A visible thought... what would it be worth? A scribble of a complex thought can be a life vest to anyone who is unable to communicate that thought to others. I learned this early on in my study of industrial design. If or when I lacked the design skills, I could usually compensate with a good story and the right visuals! There is so much power in the right combination of a story with a visual, that I was lucky enough to start a business selling just that. Making your thoughts visible is worth a lot. How much depends on the problem and the stakeholder, but ANY problem can be made clearer by use of simple sketch techniques combined with active dialogue. The picture below is the visual residue of a workshop I attended with 5 JAM students. It discusses the frame of a perfect school. After each of the 3 workshops I summarized the general thought of the total group into one larger visual... bringing the story together on 3 big panels. The question I always ask myself after a sesssion like this is..."What's next?".