 Joining me for a visual thinking warm-up. My name is Alex West and I'm a little bit different From a lot of the speakers at the conference and that I do not have a technical background I am not from the world of software I actually have a degree in art history and I spent about 10 years working in art galleries and then for the past Seven eight years. I've been working in the film and television industry as a production designer Which is really kind of a fancy word for the person that does all of the sets and the props and basically everything that you see on screen That's not a person. It's what I do. So you all of course have your very famous film industry Bollywood I work in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States, which is affectionately known as Yollywood So I'm gonna teach you guys a little Southern slang if you are not familiar with it We use the term y'all in the South to refer to a group of people is a contraction of you all But you can also use it to refer to just one person if you are really Southern So you can have a single y'all or an all y'all Which be all y'all big group. So now you can use that to go to the States So Atlanta has become a really big center for filmmaking and so it's a gut LA of course in New York and Atlanta, which we call Yollywood in honor of you guys You've inspired our name of our film community Maybe we're getting close Yeah my hero I Think you're stuck here for a few more days So this is my husband a business partner David who will be speaking tomorrow. We'll see what happens with his talk Since we're sharing the same new MacBook That's gonna be fun. It's gotta be an electronic Yeah, I had to be the guinea pig. I had to go first Seems like good things are happening now But this will this work with we need this dongle. It's gonna be great. So worth the wait. Hi I'm Alex pretty soon. I'm gonna have my clicker and then we are gonna go So close like seconds away All right. Whoo. Thank you everybody. That was a real team effort so Today we're here to do a little visual thinking warm-up We're gonna talk about visual thinking strategies or as it's more commonly known BTS so what is that it is a research-based methodology that improves critical thinking skills through the facilitated Discussion of artwork. It's been around for a long time But it is relatively new to the software industry. It was founded in the 70s by Abigail howlzen who is a cognitive Psychologist and Philip Yenowen who was the director of education at several museums and spent ten years as a director of Education at the Museum of Modern Art and they originally developed this as a program for museum visitors and for school children And it's used really extensively throughout our educational system in the US. It's really grown a lot So its origins are in cognitive psychology and in museum pedagogy, which is how people look at art So what kind of skills can we get from BTS? Why would you want to use this technique? First one, which is pretty obvious is it helps with observational skills So what we're talking about here is not just looking at things but really seeing them really understanding them Speculating turning those observations into ideas that can be shared with one another Brainstorming collaborating coming together as a team and a group to develop and advance are those ideas Reasoning with evidence being able to back up those assumptions with thought and being able to articulate the viewpoints Cultivating a POV or a point of view a building a story Telling a story a building a narrative and then finally revision and elaboration Using the observations of others within your team to help refine the point of view and make it better So it's definitely a group activity. It's a team sport Whoop one second jump to head because I can't see my next slide So I think the best way to really understand what BTS is is to participate in it So I'm gonna actually lead all of you guys through a BTS session and then we'll come back and talk about it And talk about how you can do this in your own organizations if it's something you want to try So we're gonna look at three works of art together And we're gonna talk about them the really specific set of questions that I'm gonna ask you guys So I'm gonna put up the first image and let's all just take a few seconds. Just quietly look at this together whoop Sorry, hang on one moment There we go, so let's just take a few seconds to look at this together And I'm gonna come down there so I could be with you guys All right, let's start over here you guys hi, so What's going on in this picture? Maybe we could turn the lights down a little bit if that's possible you guys see What's going on in this picture? Sorry, okay, so he's saying that this lady is doing some cleaning Okay, so I'm hearing setting the bed. What do you see that makes you say that? So this time at this is looks like a sheet and it's night. What do you see that makes you say it's night? The moon So now we're talking about the kids and they're up on the roof Sorry, oh the so what do you see that makes you say that they're wearing their night shoes or pajamas? Oh the pants and the shirt are the same color. Okay. All right Okay, what more can we find the light outside the house helps to tell you that it's night They're religious and what do you see that makes you say that? Cross right here one more. Can we find the