Visual Leaders: New Tools for Visioning, Management, and Organization Change

by David Sibbet

What Visual Meetings did for meetings and Visual Teams did for teams, this book does for leaders

Visual Leaders explores how leaders can support visioning and strategy formation, planning and management, and organizationchange through the application of visual meeting and visual team methodologies organization wide—literally "trans-forming" communications and people's sense of what is possible. It describes seven essential tools for visual leaders—mental models, visual meetings, graphic templates, decision theaters, roadmaps, Storymaps, and virtual visuals—and examples of methods for implementation throughout an organization.

Written for all levels of leadership in organizations, from department heads through directors, heads of strategic business units, and "C" level executives Explores how communications has become interactive and graphic and how these tools can be used to shape direction and align people for implementation Brings tools, methods and frameworks to life with stories of real organizations modeling these practices

Visual Leaders answers the question of how design thinking and visual literacy can help to orient leaders to the complexity of contemporary organizations in the private, non-profit, and public sectors.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Communication, Buisness, Nonfiction, Education

531 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 2012

Reviews

[Krzysztof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong on visual part, weaker on the leadership side. If this is your first book from the series then probably you could bump the rating to 4 out of 5.

I've read Visual Meetings and skimmed Visual Teams before and the best parts of this book are largerly repeated from the previous ones. Somethimes they are covered in more detial or presented from a different (executive/managerial) angle, but still these are the same tools and the same examples (each of the books in this series uses exactly the same stories to show tools in action). The leadership aspect of the book sometimes feels forced or empty, as author needs to simplify many things, but occasionally it deliveres valuable advice.

Print and paper quality is better than in Visual Meetings, so reading experience is nicer. Author starts to acknowlege digital and remote reality, but still many parts of the book feel dated - stories, technology, leadership and organizational models. However, the communication principles, visual tools, and psychology of transformational changes are as valid as ever. I'd recommend reading one book from the series - the core is the same in each, so it doesn't matter much which one - but not sure if Visual Leaders would be my top pick.

[Rosemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading this book over the course of two classes. It is written by David Sibbet of The Grove Consultants. Sibbet and his organization, The Grove, are leaders in the relatively new field of Graphic Facilitation. My professor has actually been to seminars with Sibbet and does freelance Graphic Facilitation himself.

This book, and all of Sibbet's other books, focus on the advantages to understanding things visually. This one focuses on how Leaders can use Graphic Facilitation to lead more effectively.

In Sibbet's world, Power Point is a dirty word because we have all been through very boring PP presentations where the presenter just reads what is on each slide. By the time you get to the end of the mind-numbing presentation, no one remembers what was on slide 1. (I say the fault lies in people - not PP - but that's another topic) However, I still love this approach!

Sibbet uses words and simple images to record meetings on large, wall sized sheets of paper. Everyone participates and thoughts and ideas are recorded by the facilitator as guided by the people he/she is facilitating. At the end of the meeting, the result is a visual representation of what went on that is so much easier for everyone to remember and relate to. It can also be referred back to much more easily than having to read reports or meeting notes.

Part of the success of this is because everyone is participating and engaged in the meeting - not sitting passively. It is a group effort and everyone comes out of it on the same page.

But the bigger philosophy behind this is that, as humans, we are hardwired to respond to pictures. Think about the earliest forms of communication - simple drawings on cave walls! Words didn't come along until much later - then it seems they just took over. There is nothing wrong with words, but we are only using half our brains when only using words. That's why, in this information age, it is getting harder and harder to remember all this information. When using pictures and words we are using both sides of our brain for optimal processing.

The only barrier is that people think they can't draw and are even afraid to try. Sibbet, and others like him, are here to tell you that is a MYTH. Everyone can draw - it's hardwired into us! The best part is there is research to show that simple, hand drawn pictures are much better for this than complicated "artist" type drawings. Why? Because, the viewer is fully engaged when there is an element of having to "figure out" what one is looking at. So you don't have to be an artist to do this.

I was delighted to take this class and read this book! The only reason I took one star off is because the format of the book is not the best, in my opinion. The book is rectangular in shape and there are wide margins on each page that are filled with capsulized versions of some of the info that is in the body. So, it's hard to know where to read first, and you are often reading the same info twice.

BUT, I totally agree that this approach makes a lot of sense. Meetings can be more fun and engaging, info can be so much easier to retain and life would be so great if we could just get it out of our heads that drawing is for a select few. Drawing is for everyone. Pretty much everyone in my class, whether they thought they could draw or not, loved this approach once we began experimenting with it. I highly recommend Sibbet and I hope to have the opportunity to attend one of his conferences and learn more about this exciting field.

[Pedro Seguel Varas · Rating 4 out of 5]

es un buen libro, con una mirada holistica sobre el tema. tiene ejemplos y herramientas. a veces se pierde demasiado en historias y casos, lo que lo vuelve algo particulista y aburrido. así como los enlaces no funcionan bien. pero en general es de buen contenido y útil para quienes trabajamos en consultoría

[Fred Cheyunski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Understanding and Dealing with the Visual Revolution - As others have indicated, the "Visual Leaders" book is a useful orientation and update for leaders and others concerned with organization change through visual approaches and methods.

