OPENERS, PART 2: "You see…"
The Art of Applied Visual Thinking
The official newsletter of
Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES.
Vol. 7 No. 18 September 18, 2026
OPENERS, PART 2:
"You see…"
"You see" is a phrase that is often underestimated. In fact, we believe that the root of most problems at work come from misunderstandings. "Just make it visual" is great way to get on the same page when your ideas are complex. However, it's not always simple. But here's the good news — it can become simple, with the right process.
Creating a visual history map doesn't happen by magic. It happens by sorting.
A history map lays out how an organization, a relationship, or a problem got to where it is, or an outcome that you'd like to repeat, looks effortless once it's finished. That's the whole point of good visual thinking: the effort is front-loaded so the understanding is easy on the back end. Behind every clean timeline is a productive messy first pass — sticky notes in the wrong order, a few dead ends, a friendly argument about what year something "really" started. None of that is a problem to avoid. It's the process working exactly as it should.
Here's what that process actually looks like:
- Write every event (the good, the bad and the in between) on its own sticky note - one fact per note, no editing.
- Lay them all out in random order first, just to see the full pile.
- Sort into rough groups or phases — not exact dates.
- First draw a long arrow, then arrange the sticky notes left to right in sequence.
The magic isn't in the drawing. It's in that four-step sort — and it's a skill anyone can build.
Here's a recent example.
I was pleased with the outcome of this doodle,
but not sure how I got there.
Creating sticky notes got the steps out of my head and onto paper where I could see them
Arranging sticky notes on a timeline showed the sequence of steps and turned something intangible into a repeatable process, illuminating insights from the intuitive choices I made along the way.
The 4 step sort is a skill that travels well beyond one history map.
Once you've sorted a timeline once, you start noticing how many other situations are really the same problem wearing a different hat:
- Onboarding a new hire or leader. Run the same four steps on the company's own history — milestones on notes, spread out, sorted into rough eras, then arranged along a timeline. Hand the new person that sorted map on day one, and they absorb in an hour what usually takes months of hallway stories to piece together.
- Project retrospectives. Before the "lessons learned" conversation, sort the project's actual events — decisions, pivots, blockers — into phases. Ask project team members to contribute to the project timeline using "reporter mode" (just the facts). Teams will be tempted to improve on the fly, but make sure the timeline reflects the real events first.
- Personal or career narratives — for a resume rewrite, a promotion case, or just your own clarity. Sorting your own history into rough phases before you try to tell the story of it turns "I've done a lot of things" into a clear narrative with a visible shape.
Same four steps, different subject. That's the real payoff of learning the process.
Superhero Truth:
Complexity doesn't disappear because you drew a picture of it.
A picture shows you exactly where the complexity lives — and that's the first confident step toward clarifying it.
Homework
Pick a real history you need to make sense of — a project, an organization, your own career — and give yourself 20 minutes to run the process.
- List 8–12 events, decisions, or milestones, one per sticky note. Don't filter — write down anything that comes to mind, even if you're not sure it matters yet.
- Spread them out in random order. Resist the urge to sort as you go. The goal here is just to see everything you're working with, all at once.
- Take a break and come back later.
- With fresh eyes, draw a long arrow and sort your stickies left to right in sequence to illuminate the full history, the good, the bad and the in between.
Making your history visual clarifies what happened when and makes it easy to digest, communicate and share. Starting with sticky notes also helps you capture lessons learned and ideas for improvement.
You see now that the sorting comes before the drawing — and that sorting is a real, learnable skill. Once you've sorted the mess into something clear you can get it out of your head and onto the page. Next time, we're diving in to "Let me show you" and how to draw simple visuals to clarify complex information.
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