kids are counting stars now? What do you see that makes you say that the fact that this this child's pointing to this guy, okay? So now we're talking about whether or not they're allowed to be on the roof And you said are saying that you feel that they are allowed to be on the roof Probably and what do you see that makes you say that you think they're allowed to be up there? so We're saying the mother Her facial expression the fact that she's doing chores She doesn't seem too concerned that the kids are up on the roof or maybe she just doesn't know that they're on the roof This is not aware their other so I heard somebody else mentioned that it's spring. Who is that? So what do you see that it makes you say that it's spring? The daffodils, okay, so now we're talking about what season it is so it's spring. We see some spring time flowers What more can we find sorry? It's a country style house, and what do you see what do you see that makes you say that? Because there's nothing around the house, so we're we're maybe in the country a little isolated, okay? It's a painting Okay, so now we're talking about the actual physical object here. What do you see that makes you say it's a painting? The border so the frame the proportions are the objects are not right How so? The tree seems a little small So the proportions are telling you more that it's a painting and not a photograph Okay What more can we find yep? Okay, so now we're talking about the children and that their body language and the fact that they're leaning the same way They seem very relaxed as though they were friends Friends or family Okay, and maybe their relaxed attitude indicates that they go up on the roof a lot It's not their first time on the roof. They're pretty comfortable up there Okay, they could even be twins and what do you see that makes you say that same size similar pajamas Uh-huh, so say that again. Oh, so two windows here because of you're mentioning this gap right here Okay, and what right? What do you see that makes you say it's the mother? Yeah, why are we assuming that it's the mother it could be also be a maid Doing the laundry so it might not be the mother could be morning Could be early morning They could be lovers. Yeah, what do you see that makes you say they might be lovers instead? So maybe they're trying to hide from their parents are sneaking off So now we're talking about what's inside the window. We see a little bit of a painting and a little chest of drawers Yes Did you have something? Yep, so it looks like we were have a painting inside of a frame here The mother's trying to make the bed and what do you see that makes you say that? Right what she's shaking out here. Okay. Oh, so now we have a new interpretation Perhaps she has just come into the room and she's lifting the bed cover to see where they are Okay Yes, okay, so now we're talking about the fact that she's all alone down here working cleaning Maybe she needs a little help and so maybe maybe they're escaping some work. Maybe they're hiding from the house work Yes The view is from another house. Now. What do you see that makes you say it's from another house? So we could be looking out another window and that's the shape Yeah, so we could be peering out of another house directly across into this house The kids are pointing at the moon talking about the crater. All right. Thank you guys. Let's move on Let's look at another one. I Guess I didn't really need to come up here All right, so again, let's just let's take a few seconds to look at this together Well, we're you're just jumping right in Okay, so I heard that's a moogle setup. Now. What do you see that makes you say that's a moogle setup So that the their attire Okay, and what do you see that makes you say it's a John family? So I'm hearing grandfather and grandmother and what do you see that makes you say that? Their age their gray hair, maybe and there's only two of them of That age, okay So they're the only they're the elders of this scene that we've got going on here And one of the ladies is holding a baby right here, right? So I'm hearing that Maybe this is a husband and a wife and that these are all their children. What do you see that makes you say that? Oh, there's one Maybe four Maybe four wives This person That's two babies. Yeah, and The hand holding the hand of this child So maybe he's a helper Maybe he's a helper for the family with the children. What more can we find? Sorry the room in the middle looks weird and what do you see that makes you say that? Right, so some sort of strange angles and perspective happening here Cooking is going on Here and what do you see that makes you say that? So just her all of her stencils Yep, right here small fireplace. Oh, so now we're coming down here to the hookah This guy. Yeah, so this guy maybe smoking over here Now what makes you say it's a very patriarchal house? Okay, so the women are all busy with the children and cooking and And the men are just sort of chillin right And grandmother may be asking for a chance at the hookah Grandma oh I'm hearing a different opinion over here. Let's get she's giving be told Okay, yeah, so this sir and what do you see that makes you say he's a servant? Yeah, he has no shirt. Okay, so maybe this isn't a house. Maybe this is a whole street Okay, so maybe this isn't even one family then. Oh, yeah, so you're seeing another door Over here. So