Rethinking The Way We See

Last Friday, my associate, Mare Rosenbaum and I had the opportunity to participate in Amy Herman’s terrific session on Visual Intelligence with a group of FBI Intelligence Analysts in Washington, DC.

Among other things, the program, titled Rethinking How We See, uses the visual arts to train agents how to sharpen our perception and look at things in a broader context.

Amy’s exercises confirm that no two people see anything the same way. And unless we’re intentional with our language and understand the difference between observation and inference, we run the risk of misinterpretation and miscommunication.

The program, which began at the Spy Museum and moved across the street to the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum offered so many valuable insights. In her book, Visual Intelligence, Amy reminds us that “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Linking this to the subject of leadership and relationships, I would add, “When you change the way you look at people, the people you look at change.”