The MFA is the new MBA.
(Acutally, it was a BA, but it still took me five years.)
A long time ago, I practiced focusing my 'mind's eye' in a Thai temple.
Flying is a great way to practice visual awareness.
OK, now try it upside-down
Occasionlly, even the best pictures demand a little arm-waving.
Swapping visual-thinking stories with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in Moscow.
I believe that any problem can be solved with a picture. And that anybody can draw it.
Several years ago, I ran a marketing communications company in Russia. The only problem was that I didn’t speak Russian. I asked myself, “How can I run a communications company in a place where I don’t understand what anybody is saying?”
The answer: I drew pictures. And helped my Russian team draw theirs. It worked. After a few years I spoke Russian well, but we still drew pictures, because they still worked.
When I returned to the US and joined a New York-based consulting company, I continued to draw pictures. They helped our teams understand each other, helped our clients understand us (and vice-versa), and helped everyone discover ideas that were otherwise invisible.
Today I spend about an equal amount of time drawing problem-solving pictures and teaching other business people to draw their own. I believe that my book can help anyone do the same.