and then this open door Okay, so I'm hearing they they seem to be well to do and what do you see that makes you say they seem to be well to do Their clothing. Oh, so okay this guy you're saying maybe giving some advice and what do you see that makes you say is giving advice Like he's teaching he could be describing something him or teaching him something. Oh Lending money now. What do you see that makes you say lending money? Oh So they might be conducting some sort of business transaction up here Okay, or a small boy getting pocket money. I know oh Yeah, so okay, so let's talk about that. What's what's going on here the two So we've got cooking heat going on here as well as the cooking up in the top left so this guy might be a doctor and And we might be seeing patients coming visit him. What do you see that makes you say that? So maybe these are medical instruments and not cooking instruments So this woman may be making medicine. What more can we find? Oh, so, okay, we've gone further Maybe he's a doctor. Maybe he's a child specialist And maybe all these people are bringing their children to see the doctor that specializes in children Right, so all these children may be coming to see the doctor now What more can we find? this figure So we're talking about how still he looks and how straight That he's not really maybe as much in motion as some of the other figures are so we're talking about Talking about this guy right here now Okay, so what what do you see that makes you say? Maybe he's a dwarf and So he's short like a child, but we're seeing some a mustache So maybe he's a dwarf and then what do you see that makes you say he might be a painting? just because he is so still and Flat so because he looks like he's right on the wall So, oh, so this this child holding the box is maybe the box of the beetle that she has right here And what do you what do you see that makes you say? That's a beetle box With the color so the color is indicating the contents for you. So this figure What what is very different? That his clothing is very different from the rest of the people indicating that he might be a servant Oh, okay, so now we're talking about the complexion that this figure and this figure And this one over here That they might be different because they have a darker complexion. So this figure this figure and this figure He has some shoes on Okay, so now we're now we're noticing that this figure with the children has shoes and Everybody else looks to have their shoes off Maybe this he's not associated with them at all that he's just going for a walk. He's the trans specialist Okay, so what do you see that makes you say it's from an older era the veranda this The Devon of this figure this one So this figure may be grinding the spices and The type of furniture and the type of dwelling might indicate that it's older Oh, so now we're noticing that he's also bringing a pot of grain Maybe some food for the kids here. So you think may it may be three different houses So this and then this and then this is the third What do you see that it makes you say they might be three different houses? Because this kitchen looks different and the doors are different Yes Okay, so he's saying that maybe the painter did not think of all the stories He wanted to tell ahead of time and then and so what do you see that makes you say that? Yeah So maybe artists just randomly paint whatever pops into their head What do you see in this image that makes you say that he may not have known ahead of time everything he wanted to put in here, right? So we okay So maybe he it's like it's more like a song than a painting and it just sort of flowed out of him this one So the proportions are not right on her So maybe the perspective is a little odd with this figure by the pot and then what were you saying? Okay, so now we're talking about the proportions of the figures and the shadows Indicate that he may not have thought out the whole composition. It's a two-story building on the right Yeah, that maybe he was trying to make it a 3d picture, but he didn't quite have the skills for that Couldn't render that correctly Okay, so that maybe this figure is entering this house and the painter wanted to represent all the Activities that were happening in the house simultaneously and they ended ended up laying on top of each other a little bit Which child? This child this is a naughty child. What do you see that makes you say? This is a naughty child the body language And he's holding a stick like he's about to whack somebody Okay, so yeah, we're talking about we're talking about this little guy right here And maybe he's about to hit somebody with this stick Sorry Which oh this kid is saying no more kids too many. I don't like this competition That's this plenty. Let's be done. I Want more for myself? Thank you guys. So a lot of really great observations. Let's uh The red color now tell me about the red color. Oh all the ladies are wearing colors right and all of our gentlemen are in white except our except oh Except this figure, so we're back to this figure that might be a painting or a dwarf and that he's the only male figure That's not in white this figure All the kids are actually boys because they're all wearing white. Oh, we've escalated to kidnapping now He's kidnapping and what do you see that makes you say kidnapping? Okay, so maybe everybody's preoccupied with