What would I love to do?

This is part of a series of posts showing how I am working through the worksheets on the Good Little Biz™ site.

Dreaming Worksheet

Good Little Biz has a series of worksheets, the first one is about Dreaming.  I started out writing my answer to the question, what would I LOVE to do? I said:

Collaborating with other creative professionals from a variety of disciplines to create more effective engagements by adding visuals to their toolbox. I want to use my visual/artistic skills to create more effective experiences for people who want to work together better.

Next I quickly selected images from the VisualsSpeak ImageSet in response to the question, and assembled them on a piece of blue background paper. I photographed it,  then recorded myself describing the images in the screencast below.

What do the words tell us?

From the words describing the image, I get

• using art and technology to solve other peoples problems which link them to more ways to serve
• underlying container holding diverse elements
• training people to use visual communication tools
• finding diverse people who are interested in similar things
• work in the center of a web, sending tools out into a network of people
• web has structure that is adaptable to change
• holding the high level vision and being on the lookout for people who are part of the tribe
• organized details, created by people who are attracted to the vision

Hints in the visual language

As long as I assemble the images quickly without thinking too much, there can be additional clues in the visual language. The first thing I look at is what did I put in the center, since that is often where we put things that are important. The center of this one is all about structure. If I was to summarize it, I would say it is about:

organizing the pieces that link the vision to people using art and technology to create a large whole.

This makes some sense to me. I think of VisualsSpeak as being a system to deepen dialogue. Its not a random group of images, it’s a group of carefully selected, intentionally constructed photographs designed to spark different ways of communicating and thinking. What drives me is creating things other people can use to do their jobs better. In order for that to happen there needs to be a scalable delivery system underneath the work.

Even the art and technology which I am so passionate about, and are at the center of my day to day life, are means to an end.

Creating structures versus creating tools

This is helping me see there is something about creating the structure that is more important than I have been realizing. Do I want to create a publishing system? Not in the traditional sense, but a way to be able to send creative tools out in to the world. My whole life I have been surrounded by people who do really powerful work, but their impact has been limited by not having vehicles to get the work to the people who could utilize it.

We each hold a piece of the puzzle. I could create a system others can engage in, that offers a way to link content creators with those who can use it. I’ve known I want to create a web, but I’ve been thinking about it more as what is in the background. What this is showing me  is the system and the way the parts link together is the core design challenge, not just something that sits in a support role. This is a shift in focus from tools that support conversations, to systems that support spreading the work.

Other posts in the Dreaming Worksheet series

a. What would you really LOVE to be doing?
b. Who would you LOVE to be working with?
c. Who do you most want to benefit from your work?
d. What kind of benefits do you want them to enjoy?
e. What kind of experience do you want them to have as your customer?

Join me?

Are you interested in working through the worksheets with me? No pressure, informal. I started a group on the Good Little Biz site called Creative Good Little Biz. Email me christine (at)  visualsspeak . com or Dm me on twitter, or just join the group after you register for GoodLittleBiz if you are interested.

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