How drawing offers a different perspective

Art and business seem worlds apart. They parallelly enjoy their own space and never get across. However, one day they met at a workshop that changed their perspective on each other. Art noticed the gaps in business’s strong and tough power. And business was amazed about the way art went straight to the heart. That was the moment they started to dance with each other…

When I worked for Tchibo, a typical corporate world, I used numbers, charts and PowerPoints to communicate information, results and outcomes. One day I was invited to draw during a meet-up with the Director of Sustainability, who was also the initiator of WE program, sharing with us her role and responsibilities within the company. While listening to her sentences, her words, her tone of voice, and even her breath, I could hear her struggles and difficulties. And then I drew what I felt. In the drawing, there was a person sitting in a vehicle, stretching hands between two planets. One planet had lots of thick vertical and horizontal lines. The other colourful lines around it and fireworks. That, to me, was exactly the situation the Director was facing while supporting the independency of the WE program to grow within a business context.

There have been many occasions since, where I decided to draw instead of taking notes. During a talk with a former colleague about extending the WE dialogue principle to Tchibo’s coffee suppliers, for instance. In the middle of my notebook I started to draw a coffee bean with a tree next to it. She kept talking and I kept drawing. And finally I ended up with drawing a couple of hardworking farmers next to a coffee tree, talking anxiously to a group of agronomists. Up to this day I remember my colleague's story in detail because I drew it.

Another time, I joined a workshop about health and safety issues in a WE China factory. While listening to the worries and concerns from workers about their unsafe experiences - being locked in a lift , small accidents happening at the polishing machines, their fatigue from overtime work – I drew a big female worker with a tired face, asleep on the working table next to drawings from all of those stories. At the end of the day, we shared this image as a wrap up. Noticing the workers’ smiles when they saw the drawings and realised someone had listened to them intentionally, I felt grateful.

Drawing beautifully is not essential for visual harvesting, but listening with open ears and an emphatic heart is. At least, to me. The process of deep listening and selecting content and images to draw, helps me to zoom in and listen with my heart to what is ‘told’ between lines. Looking at the drawing as one whole piece, helps me to zoom out to see the connection between all actors and agents in the picture. It helps me to develop systemic thinking on a deeper level. Through the years, drawing had provided me with the opportunity to deep think on the complex topics we work with in WE program, on all those occasions when charts and numbers were not enough. I would like to invite you to try it out and at least make fun as a start. The WE program runs a free Mini-Masterclass on Story Listening and Visualisation on December 15 with Axelle Vanquaillie . If you’re interested, contact us!

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