what they're doing and he's sort of sneaking off with the kids here And that and this kid's maybe like hey Don't steal my brother Okay, that's so we got potential kidnapping going on over here with the potential Kidnap thwarting happening right here They've run out of money because the youngest children have no clothes All right. I think you guys are an awesome job with that one. We're gonna move on Go to something completely different. So let's just take a few seconds to look at this I'm gonna get a sip of water All right, what's going on in this picture? So it seems like a photograph rather than a painting. What do you see that makes you say that? So the figure looks more real It's an artificial setup and what do you see that makes you say that it doesn't match It's a makeshift room. What do you see that makes you say that it doesn't look like a home What do you see that makes you say it doesn't look like a home the carpet is used to make it look like a room So perhaps this is an old set or the ruins of an old theater and what do you see that makes you say that? Okay, so there's some some luxury items and the light and the carpet But then there's a tree and the tree can't grow on the carpet Okay, so now you're noticing that as we've progressed through the pictures They've gotten more complex and more full of stuff. This one definitely has a lot of stuff. Oh Okay, so this figure is probably on a diet. I'm hearing and what do you see that makes you say this woman is on a diet She looks really thin. She looks very thin She might be part of an art installation And what do you see that makes you say that? Because it's a little bit of a surreal or an unreal environment with the tree inside this living space She's very untidy and she doesn't have a house Maybe this is where she lives So I'm now we're talking about all these books that are open and that maybe she's trying to find something Or maybe she's in love with someone and she's reading old love letters love poems And someone's trying to film it Would you know what do you see that makes you say somebody's trying to film it? So she she looks like she might be a model or an actress on a set She appears to be distressed. What do you see that makes you say distressed? So her facial expression and the way that she's searching through these books Looks artificial She's reading up on witchcraft now. What do you see that makes you say witchcraft which This one Okay, this book this book no Oh over here or here that one Okay So what do you see about what about those books makes you say and I'm gonna go point over here that they might be Related to witchcraft and we're talking about this book this book and this book What do you see it that makes you say that? The cover so this just the way they look so she's having such a hard time studying That meanwhile this tree has has just grown over her books because she's having such a hard time studying all of this It could be a tree house So we could possibly be up in the tree No Tree house and there is electricity Okay, so now we're now we're noticing that up here in the very top There's a lot of pages hung up and what do you see that makes you say it might be two different photographs fused together This one. Oh, okay up here So it might be two pictures put together because we've got some some landscape and then maybe she's Inside and you're noticing that because the lighting looks so different because of this light the strong light on the tree is Different from this light is different from what's going on with her Hey, so maybe she's leading an alternate lifestyle away from the city where she's come into a cave and she's just living with nature so Everything would fit into that except for these lights and the electricity She looks like Alice in Wonderland. What do you see that makes you say that? Everything is disorganized. She's messy a little bit. So it's a little bit disorganized Maybe Alice in Wonderland maybe in a cave So because all she's got all these books open. Maybe she's searching for something in these books Maybe her home was broken into and burglarized and what do you see that makes you say that? The fact that everything's just sort of tossed about So maybe somebody was looking for something or maybe she's in somebody else's house looking for something Maybe she tore everything up a turtle All right, where's the turtle? Oh Oh, and we've noticed a turtle. All right. I'm coming over Okay, I didn't see the turtle before oh This second turtle. Oh on the carpet. Here's another turtle There's a suitcase So what's going on with the turtles? The turtles what so maybe the turtles are showing the passage of time She's been there so long the turtles who move very slowly have made it into her her house Or the turtles might be her pets So now we're saying that the turtles might be symbolic of her personality that maybe she's shy and she's Going inside of her shell like a turtle and so the artist is kind of representing that by giving us turtles in the photograph So maybe she's trying to figure out who was here before her One more can we find? That the tree has actually grown over the on top of the carpet here The carpet and what do you see that makes you say the carpet is really old? Right, so the carpet had to be there a long time for the tree roots to grow over it So the roots are not looking real not like what like a real tree They're