Similar to the comments of one person, this third book serves as an overall guide that brings together Sibbet's books on "Visual Meetings" and "Visual Teams." Like another has said it is helpful for those who have to bring people around to understand new concepts and ideas by enabling their co-creation rather than just expecting absorption from PowerPoint slides.

Moreover, in its introduction and six parts, the book provides a means of "tracking" and navigating the revolution in visualization that has been coming to prominence in recent years. Here are some of the aspects from the respective parts that I liked or found particularly valuable:

* Within the Introduction, the "Map to the World of Visualization" by Evert Lindquist and Sibbet offers a way to help make sense of the visual revolution and clarifies the book focus on cognitive visualization and visual facilitation (10+ pages);

* Part One: The Visual Leadership Advantage suggests "Cures for Slide-O-Mania," explicates the "Power of Visual Meetings," presents 7 different illustration types in a "Group Graphics Keyboard" giving best uses/limitations, and differentiates "transportation" vs. "responsive chord" communication models (25+ pages in this part);

* Part Two: Looking at Your Own Leadership conveys 7 "Types of Sustainable Organizations" along with the corresponding Sibbet/Le Saget model as well as ways of assessing one's need to change and "Visual IQ" e.g. via history/peak and valley template, SWOT and decision grids (35+ pages in this part);

* Part Three: Power Tools for Visual Leaders entails a plethora of models, tools and templates as well as means of facilitating related meetings and sessions including Sibbet's firm's inspiration of such practices like those concerning "Business Model Generation" - see my review of the related "Value Proposition Design" (75+ pages in this part);

* Part Four: Managing the New Media includes a table with 24 of the most interactive media types ranging from phone/teleconference to internet/social media to virtual reality with descriptions, pros/cons and intended use for each one (20+ pages in this part);

* Part Five: Leading Organization Change speaks to putting visual tools to work via a 7 stage organization transformation model and offers some assistance for honing in on the many graphics and suggestions in the book that may be pertinent to one's situation (10+ pages in this part); and,

* Part Six: Links, Books & Other Resources describes various web sites, groups and references useful for getting additional background (e.g. see my review on "Leading Business Teams" that underlie the 7 point frameworks mentioned above) and further exploring visualization topics covered in the book (10+ pages in this part).

Consider "Visual Leaders" for help in understanding and dealing with the visual revolution which is occurring as a result of new media and evolving management practices.

[Benoit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for any leader and manager who wants to improve its visual literacy. The book draw on decades of experience from the author as well as from a well researched bibliography.

Using visual experience of various companies it will guide you through the process of adding visualisation tools to facilitate your day to day management activities from staff meeting, team meeting, brainstorm, action plan up to the strategic aspects (brainstorming, alignment, priorisation, etc.).

You do not need to be a great artist to benefit from this book.

Given the visual age we live in, it will really help you improve your visual literacy and represent you and your team ideas with ease.

[Jonathan Gomez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sibbet focuses a lot on referencing his own books and his own consulting agency throughout the book, which made the entirety of the book seem like an advertisement for himself. That being said, the book itself was focused on such high level content that it left me feeling like I didn't get any true learnings out of it. And what it did teach it simply repeated over and over again, making the book long and drawn out for no reason.

[Juan Manuel Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid, utile and necessary.

This book is very practical, well written and necessary to those involved in a change process or going soon in it.

The book was written few years ago but is more valuable now.

[coolwind · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite general. Not so useful. The idea using visuals to enhance leadership is sure. However, the book does not goes deep into how.

[Helen Savore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this book. Not only does it build on the previous "Visual" series but it brings in a lot of other theory and corpus of knowledge surrounding leadership, simply with a visual focus. There are so many books its great when the author's show how they work together. I feel more confident about theories that link together than ones that say they're entirely new and unique, it makes me more suspicious of the theories since there has been so much published there must be an inspiration or connection to something previously said, no matter how small.

The book doesn't just teach a lesson it embraces them using visual heuristics to make the book more easy to learn and comprehend. Given that it can either be skimmed or read carefully, simply varying the level of details and takeaway for the reader. I do recommend not finishing it one sitting, its good to take breaks from this and reflect "How will I use this, how _can_ I use this?"

[Aqyas Dini]

For a person that can't draw aesthetically like me but don't always want to write in details of the meetings or even lectures, it was exciting to read this book! You can find methods of note-taking that will help you to record and deliver ideas in your head to other people.
A special note for those who read this book in Indonesian language edition, I think the translation somehow is very difficult to understand.

[Laurens Bonnema · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read the other books by David, you can skip this one. It's good, but mostly rehashes the info from the other two books, presenting it from the perspective of an executive. Now, that's exactly what David says the book is in the first chapter, so the book does deliver on its promise.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated book for leaders which explains in many different facets how to lead with visuals of all styles. A great book for creating presentations, motivating people, leading teams and companies, and forging ahead with goals and aspirations.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ NOV 2015

Nice companion to Visual Meetings.