Visual thinking practice: Bossman/Geek

Visual thinking is the practice of using pictures to enhance your ability to solve problems, think about complex issues and communicate effectively. Are you ready to work on your visual thinking skills? You don't have to be an artist. Pick up a pen or pencil and try the following exercise:

Can you capture the dichotomy of your corporate culture in one picture?

Today's visual thinking practice will give you a chance to improve your visual thinking skills and simultaneously highlight the cultural gap between bosses and geeks. You'll amuse yourself and amaze your friends! Plus it's fun.

The game is called bossman/geek.

1. Get a pen and paper (better yet, buy a sketchbook).

2. The trick is to draw a cartoon picture of a head that reads as a boss character. Sounds simple but here's the rub: when you turn the page upside-down, it needs to read as a geek.

Have fun!

Courtesy of visual thinking school.

Update: Attention last-minute holiday shoppers!

I made up some bossman/Geek stickers, buttons and magnets. You can even buy the buttons in 10-packs and 100-packs so you can give them out to all your friends and co-workers.

Send me your bossman/geek doodles and I'll make more buttons out of them.

Are you bossman or geek? With a button like this you can change your mind whenever you want, just by turning your button upside down.

Another update: I have created a Flickr group where we can post creations and also a discussion blog, where we can discuss visual thinking.