looking like they're made of mud and what do you see that makes you say that? because of the these folds So it's like a prop Not a real tree because of all the folds in it. There's a what? There's a bird's nest. Oh right here So a little more nature happening along with our turtles We've also got the birds nest here. There's a chair in the back Yep, so it might be a study because it has furniture like you maybe you would read here in this chair with this lamp So now we're back over here talking about this area Yeah, oh yeah Yes, okay, so I heard she's angry and what do you see it? Hungry and maybe trying to find a recipe Okay, what do you see that makes you say she's hungry her posture the fact that she's sort of slumped over She looks like she's maybe tired and there's an impatience. What do you see that makes you say impatience? Because she has multiple books open so she's frustrated. She's not finding what she's looking for And there's some mushrooms growing on the tree. Oh up here. Oh, okay So mushrooms so maybe she's hungry because of her slumped over posture Maybe she's looking for some recipes and she's getting annoyed because she's got a bunch of books open It she can't find what she needs and then we're noticing there's also some mushrooms growing over here So now we're noticing that she likes floral that she's got floral patterns in the wallpaper and in the carpet And maybe she's happy. Maybe this is actually exactly what she wants There's a natural. Oh, so maybe there was a natural disaster something happened into the house that drove all this in messed her house up Okay, she her boyfriend became a saint What do you see that makes you say that? Because she ended up in a cave and she's reading about why he became a saint So she's we were here I'm hearing she looks a little depressed like she might be listening to a breakup song and She's tearing all her love letters So the colors and the lighting on her and the background just may be a breakup perfect breakup song Or she could just be modeling and just trying to look relaxed. It's great. So, yes We're commenting that initially you see the really obvious things and then you start to think about what the story is So that's a great place For us to wrap up this image. Thank you guys again for all that great input. So What just happened? What are your initial thoughts and reactions to that process? What would happen? May I heard we started off with the obvious stuff? What else? Anybody you became impatient. I Became a patient or you who became I wasn't it the more you look at it the more you see Right the more you look at the more you try to fit it into something you would recognize Okay, everybody sees something different in the picture So sort of take an inventory of the physical things that are present and then make up a story that Incorporates all of those objects and those people Yes so we started off with a really pretty simple image and then they got more and more visually complex and denser as we progressed We see things as we are ourselves. So we're projecting Ourselves onto them, right? So we're all putting our own individual past thoughts on these things Yep Great, right as the time went by people had more opinions about what was happening Right exactly. So the amount of information ideas kept increasing. Okay, so Let's kind of break this down. So why why does this process work? First thing it's pretty obvious. This is accessible. This isn't an art class or an art lesson Nobody needs a background in art to participate in this We're just looking at pictures together Second thing is it encourages participation from everybody. There are no right or wrong answers in this There's we're not trying to form a group consensus and all come together and agree what's happening in the picture We're just having a conversation about it. Okay, so we're really encouraging everybody's viewpoints It's a great tool if you have a team Well, let me let me move on to say enhances team dynamics and collaboration So when you read the description of this talk, you'll notice I'd said, you know, do strong personalities Dominate your teams. This is a great tool to use because they're in every group There's always one or two loud voices, right? And then there are a lot of people that are quiet They're less comfortable speaking up in front of the group. There may be Shire This is a really great tool to get participation from everybody because again, you can't say anything that's wrong because there are no wrong answers No, nobody knows what's supposed to be happening in any of these works of art. We're just going to talk about it together It helps obviously VTS develops Observational skills and reasoning so the discussion is a discovery process as we all talked about it together Everybody saw new things and then we sort of developed the story and the story kept changing and evolving as we got to hear Everybody else's observations. Maybe see some things that we didn't initially see ourselves And then finally VTS enhances complex problem solving the active construction of meaning so There's no learning that takes place without trying to make some meaning so this storytelling and trying to come up with what's going on It's built as a group conversation. So we're creating an environment and a process for looking thinking Reasoning and revision skills that are really mission critical to anybody