Blah Blah Blah
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I’d never thought of it before, but as I heard myself saying that a “who-and-what portrait” could be thought of as a visual version of a noun and a “how-much chart” a visual version of an adjective, everything clicked: The six types of pictures mapped perfectly to the main elements of speech. I suppose the symmetry shouldn’t have been such a surpri jd intt mrt” ase: Grammar is a reflection (and evolution) of the essential thinking processes of our verbal mind, so why shouldn’t visual grammar be a similar reflection of our visual mind?
In any case, if you find the Vivid Grammar structure a useful way to think about a verbal-and-visual way to describe your idea, you might want to refer back to The Back of the Napkin for more details on the neurobiology and cognitive science behind it.
The Origin of the Vivid FOREST
The 6x6 Rule also served as a guide for creating the Vivid FOREST—as well as the tool for validating it. It’s not by chance that the forest is composed of six variations on the visual-and-verbal idea: Each one of the variations maps to one element of the 6x6 Rule. The connection is best seen if we first lay out the two tools side by side. Here they are, the 6x6 Rule and the Vivid FOREST.
When placed side by side, the similarities between the 6x6 Rule and the Vivid FOREST begin to emerge.
Both are composed of a single “whole” divided into six surrounding elements (a pie chart for the 6x6 and a Venn diagram for the forest), and in both cases those six surround the core in a sequential (clockwise) circular direction. That’s true, but there’s more to their relationship than just conformational similarities: Superimposing the forest on the 6x6 reveals that both answer the same six elemental questions of cognition, just in slightly different ways.
Superimposing the Vivid FOREST on the 6x6 reveals that both address the same six cognitive questions, but provide answers in slightly different ways.
This table shows the overlap between the two tools.
In other words—and in closing—when we apply any of the tools, we’re doing the same thing: We’re helping our brain find an easier way to think about (and share) complex ideas. If we ask the six essential questions, we’re helping our verbal mind. If we use the 6x6 Rule, we’re helping our visual mind. If we use Vivid Grammar and the Vivid FOREST, we’re helping both our verbal and visual minds. And most important, we’re helping them work together.
APPENDIX C
The Complete Vivid Checklist
ust getting our fox and hummingbird to work together is a huge step toward smarter, clearer, and more memorable ideas. We don’t have to use every vivid tool for every idea; often we may find that our idea snaps into focus before we’ve dived into the Grammar Graph or made it halfway around the Vivid FOREST. But just to be safe, it makes sense to quickly run through the complete checklist—you never know if we might find one more great idea.
The Complete Vivid Checklist (Long Version)
MY IDEA IS VIVID [MANDATORY]
I created it using words and pictures.
It contains words and pictures.
I can explain it to any audience using words and pictures.
I CHECK MY IDEA USING THE BLAH-BLAHMETER
If the idea has no blah-blah-blahNo changes needed.
If the idea is boring (1 blah)Unclutter and sharpen.
If the idea is foggy or befuddling (2 blahs)Discover and develop the idea’s essence.
If the idea is misleading (3 blahs)Debunk and dispel.
I USE VIVID GRAMMAR TO CREATE WORDS AND PICTURES THAT EXPRESS MY IDEA
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When I hear a nounI draw a portrait.
When I hear an adjective of quantityI draw a chart.
When I hear a prepositionI draw a map.
When I hear tenseI draw a timeline.
When I hear a complex verbI draw a flowchart.
When I hear a complex sentenceI draw a multivariable plot.
I WALK MY IDEA THROUGH THE VIVID FOREST
F: My idea has form.
I used the Six Vivid Quick Tricks and determined that the idea’s form is:
A noun (a who or a what) made vivid with a portrait.
An adjective of quantity (a how much) made vivid with a chart.
A preposition (a where) made vivid with a map.
j/spaniv /> Tense (a when) made vivid with a timeline.
A complex verb (a how) made vivid with a flowchart.
A complex set of nouns (a why) made vivid with a multivariable plot.
O: My idea can be expressed with only the essentials.
I used the distillation curve to:
Begin my idea with every useful insight I could think of.
Distill my idea down to its essence. (This is how I will first present my idea.)
Expand my idea back up to include its details. (For those still interested.)
R: My idea is recognizable.
I have identified where I have seen my idea before.
I have utilized a visual metaphor from nature to represent my idea.
or
I have utilized a visual metaphor from the built world to represent my idea.
E: My idea evolves.
I utilized “inward evolution” (the verbal-visual waddle) to nearly complete my idea.
I left something unfinished for my audience to complete: “outward evolution” (connect the dots).
S: My idea spans differences.
I used the Vivid Stretch Test to make sure I explored (and included as necessary) the opposite of my idea.
T: My idea is targeted.
I used the Vivid LENS to make sure I know who my audience is and what vivid image they need:
A leader wants to see where we are goingI create a portrait or a map.
A doer wants to see how we are going to get thereI create a time line or a flowchart.
