredible talent for translating complex ideas into visual forms—from simple scribbles to professional client reports. Her work creates a fascinating feedback loop that helps clarify and refine thinking and communication.
We've collaborated on multiple projects in the past, but like many professional relationships, we've also experienced moments of disconnect and misunderstanding. In one of our previous projects, a tension developed between us—a gap in expectations, interpretation, and ultimately, satisfaction with our joint work. These moments are common but rarely addressed head-on. We often move on, leaving unspoken feelings and misunderstandings hanging in the background.
Recent research by Nguyen, M., & Mougenot (2022) highlights how communication and trust are central to effective multidisciplinary collaboration core to innovative process. Their work suggests that non-verbal tools can reveal insights that words often obscure. Inspired by this, we're conducting an unusual experiment.
In an upcoming working session, Orlagh and I will attempt to share our perspectives on our past professional misunderstanding using only drawings. No words, no explanations—just visual representations of our experiences, perceptions, and emotions surrounding our previous collaboration.
We're making no assumptions about the outcome. This is a genuine exploration of how visual communication might help professionals:
Unpack complex emotional landscapes
Move beyond verbal defensiveness
Create a more nuanced understanding of shared experiences
Beyond words, beyond defensiveness: Our experiment is a small act of professional courage.
— Yarmo Covich
References: Nguyen, M., & Mougenot, C. (2022). A systematic review of empirical studies on multidisciplinary design collaboration: Findings, methods, and challenges. Design Studies, 81, [page range]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2022.101120