that's in a design or a development role Why art? Why does VTS use art? So this is a quote from the VTS organization's home page Art is intentionally ambiguous open to a variety of valid interpretations Feelings are embedded in art along with information Triggering a full range of expression from those who look at it thoughtfully layers of meaning symbols and metaphor encourage probing and reflecting so First of all art objects. They're the most complex visual things that we encounter any day Figuring out what art tells us occupies scholars for lifetimes The goal of VTS similar to the goal of the popularized approach of design thinking is to connect people with their creative side and Allow them to generate their own really good solutions We are all all day long making sense of the world around us by observing it Despite differences in background Language age we can all recognize what's happening in art. We all know These people these stories these situations We can recognize the emotions that they're feeling and the subject matter and the types of artwork that we can discuss are almost Infinite so this process is really adaptable to any type of groups and you could do this forever and never repeat Comfort with ambiguity. So again, there's no one interpretation You know, this isn't a math problem and at the end you're going to find out what the answer is We have to be comfortable with the fact that we don't know we can all have these ideas, but in the end we don't really know Openness to the unfamiliar Other than the facilitator generally in a VTS session Everybody's going to be viewing these images together for the first time So we're all being confronted with the unfamiliar and we're working together to collaborate and reason and make sense of what's happening with that So these are the kind of team level skills that can make a difference in innovation work whether it's a feature film Like I'm working on whether it's a web application Really applicable to a broad variety So let's just I'm going to give you a couple of examples of how this technique has been used outside of museums and schools Where it originated? So the first one I'm going to tell you guys about is The CIA America's infamous central intelligence agency actually has an abstract art collection Well, why would they have that you say well during the Cold War era of the 1950s and the 1960s the CIA Ran a propaganda program where they were promoting the work of American abstract expressionist artists because they thought It was a perfect example of the great freedoms of expression Citizens of the United States have now as the Cold War died down that program got put to bed replaced by lots of other Propaganda I'm sure But the CIA has kept that art collection. It's still there and it's hanging on the walls of their headquarters And it's not just there to pretty up the place They actually bring Agents down to look at this very complex imagery and sort of tease it apart and analyze it to work on their problem solving skills So Carolyn reams who is the former director of the CIA Museum said that they'll actually have their agents come down to do a Critical analysis on the paintings if they're working on a really complex problem like an ISIL problem And they found that it helps them be more creative in how they look at those sorts of complex situations We don't know all the details of that because it's still considered classified But I do have a link here to a really interesting article if you want to read a little bit more about that probably the most well-known Use of ETS is in medical schools, and it was really pioneered by Harvard Medical School in 2003 they launched a program called training the eye and it's a pre-clinical course that's focused on the physical exam of patients and diagnoses and What they were trying to do is really develop that visual literacy amongst the medical students So the ability to reason out physiology and pathophysiology from careful and unbiased observation So following the course they tested the students to see what it was doing and they found that the students that had gone through training The eye made more observations There was more sophisticated language in them and they were actually more accurate So they were making better diagnoses of patients based on observation After having gone through this process of looking at and discussing artwork There were a number of studies published about it and it became a model program for medical schools around the world Actually utilize this tool now So let's say you wanted to bring this into your own environment They give you a quick overview of how you can do that So of course the very first thing that you would start with is picking your images What's important when you're looking at your images and three is pretty common three that you talk about for 15 or 20 minutes each So you keep your session at about an hour First thing accessibility and captivation are your viewers likely to recognize what they observe We want to show things that have reasonably familiar people places actions and things that are interesting You want it to be intriguing and interesting to your audience, right? We want it to be fun for them to look at and the second would be diversity and what we're talking about here is really just Different types of images. So you notice today. We looked at a photograph We looked