Visualisation as an employee engagement tool
Since the birth of man, people have used the advantages of visualisation to express feelings and emotion and to explain complex ideas narratives. In today’s fast-paced and knowledge-thirsty world, internal communicators are returning to visualisation as a strategy to engage and inform employees and to create a positive learning experience at work.
People who need to communicate utilise the power of visual communication
Some may baulk at the idea of visualisation as a worthy format for communication, though it is a strategy that proves its value every day and everywhere we look. A few examples of the advantages of visualisation include:
- Children are taught to read with the aid of visuals
- Teachers explain complicated theories to pupils by drawing on blackboards of whiteboards (a chemical formula and its bonding is much more easily understood when depicted diagrammatically)
- Marketers utilise visualisation in commercials, printed adverts and billboards, where meaning must be conveyed in an instant
- Companies include charts and graphs in annual reports to show progress over the previous 12 months
- Political cartoonists create pictorial satire that explains in one glance what a whole-page editorial would find hard to depict
This last example is extremely apt. Graphic artists are able to transcend the fallibility of language with visuals which are easily understood by all.
Many graphic artists who work to inform and explain identify as graphic journalists. Indeed, graphic journalism using visual communication techniques is a flourishing form of information dissemination, both online and in print. Type in ‘graphic journalism’ as a search term in Google, and you will discover more than 100 million online results. The term ‘visual communication’ yields more than one billion.
The advantages of visualisation in the world of business
Graphic journalism employs the advantages of visualisation that allow communicators to reach wider audiences and encourage deeper investigation of the complex. They develop narratives that are more easily followed by all, with common visual communication types including infographic, videos, cartoons and comic strips.
Graphics work so exceptionally well because of the advantages of visualisation, which include:
- Visualisation of complex issues is more easily consumed than large tracts of text
- Space constraints are eliminated
- Easier to share, for examples via social media, helping to spread messages more widely
- Language barriers decrease – visual communication makes subject matter more accessible to all
- They encourage conversation and understanding around complicated subject matters
The Habit of Silence in communication
Investigative graphic journalist Germán Andino communicates the lure of gangs in his work “The Habit of Silence”, which tells the story of Isaac who was the subject of violence as a young boy. His work was published in Spain’s main newspaper, El País.
How communicators utilise the advantages of visualisation
As with verbal or written communication, the visual communicator must narrate and control the flow of the story they wish to tell. The act of illustrating narrative becomes an intimate and enlightening process, as the illustrator talks, listens and draws what the subject wishes to say. It allows deep and meaningful dialogue – a completely different connection than with a writer who takes notes and then expands.
Internal communicators who wish to benefit from the advantages of visualisation will need to work with an experienced and business literate illustrator. It’s a highly personalised practice that digs deep into real meaning, allowing the illustrator to learn and understand context and to set this in a visual format.
When utilised well, visual communication of organisational narrative allows it to be given greater meaning and is more easily understood than, say, a wordy PowerPoint presentation.
Visualisation is a credible form of communication, a meaningful arrow in the quiver of employee communication tactics used by influential leaders. It is already used to inform and explain many complex issues in the world, and by organisations when communicating to shareholders and other stakeholders.
In a business world in which messages must be transmitted at pace, and in which meaning gets lost across the divides of language, culture, and geographical remoteness, the many advantages of visualisation bring many benefits that might otherwise be lost when communicating in a less global language.
As you drive to improve employee engagement, benefit from the advantages of visualisation to help your people understand the big picture of your organisation.
To discover how our Learning Map utilises visualisation and helps to improve employee engagement, get in touch with The Big Picture People today.
