Seeing the Unseen Part 1 : Assumptions
The Art of Applied Visual Thinking
The official newsletter of
Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES.
Vol. 7 No. 10 May 15, 2026
Superhero Truth:
The most dangerous thing in any room isn't what's said out loud. It's what everyone quietly assumes is true.
A visual can shine light right into those shadowy corners.
SEEING THE UNSEEN, PART 1:
What's Hiding in Plain Sight?
Welcome to our new series, following four issues of Visual Courage — facing the blank page, sharing your work, showing up in high-stakes rooms, keeping an imperfect practice.
Here's the thing: visual thinking doesn't just help you communicate more courageously. It helps you see things you couldn't see before. Things that were always there — invisible, unexamined, quietly running the show.
Over the next four issues, we're exploring four of those invisible things: assumptions, patterns, emotions, and systemic gaps. Each one is a place where visual thinking does something words alone simply can't. We're starting with assumptions. And we want to open with a story.
"Let's get a pet!"
FUNNY STORY…
Misunderstandings happen when people make different assumptions.
Picture this: two teams are called into a meeting to solve the same problem.
One team has been imagining the problem as a leaky pipeline, a process with gaps that need to be sealed. They've drawn a horizontal flow with red X's at the breakpoints.
The other team has been imagining the problem as a tangled web, a complex system with too many interdependencies pulling in opposite directions. They've drawn a cluster of overlapping circles.
Both teams have been working hard. Both teams are smart. Both teams think they've been solving the same problem.
They have not been solving the same problem. They've each been solving the problem they assumed they were solving — the one that matched the invisible picture already in their heads. The meeting, predictably, does not go well.
Now: what if, at the start of that meeting, someone had asked both teams to draw what they understood the problem to be? The leaky pipeline and the tangled web would have appeared on the wall in the first ten minutes. The assumption gap would have been visible before anyone wasted another hour talking past each other.
Visuals connect the dots so everyone gets the joke.
Or in this case, so
everyone stops telling a different one.
WHAT ASSUMPTIONS ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE
Assumptions are invisible by design. They don't announce themselves. They just quietly shape what questions we ask, what solutions we consider, and whose voices we hear as relevant.
In any meeting, project, or team, there are usually several layers of assumptions operating at once. Assumptions about:
- The problem. ("We're solving a communication issue." "No, we're solving a trust issue.")
- The goal. ("We want this done fast." "We want this done right." These two teams are rarely solving the same problem either.)
- Roles. ("That's someone else's responsibility." "That's everyone's responsibility.")
- What's possible. ("We've tried this before and it didn't work." Said with such certainty that no one asks when, or how, or why.)
None of these are spoken. All of them steer the conversation.
WHAT VISUAL THINKING DOES TO ASSUMPTIONS
When you make someone draw their mental model, even a rough one, even stick figures, even a few boxes with arrows, three things happen reliably:
- The model becomes visible. Which means it can be examined, questioned, and compared to someone else's model.
- Differences surface early. Not at the end of the project when expensive work has already been done, but at the beginning, when there's still time to align.
- The conversation shifts. Instead of arguing about conclusions, people start asking questions about their starting points. That's a much more productive argument.
This is what we mean when we say visual thinking closes gaps and builds bridges. You can't bridge a gap you can't see. The drawing is how you see it.
YOU KNOW…
Visuals boost long-term recall, illuminating hidden assumptions long after the conversation has ended. Cognitive scientists call this the 'picture superiority effect' — and decades of research confirm it's real. Beyond retention, there's something else: a visual cultivates consensus.
When a group draws their understanding of a problem, they're no longer holding it loosely as a vague understanding. It's specific. It's examinable. Now it's visible to everyone so they can take the next step.
THIS WEEK'S ACTIVITY: SURFACE ONE ASSUMPTION
Before your next meeting, team session, or project kickoff, try this:
- Ask everyone (including yourself) to spend 3 minutes sketching what they understand the problem or goal to be. It doesn't have to be pretty. A few boxes, a rough diagram, some words in shapes. Just an image of the thing.
- Put all the sketches on the wall (or share screens) before anyone speaks.
- Notice what's different. Where do the mental models diverge? Where are the shadowy corners that might be hiding assumptions?
- Ask: "What did we each assume that we didn't say out loud?"
That question alone is worth the three minutes of drawing.
Share what you find. Tag us: #appliedviz
Coming up in Part 2: Visual thinking doesn't just surface one-time assumptions. Over time, it starts to reveal patterns, recurring shapes in our thinking, our organizations, and our behavior. Some of them are beautiful. Some of them need to change. Next issue, we look at both.
Until then, eyes wide open, pen in hand.
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