at a more ancient artwork. We looked at a more contemporary painting So you're gonna have a much more lively discussion and get more out of it If you look at a variety of artworks than if you look at three black and white photographs It's not gonna give you the same kind of outcome Existence of a narrative You know viewers look for stories in art. This is about what's the story? What's going on? So you need to give them an image that has some kind of story in it because of that realism and Surrealism are probably gonna be the most successful If you put up a still life, you know, if you're looking at a bowl of fruit that conversation is not gonna last very long It's gonna be pretty quick full fruit. So I For thing ambiguity They need to be open to interpretation They should contain a number of valid readings and several possible meanings This allows for an intriguing challenge trying to figure out what's going on and also justifies a range of viable viewpoints Which is really the point of the process And then finally sequencing and themes you all noticed what we did we started off very simple And then we went to the more complex image So a planar image less information less ambiguity less symbolism Moving on to something that's very complex with a lot going on and a lot of symbolism on it Themes the amount of groupings are just a useful organizational logic. You don't have to have a theme. It can be nice Did anybody notice a theme today? Nobody noticed a theme today Well, we were looking into people's homes or places lots of windows Yeah, not mandatory, but it can be nice to have some sort of Organizing principle So then once you've got your images got the questions, right? As you noticed there are only three questions and you ask the same three questions every time and we'll talk about why The wording is so specific. So the first question what's going on in this picture encourages storytelling, right? if you think about it and you Compare it with what do you see in this picture if I had asked you that your most likely response would be to give me a list I see a house. I see a tree. I see a moon. We want to be talking about the story So hence what's going on in this picture? Second question What do you see that makes you say that so this is asking your viewers to look and to gather evidence to support their opinions It keeps everything back based and logical. Why do we think that's a grandmother? Why do we think it's springtime? Let's gather that evidence and talk about it Again, you could alternate that and say why do you say that but that can feel a little bit Confrontational and we want to keep the conversation anchored in the image So what do you see that makes you say that and then finally what more can we find this just has the effect of making the Conversation more complete as everybody noticed details that are not seen initially Are seen the more time you spend with the painting, right? Then the habit of making thorough examinations is encouraged and it's that being thorough that makes this, you know A serious and rigorous process now I've given this talk in a couple different countries and I know everybody if they take this back to their home Organizations is going to translate these questions into their own language So the important thing is just to keep the spirit of the questions They want to be neutral, you know, they don't want to feel aggressive or confrontational and they want to encourage Looking and storytelling What else did I do besides the questions? Acknowledge all responses. It's very important of ETS to give participants immediate feedback It feels supportive. It signals to the group that everybody's viewpoints are important Pointing and be physically expressive. This was a little hard today with two sides of the room going But you want to make sure first of all that we're all seeing the same thing And we're all looking at the same thing while we're talking about it and also, you know As you're sort of moving your pointer or your finger around you're encouraging people to keep looking You know keep looking keep the eye moving around the picture Next paraphrasing so repeating and paraphrasing each person's response again The first thing is to make sure everybody hears the comment and we're all hearing the comments we're all talking the same thing having the same conversation and Then we can also use that paraphrasing opportunity to make the answer or the response a little clearer or more exact Also, we can translate that into a shared vocabulary You might have a design language or something else that you're trying to get your team to adopt You can use that paraphrasing of people's observations to reinforce any sort of shared language or vocabulary You're trying to get your team to use Remain open and accepting the facilitator's role is to be neutral, right? You don't want to correct any answers You don't want to add on commentary You don't want to get super excited about something that you agree with that you think is what's going on in the picture You want to stay neutral? we're it's really about everybody's viewpoints and Everybody sees things differently, you know some people saw a servant some people saw a kidnapper Some people just saw a neighbor walking by and that's that's really what we're trying to encourage and then finally linking the thoughts so Going back to previous Comments, you know