Words such as ‘leadership’ are an essential tool of the coach’s trade – except when they veer towards the abstract and become meaningless. But what if you were asked to ‘draw’ what leadership looks like?
Imagine being asked to conduct a coaching session in total silence. Would it be possible to make it meaningful, or would it be as pointless as listening to a switched off radio?
Conventionally, words are the medium that support the coaching experience and make it possible. To most of us, the idea of a silent coaching session is about as useful as a waterless swimming pool.
Now let’s imagine the same situation again, but this time you’re given pencils and paper and told that you and your client can communicate using drawing, as long as you both agree not to supplement your drawings with written words. A film with no soundtrack is a much more familiar, and attractive, proposition than a soundless radio.
In the history of our species, we were drawing pictures long before we came up with writing. Our early ancestors may even have drawn pictures before they developed speech. In the developed human brain, thinking in pictures comes before thinking in words. In fact, thinking in pictures makes thinking in words possible – if language is a building then it’s one that’s erected on the foundations of our mental imagery.
George Orwell, an acknowledged master of clear thinking and communication, believed that it was probably “better to put off using words as long as possible and get one’s meaning as clear as one can through pictures and sensations.” He was convinced that the simplest way to avoid the pitfalls of muddied thinking was “to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way round.” If Orwell were alive today, he would find that his astute advice has been largely ignored. Things have got worse. The linguistic ‘bad habits’ he details have solidified into a clot that threatens to starve our collective brains of clarity.
This is nowhere more apparent than in the world of work, where the tendency of language to move away from concreteness and towards abstraction has resulted in mission statements, jargon, clichés, idioms, euphemisms, and mangled and dead metaphors that are as empty as soap bubbles. Confusing clusters of abstract words are increasingly used as smokescreens that leave people alienated from meaning and ultimately from themselves. Culprits include: excellence, leadership, diversity, competitive edge, downsizing, pushing the envelope and blue-sky thinking.
The coaching experience is about helping people to see things more clearly. When it works well, clients should be able to see themselves, their relationships, and their vision of the future more clearly.
Language is the coach’s primary instrument but if the words used are empty of meaning, it can be like trying to play music on a Stradivarius violin that doesn’t have any strings. What’s needed is some way to help both coaches and their clients use language in ways that express rather than conceal thoughts and feelings.
Whether working face-to-face or remotely, pencil and paper are indispensable tools in the unremitting battle against meaningless language. An abstract word such as ‘leadership’ can be transformed into something palpable and rich when you turn it into a picture. Ask what leadership looks like, and suddenly the light of understanding turns on. A meaningful coaching conversation can begin.
How does this work in practice? You could begin by asking a client to draw the first thing that comes to mind when they think of the word ‘leadership’. If the challenge of trying to produce a drawing that resembles something recognisable makes them feel uncomfortable, you could instead ask them to do an analog drawing. The whole point of an analog drawing is that it shouldn’t look like anything recognisable in the world around us – it shouldn’t even contain symbols.
You can’t get an analog drawing wrong. All you have to do is think of a word, or concept, and then allow your feelings to travel down your arm and make spontaneous, unpremeditated marks on the paper. The actual drawing should be done quickly and it’s a good idea to use a medium like charcoal as it’s so expressive. The paradox of the analog drawing is that because of its spontaneity, it bypasses the censorship of our conscious mind and is all the richer for it.
A few years ago, while working with a company, I asked a female employee to make an analog drawing of how she saw her future in relation to the company’s. For the next minute or so, she sat motionless in front of a blank sheet of paper. Finally, she blushed and apologised for not being able to make a mark. I reassured her that what she’d done was fine and went on to ask her a few questions about her ‘drawing’. At first she looked puzzled but it quickly became apparent that her blank sheet was full of meaning. She had only recently joined the company, she was pregnant and not certain that this was the job for her. The following week she handed in her notice. That blank sheet said it all.
A drawing is an expression of uniqueness – a precious gift we give ourselves, and something we can share with others. It’s an inexhaustible treasure chest of insight and self-knowledge waiting to be unpacked – one that offers the chance to explore the connections between what we think and what we feel, as well as revealing the undercurrents of thought and feeling that hold sway beneath the surface of conscious thought.
In a competitive profession, a pencil and paper offer the innovative coach a wonderful opportunity to do good work and stand out from the crowd. Words are indeed essential to coaching but if they’re not supplemented with other tools, are they ever going to be enough?
Further information
Martin Shovel is co-director of Creativity Works, a learning consultancy that transforms people into more effective thinkers and communicators by developing their visual thinking abilities. He works with a wide variety of clients across all sectors, from banks, building societies and business schools to universities, hospitals and housing associations. Visit www.creativityworks.net to find out more.