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Since 1990, I've lived and worked in the thick of technological, systemic and organizational changes taking place in the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company . In all that I've found that when I draw "stuff" that shows how systemic interact, processes relate, illustrate concepts and so on, it makes a huge difference.
Static cartoon display steps around the normal ways of communication by presenting ideas, histories and "what is" in a friendly, funny format that help people:
In my cartoon displays I'm careful to avoid pointing fingers at people (rather they describe problems). I don't attempt to "prove" anything, but rather they open the door to discovery. People see the pictures, laugh, and say to the person next to them something like... "Here is my world"... let me tell you about my world!"
I end up getting them into "dialogue".
By Dialogue, I'm talking about:
The Greek concept of "dia" and "logos",
"through meaning" or "shared meaning" have
recently been popularized by the likes of the late David Bohm and
Peter
Senge, and embraced by the Organizational
Development Communities, Social and Commercial interests.
The main idea in "dialogue" is to try to work together to come to a common understanding - even when the participants hold radically divergent ideas, or opinions. Dialogue allows participants to discover their own "model" of reality they hold in their heads, and talk with others about them.
Dialogue is opposite of the idea of "discussion" (in Peter Senge's explanation) that has a similar root also found in words like "concussion" and "percussion", a more or less warlike approach to communication where there is a clear winner and a clear loser. Dialogue provides a way to face the personal and organizational dragons, and actually discover ways to make changes that mean something, as well as stick around a while.
Dialogue, as practiced in the new business circles has a friendly, human quality about it, generally associated with terminology and ideas that have risen from the NTL group, inventors of the "T-group", an early form of "sensitivity" or self awareness training.
While cartoon art tends to be a but blunt, I avoid (strenuously) sinking to the level of character assasination.
Recently I've connected cartoon display and dialogue to the MIT notion of the Learning History ( Learning Histories Paper - by Art Kleiner and George Roth) Graphical Depiction of the Learning History Development Process
Doing "Dialogue" in a learning history setting seems to set people up for much more solid and dependable (repeatable) learning (and more important - "remembering") experience. It's always depressing to watch groups or teams go through the same cyclic struggle, taking on a project, battling the politics, technology, turf, points of view that raiseexpectations, and bog down in the same way.
The next step was to connect the visuals (dialogue-system visualization and so on) with the idea of scenario planning. I worked with Linda Seagraves, (who had recently graduate of the Antioch University "whole systems design" program) and had her own concept called "The strategic conversation". Linda tells me that the visuals we used to start a dialogue helps us discover our "mental models" which lead to strategic conversations which lead to scenario planning" that allows managers to address the business drivers directly and effectively.
We've made this connection in an academic context, and applied it in the Boeing "business in the real world" context.
Cartoon art, rising from Thomas Nast's political battles of Tammany Hall, through the social revolutions of the roaring 20's and the 1960's has always taken on the issues, complaints and laments of the common man, and served as a focus of expression and exploration of new or difficult ideas.
It began in ernest with the yellow kid, presenting the life of a European immigrant to turn of the 20th century America. It continued in the political cartoons of Oliphant, Herblock and Mauldin warning america about the atomic genie. In the 1970's it was Mad Magazine joking about all the taboo subjects, or Doonesbury of the 1970's taking on the "establishment", and not continues with Jeff MacNelly - "kidding" the president.
The comics have always been on the front line of whatever social change was/is taking place.
While the notion of using a cartoon is scary to many from the MBA set, there is a great need to communicate more clearly and take into account the needs and wants of every one. We need to employ many different ways to talk about the hard things we normally step around that circumvent the "very serious" effort to make changes or design happen.
Please e-mail any comments, questions or
suggestions to
Michael Erickson
Page Last Revised: Tuesday August 24, 2006