tying things together tying that story together from the different people in the room Any discussion you have about artwork is going to be a lively conversation It's that linkage and that storytelling that really makes this a catalyst for learning You know the diversity of insights that you get from everyone helps each of us grow beyond our tendency to see things from our single perspective If you say we all come to we all bring our own Context to it, but you really want to hear everybody else's context. That's gonna lead to more observations Sorry, I thought I clicked my slide More ideas more accuracy and it's about debating and building on the ideas of others We want to be able to have a civil debate to say no, that's not what I think I think it's this and here's why and back that up with evidence so that linking and that conversation are really key So this is kind of an oh, oh, oh, sorry. I have a Good something. Let me just So I would love to hear from you guys how you might see yourselves utilizing this tool. Yes Mindset behavior workshop. Okay, right. What's what do people really think not just what they say they think? Yeah, we are in the mindset. That's yes. Okay Mm-hmm Mm-hmm. Wow 200 Okay, so they're picking the images depicting the current state where you are yep, right so learning about other people's perspectives Yeah, I think we can all connect anger with our boss at some point. Yeah, right, okay So where you are versus where you want to be? Yeah, that's great Anybody else? Yes. So converting ideas into a picture in order to sort of communicate that better Metaphor Right. Yes. Yes Retrospectives yes, yes Yeah, I've heard retrospectives before so I think that's I think you're right on point there. Yeah Yeah Right, nobody wants to talk about failure. No No, thank you. Great. I'm sorry to explore the usability of a feature Yeah, definitely and definitely anybody that's working in any sort of UX. I mean observations so critical there You know Absolutely be very applicable well, I'm gonna put up My slide with all of The links and I'm also have that on Twitter I'll have the information on the artwork and I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody has you guys have been great Yes, sure Absolutely, I think you that any even if it's famous I Think it will still be effective because you're still gonna hear differing viewpoints Even if it's a month the Mona Lisa or something else to every bit that a lot of people have seen You're I think you'd probably still be surprised at all of the different opinions that you heard and where you ended up at The end of the conversation versus where you started because people are really gonna feed off of each other's ideas Yes There's a lot going on in that one. Yeah, maybe the third one in a series and not the first one Yeah, yeah, and you can do it with sculpture too. It doesn't have to be paintings You know as long as there's a narrative as long as there's some sort of story to suss out in there It can be anything Anybody else have any questions That's okay. I appreciate the tweeting So it's very very big right now in childhood education in the US. So They're finding out that it really helps students not just with their thinking skills But also with their language skills because they're having to put their thoughts They're having to verbalize their words, right? And they're finding that it's really good with students that Speak a foreign language and are coming over and trying to learn English. So again, it's great for diverse groups And eat any group where you're really trying to bring people together and get that input from everyone because I think You know, everybody spends a lot of time building diverse teams But if you're not getting Contributions from everyone on the team because they don't feel comfortable speaking up You don't really have a diverse team because you're really just hearing from the one or two really loud people, right? So creating an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas will overflow into other areas So really anything that's a team-based I think it can work and it's you know, it's slowly sort of trickling into these other industries out of the educational system I mean, I really think you could do it However, whatever made sense for you weeklies would be great But monthly would be great too, but I you're gonna get more benefit You one time you're probably not gonna get a ton out. It's a fun exercise You know, it's a fun way to break up an afternoon, but I think you know once a month I would say would probably be a minimum Yeah Or at least yeah once to really get something out of it Otherwise you could still do it, but you might not really see the results from it. Yeah. Yeah, right Right. Well, and you could I mean you could do it remotely you could share images remotely. Sure Be a little I mean, I think yeah If you just did a shared presentation because I think you just would still want to be able to move the cursor around Right to do that tracking of where what you were talking about But it could really help with the diverse teams again because you want all those different viewpoints, right? That's the idea Well, thanks you guys you were awesome. I really appreciate everybody's participation. You are a super lively group Thank you so much. And if you think questions later, please feel free to tweet me email me you can find me