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Since 1990, I've used
cartoon art to produced "visualizations" of
systems, processes, concepts and other less than tangible
business "stuff" as my contribution to the
"change wars" of the Boeing Commercial
Airplanes division. I've worked on everything from "shop floor" level CQI projects, to n'dimensional data integration of Boeing company CAD/CAM computing systems, to the largest Business Re-engineering project in history (the Boeing DCAC/MRM program), to engineering leadership training, to the production operations challenges of the new 787 airliner. I'm based in the Puget Sound region of Washington state (the Boeing manufacturing facility in Everett WA), and my primary skill is that I can listen to technical experts & SME's "data dump" then distill all those words into pictures, models or "dialogue maps". In short, I'm that guy "wot draws"... The result has been the development of a point of view, and a range of drawing types that facilitate "thinking differently"... (see my "products" page). |
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Why would anyone use cartoons in a business? Why would you want big complicated wall size displays?
Well there's something here about the human soul. While we are all very good at analyzing our world, we tend to miss the big picture "stuff" going on around us, and we tend to (in our efforts to be sober and serious) keep very quiet about the things we are afraid of or embarrassed about in our "world", as well as miss the inane human quirkyness that is natural to us.
While we imagine with our heads, we act with our hearts, and having imagery that displays our world in such a way to engage the heart (or the gut) brings about an entirely different kind (and I believe a better kind)of thinking.
While in most corporations, the "graphics guy" is some sort of clerical worker responsible to produce presentations, and generally has little to do with developing the content at hand. My job has been to illustrate concepts, process and system interactions.
As visualization is part of my core learning style. I typically ask the "dumb" questions and stumble across obvious (to me) conflict in the system that people have either ignored, fear discussing, or simply hadn't seen before. The end result is that I end up "developing" quite a lot more than mere management overheads.
After trying out terms like: "human systems modeler", or organizational cartoonist, as a suitable alias for an ink Illustrator/Cartoonist, it seems the term "visual synthesizer" says it. I found this term in a book that my wife gave me as a birthday gift titled "How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci" by Michael J. Gelb.
At this stage of my life, I'm employed by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company. After 4 years as the program cartoonist for the DCAC/MRM Business process re-engineering project (there's a story here), and another 4 years in the BCA CAD/CAM group, I now work for The Boeing Commercial Airplane Division" Lean Office (LEO), with a talented group of "Lean" consultants and facilitators helping the greater Boeing Company transition .
While my main job is to provide "visual documentation" of some of the engineering systems, I'm continuously "kidnapped" by people all across the company to create all kinds of pictures, from the executive level down to the shop floor.
This site isn't about showing off what I can do... It's about showing what is possible using visualization skills in connection with dialogue, collaborations, community in an effort to help growth and change for the good to occur.
Please explore, learn from my blundering, and question what I have here, and join me in the continuing exploration of what is possible.
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