A concerning trend is sweeping across corporate America: employee engagement is on a rapid decline. Today, as little as 33 percent of employees feel engaged in their workplaces, costing US$1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationally.
And why wouldn’t engagement be dropping? Consider how most organizations try to foster connection among their team members: lengthy and unremarkable onboarding processes, monotonous and never-ending meetings, and uninspiring and relentless communication. Look around – the signs of waning engagement are everywhere.
As disengagement spreads like wildfire, productivity dwindles and turnover rates soar, the mission to capture employees’ attention and ignite their passion seems impossible. So, at a time when traditional business strategies continue to miss the mark, how can leaders rise to the challenge and redefine the status quo?
Visualize it
The key lies in visual communication. After all, people only remember 10 percent of what they hear and 20 percent of what they read, but 80 percent of what they see and do. This has been a consistent part of the human experience for thousands of years. From cavemen to cartographers, visuals have allowed people to understand new information since the dawn of time.
Still today, the human brain prefers looking at visuals over other forms of information. In fact, we process images 60,000 times faster than text alone, and 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Human beings are wired to think and communicate visually.
I realized that by leveraging the power of simple illustration and visual storytelling, mundane meetings can become dynamic exchanges that spark creativity, foster collaboration and drive results.
And the same goes for businesses, too. Imagine a workplace where meetings aren’t dreaded affairs but, instead, dynamic visual experiences that leave a lasting impact. That’s the very reason why my company, The Sketch Effect, exists. There I was, sitting through meeting after meeting during my time in the corporate world, watching as engagement dwindled (including my own) due to the lack of visual stimulation and meaningful interaction.
But I realized that by leveraging the power of simple illustration and visual storytelling, mundane meetings can become dynamic exchanges that spark creativity, foster collaboration and drive results. Time and time again, my team and I have witnessed firsthand how visual communication breathes new life into corporate culture. So, instead of telling your team, show them.
Here are a few tips to help you do exactly that.
Create a picture of success
Kick-start engagement by hosting collaborative vision-boarding sessions. Gather your team to collectively visualize the future of the company and their individual roles within it. Translate abstract goals into tangible images to help add inspiration to your collective vision.
Instead of stringing together a complex web of words, try sketching out icons, storyboards, or even simple stick figures to express your thoughts. The idea is to visualize the ideal end state. For example, imagine a scenario where the marketing team envisions a successful product launch. Rather than describing it in words, they sketch out a storyboard depicting the journey from product development to customer satisfaction.
Personify key players
Bring key stakeholders to life through visual representation. Whether it’s your team members, board members, or target customers, create visual profiles that personify these integral players in your organization’s journey. For instance, consider creating character cards for each of your employees, highlighting their unique strengths.
Consider creating character cards for each of your employees, highlighting their unique strengths.
By humanizing the faces behind the strategy, you foster empathy, connection and a deeper understanding of each stakeholder’s role. With our team of creatives at The Sketch Effect, we’ve seen firsthand how giving a face to key players can transform engagement and alignment within organizations, including our own. The more human it is, the more real it is.
Measure your progress
Harness the power of visual systems to track progress and keep your team aligned with your strategic goals. Develop dashboards that provide real-time updates on key metrics, lead measures and other input goals. Keep the design simple and clear to make sure these visual aids are easily digestible and actionable for every team member. A personal favorite strategy that I use all the time is creating a visual scoreboard. This can be changed depending on your organizational goals, but the general outline looks like this:
• Where you are
• Where you want to go
• When you want to get there
• What actions will get you there
• Whether or not you are doing those actions
• Rewards associated with hitting milestones
To take your business to the next level, visual communication is your new key strategy. But remember, change starts with you. Take the lead on incorporating visuals in your interactions with your team, and watch how engagement and performance soar. Trust me, you’ll never want to go back to those boring text boxes again.
