Visualization helps with understanding and memory by translating spoken or written information into visual symbols like pictures and graphics. It takes advantage of the fact that people retain information best when multiple senses are engaged. Specifically, people recall 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they both hear and see, 70% of what they say themselves, and 90% of what they do themselves. Visualization combines at least hearing and seeing, and can involve actively writing or manipulating visual elements. This makes communication and understanding easier compared to only using spoken exchanges. It also allows for more active participation in meetings and discussions compared to traditional talk-focused sessions.

1. Message 3Visualisation –
why and how it helps to understand and
remember
Visualisation means making visible spoken or written information by
using a different set of symbols, i.e. pictures, structures, graphics.
Usually visualised information is provided for making understanding
easier and more easily memorable.
This short definition stands for two main purposes of visualisation:
• it is not meant to replace the spoken or written word but to
complement it with the aim
• to make understanding easier and more efficient.
It implies that visualisation is able to render this service.
Why it helps …
People perceive with all their senses. But the frequency and scope
of perception is different with each of them. 83 percent of our in-
formation intake happens via our eyes, only 11 percent via our ears,
our nose still is good for 3,5 percent, touch for 1,5 and taste for 1
percent.
Perception
• eye 83%
• ear 11%
• nose 3,5%
• sense of touch 1,5%
• taste 1,0%
Memory
And our capacity of retaining perceived information, i.e. our mem-
ory, strongly depends on how it has been perceived. And combina-
tions of ways of perception are clearly more effective than single
sense perceptions. We can retain 20 percent of what we have heard,
30 percent of what we have seen, 50 percent of what we have heard
and seen, 70 percent of what we have said ourselves, and a high 90
percent of what we have done ourselves.*
• 20% of what has been heard
• 30% of what has been seen
• 50% of what has been heard & seen
• 70% of what you have said yourself
• 90% of what you have done yourself
voice
ear
In order to confirm this, listen to your colleagues informally report-
ing about meetings they have been in. Unless they are experienced
reporters, most of the time the majority of what they will tell you
will be about what they have said themselves.
voice
ear
Visualisation will effectively help to reduce problems of communica-
tion and understanding and the trouble resulting from them, as it
combines at least two senses. An ordinary conversation is mainly
based on voice to ear perception. A visualised conversation combines
*
Although these seemingly empirical data are widely quoted, we have not been able
to identify an original source. So we just take them as plausible. Nevertheless,
there seems to be empirical evidence for the following statement made in the Ger-
man Wikipedia on “Sinn (Wahrnehmung)”, i.e. sense (perception): Senses have
different capacities of reception. Via our sense of sight we can receive about 10
million Shannon-Units (Sh) per second, via our sense of touch about 1 million sh, via
hearing and smelling about 100,000 Sh und via taste about 1000 Sh.
hand
eye
++
voice
ear
voice
ear
hand
eye
hand
eye
++
26.09.2008, 13:15:11

2. 2/5
voice to ear perception with visual perception and own action if
people also write or visualise actively.
In general, what we call a meeting in an organisation usually is a
session, people sitting at a table with a chairperson and a fixed
agenda. Here, voice to ear communication is the main way of trans-
mission and only few people will be able and ready to participate
actively in such a meeting. The average number of occasions per
hour of people saying something and participating actively is from 30
to 100 times. Moreover, frequently such meetings do not have
common minutes. People only take away what they have noted for
themselves (cf. Tool A3: Chairing vs. moderating and Tool A1: To-do
form)
Voice =
in-built transmitter
can be used in any physical position
The voice to ear conversation
usually is a session
Voice =
in-built transmitter
can be used in any physical position
The voice to ear conversation
usually is a session
Ordinary conversation
Group with chairperson and agenda
Meetings supported by visualisation and moderation usually can do
without tables; people are supposed to be able to stand up and
move easily concentrating on the common visualisation centre and
on relating to each other. If they note their own contributions to the
common subject on cards and pin it to the wall, they even actively
do something on their own. Here people move and meet, the meet-
ing is what meeting means: an encounter. People on average will
have 300 to 600 occasions per hour of intervening actively in such a
meeting.
Cf. Tool A1:
To-do form
Cf. Tool A3: Chair-
ing vs. moderating
Visualised conversation
Group with visualisation support
For visualisation everybody must be
able to stand up and move:
„sessions“
become
movement
and
meeting
For visualisation everybody must be
able to stand up and move:
„sessions“
become
movement
and
meeting
After such a meeting people still will remember better their own
contributions than those of others or the overall result. But they
have contributed actively to a common result which is handed over
to everybody in order to make sure that everybody will act on the
basis of the same result.
Needless to say that both types of meetings have their justification
and their pros and cons; it is essential to know that both types are
available and can be used according to the aims and purposes pur-
sued in each case.
Visualisation in presentations supports the spoken word, makes
things said more accessible to understanding as it translates linear
sequences of words (sentences) in structures, pictures or graphics.
Enacted by the presenter him or herself, already the step of trans-
lating a spoken message in another set of symbols may improve his
or her capacity of explaining and may as well increase the connec-
tivity of the information presented to the mindset of the receivers.
Visualisation in working and learning processes helps to understand
better the development of the common process and deepens the
understanding of and commitment to the common results, thus, fa-
cilitating greatly their implementation.
Visualisation is an essential vehicle of facilitating communication for
common action.
How it helps …
What is needed for workshops with moderation and visualisation has
been presented in detail in Tools A6 and A4 and will not be repeated
here. And how it is done must be experienced and exercised in train-
ing or in practice. The following information can only provide basic

3. 3/5
hints of what is possible; the ways of using and deploying it are
manifold. Any combination of elements, forms and colours is feasible
as long as it serves to pursue the central goal of visualisation: to
make communication easier, more effective and more efficient.
The following three graphics hopefully speak for themselves, at least
in the context of what has been experienced in training and work-
shops. Each of them is an example of applying visualisation to such
an abstract and spiky subject like the method of visualisation.
This first picture informs about the function of writing. Although it
seems to be a contradiction, visualisation in moderation creates pic-
tures by reducing individual chunks of information, spoken or written
on cards, to a structured picture representing the result of joint re-
flection.
Writing in
visualisation

4. 4/5
Visualisation as
optical language

5. 5/5
Elements of
visualisation