Visual Thinking Strategies
A facilitator shows one carefully chosen artwork and leads an open discussion using three questions: What's going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can we find? The facilitator paraphrases each comment, points to what the speaker mentions, and links related observations, without giving any art-historical answers.
Use at a museum or gallery offsite, or with any image, to practise looking carefully, backing up a view with evidence, and hearing how differently colleagues read the same thing.
Solves: Teams jump to conclusions and argue past each other because nobody separates what they observe from what they assume.
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Step 1: Pick one artwork with an open story and enough detail to reward long looking. Seat or stand the group in front of it (5 min).
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Step 2: Ask everyone to look in silence for a minute or two before anyone speaks (2 min).
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Step 3: Ask 'What's going on in this picture?' and take the first comment (1 min).
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Step 4: Paraphrase the comment, point to what the person is describing, and ask 'What do you see that makes you say that?' (15-25 min).
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Step 5: Keep widening with 'What more can we find?' and link comments that agree or differ (throughout).
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Step 6: Close by thanking the group and summarising the range of readings, not a single right answer (3 min).
- Stay neutral. Paraphrase every comment with the same care, including the odd ones.
- Do not reveal the artist's intent or title at the end unless the group asks; it closes the thinking down.
- Bridge afterwards: ask where in their work they jump from seeing to concluding.
- Use a work photograph, a customer's handwritten letter or a data chart in place of art.