An expert wants more complexityI create a more elaborate explanation.
A newbie wants more simplicityI create the simplest possible explanation.
A numeric person wants quantitiesI create a chart.
An emotional person wants f j> and> epaneelingsI create a portrait.
A sympathetic person wants to support meI can use a vivid explanation to push ideas even further.
An antagonistic person wants me to failI can use a vivid explanation to show them that I know their concerns and I include them in my idea.
AT THE END OF THE DAY, MY IDEA SATISFIED BOTH MY FOX AND MY HUMMINGBIRD
NOTES
“Some weeks we have four books”: NPR “More from Jon Stewart’s Fresh Air Interview,” NPR, October 22, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2011, from http://www.wbur.org/npr/130704771/more-from-jon-stewarts-fresh-air-interview.
“We all read it and have no idea”: David Carr, “Condé Nast Futuregram: No Magazines, but Lots of ‘Consumer Centricity,’ ”New York Times Media Decoder blog, October 28, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/conde-nast-futuregram-no-magazines-but-lots-of-consumer-centricity.
“I’m not going to live”: Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, “A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control,” Washington Post Top Secret America project, July 19, 2010. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control.
By the time he died: Publishers Weekly, “Bestselling Childrens Books of All Time (Hardcover).” Infoplease.com, 2002. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0203049.html.
They revealed that kids preferred: J. Hersey, “Why Do Students Bog Down on the First R?” Life, May 24, 1954: 136–50.
Looking at the lists: L. Menand, “Cat People.” The New Yorker, December 23, 2002.
This text was cited in a lawsuit: Center for Science in the Public Interest, “Lawsuit Over Deceptive Vitaminwater Claims to Proceed,” July 23, 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2010, from http://www.cspinet.org/new/201007231.html.
“It’s a proprietary strategy”: E. E. Ar
vedlund, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Barron’s, May 7, 2001.
“These thoughts did not come”: Andrew Robinson, Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity (Bath, England: Palazzo, 2005).
Until he was eight, Albert: ibid., p. 33.
Since the time of Oog and Aag: Leonard Schlain, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (New York: Penguin Compass, 1998), pp. 17–23.
“the brain can be divided”: John Medina, Brain Rules (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008), p. 77.
All vertebrates have a bi-lobed brain: Leonard Schlain, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (New York: Penguin Compass, 1998).
By assigning names to the things it saw: Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (New York: Viking, 2007).
One day, when he was working: Richard P. Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (New York: Perseus Publishing, 1999).
The problem was that Harvard Business School: Walter Kiechel, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2010), pp. 113–30.
“most famous business school professor”: Michael Porter, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (Boston: Free Press, 1980).
Donella Meadows and her colleagues: Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2008).
The son of an Old World coffee roaster: G. Raine, “Coffee Pioneer Alfred Peet Dies,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2007.
In Maslow’s hierarchy: Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 1954).
Every year, about eleven thousand: Publishing Central, “Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Declines 3% in 2008, but ‘On Demand’ Publishing More Than Doubles.” Publishing Central, May 19, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from http://publishingcentral.com/blog/book-publishing/bowker-reports-us-book-production-declines-3-in-2008-but-on-demand-publishing-more-than-doubles?si=1.
In 1997, two professors: Renée Mauborgne, “Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High Growth.” Harvard Business Review, January–February 1997: 103–12.
Six years after publication: W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. “W. Chan Kim.” Blue Ocean Strategy, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2011, from http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/aut/chan_kim.html.
“If a man is provided with a length of gummed linen cloth”: Leonardo da Vinci, from the Codex Atlanticus, c. 1478–1518; in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy.
Land was a master of both: Peter C. Wensberg, Land’s Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987).
When Will Wright was young: J. Seabrook, “Game Master,” The New Yorker, November 6, 2006.
“the test of a first-rate intelligence”: F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Handle with Care,” Esquire, April 1936.
He called these repeating patterns: Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (London: Black Swan, 2003).
It worked. Buying up and selling: Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).
Born in 1926, Genrich Altshuller: Larisa D. Komarcheva, “Genrick Saulovich Atlshuller English Introduction.” G. S. Altshuller Foundation, October 15, 200 stobal Pro"3. Retrieved March 1, 2011, from http://www.altshuller.ru/world/eng/index.asp.
“forty principles for discovering new ideas”: Ellen Domb, “40 Inventive Principles with Examples,” TRIZ Journal, July 1997. Retrieved March 1, 2011, from http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1997/07/b/index.html.
“The Picture-Superiority Effect on Consumer Memory”: T. L. Childers, “Conditions for a Picture-Superiority Effect on Consumer Memory.” The Journal of Consumer Research, September 1984: 643–54.
“Verbal Overshadowing of Visual Memories”: J.W.S. Schooler, “Verbal Overshadowing of Visual Memories: Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid.” Cognitive Psychology 22 (1990): 36–71.
After years of laborious effort: Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs & Pictograms (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995).
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