11 November 2007

What do you want?


What do you want?, originally uploaded by dgray_xplane.

I love to ask the question "what do you want?" The photos above are from a session I facilitated at The Overlap. But I do this all the time. Here's a list of things people say they want:

Cohesion of ideas
To learn to connect ideas and show (linkages) relationships between concepts using visual language
To see a new idea take shape
To understand whether tablet PCs are a good investment for visual thinking
Better PowerPoint presentations
Scalable visual thinking
Pattern from complexity
Find what's missing
Get to WOW without sacrificing substance
Health
Structure
Money
Ice cream
More revenue
VizLearning
Experiences
Better communication
Inspiration
Community
Interaction
Connections
New ways to guide groups for problem-solving exercises
Continuous training in XPLANE style
Better sharing
Better organization
Ability to get to "I get it" faster!
To see how others think and communicate their thoughts
A more fun way to present ideas
Better communication with clients
A separation!
To see Dave Gray again
To meet like-minded people
To communicate clearly
To meet interesting people
The world to adopt a visual-based language
To learn about visual thinking
To get the stuff in my head out!
Node: Image + word + links
Pepsi
Insight
Illumination
Idea generation
To be creative
Learn quick, powerful icons
To explain things better
Something! NEW
Learn more about your process for developing the metaphor
To communicate to others better
To think more clearly
To be able to simplify complex processes and show that improvement
New ideas for infographics
Constructive thinking
To be able to better communicate complex ideas
New ideas
To make complex ideas digestible
To exercise my pen
To experience understanding aha!
To learn to express complex processes visually
Depth
Impact, translation, clarity through visuals
To give more but show less
Knowledge
Tips for drawing fast
Focus
To be able to achieve better, faster clarity
To communicate with others faster
Clarity
Insight
Instant impact
Clarity
To separate ideas better
Simplicity
To explain things faster
To create real time sketches
Learn process of production
Drawing emotions fast
Visualize abstract concepts
Clarity of thought
Insight
Wisdom
Knowledge
Draw to understand
Clearer thinking
To become proficient in non-linear thinking!
New perspective
To learn shapes, so I don't have to learn how to draw
Learn types of visual frameworks
To visually depict complex concepts
Mapping points of view
Visual techniques for describing things
Quick icons
To learn new techniques and tools to think visually
To improve my sense of visual design
To develop my creative visual thinking skills
To learn more about representing things visually
To understand how visual thinking works in the brain (or any other body part)
To utilize visual thinking in daily life
Drawing "tricks" (tips for visual thinking)
Tips for drawing faces
Skillz
To be better at visualizing concepts
To improve my sketchy drawing skills
Technique, skillz
To learn to draw
Mad skills
Remember who we are
Identity
Clear core values
More people like the good ones I work with
To lead, to do, not talk about it
To be recognized
Close the loop between ideas and work
To explore ecology
Do people lead or follow in creativity?
To laugh
Why business is only now recognizing many communications values
Options scare me sometimes
New paths
Go analog!
To understand what is emerging
To have faith
Not design thinking
Fresh air
Share unselfishly
Dream while awake
Turbulence
Theory
Teach myself
Us to break shit
Meet new people
Breath
To be provocative
To experience collaboration of this kind
Remember my childhood
New ideas
Fire and beer
Cozy
Overlap to be characterized by love
Frickin' sharks with laser beams
It to be terrifying
All of us to bring our authentic selves
Post-mortem of conference to share with everyone
To map ideas
To leave with ideas that are tangible not indulgent

What do you want?

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16 comments:

Menelaos Gkikas said...

I suggest the Dreamcatcher ;)

Anonymous said...

Everlasting joy and happiness.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's a lot of wants. You must have interviewed a variety of people because I found answers randing from Insight to Mad Skills. :) I want a comfortable life with my guy. I want my family to be content with their lives as well. I want opportunities for growth. I want to become a best-selling fiction writer. I want to try something new. I want to be recognized for my efforts. I seem to have so many wants in life... And I've not even gotten to my list of tangible wants yet!

Anonymous said...

I want to be able to express my ideas at work. I seem entrapped now.

KareAnderson said...

I want to work with people with talents so unlike mine yet a common goal that it is a thrill to collaborate - and to create something I could not no have done on my own.

What a jewel of a site to stumble across. Love it!

In a civilization when love is
gone we turn to justice and when
justice is gone we turn to power
and when power is gone we
turn to violence.

Opportunity is often inconvenient.

Remember the many
compartments of the heart,
the seed of what is
possible. So much of who
we are is defined by
the places we hold for each
other. For it is not our ingenuity
that sets us apart, but our
capacity for love, the
possibility our way will
be lit by grace. Our hearts
prisms, chiseling out the
colors of pure light.

Unknown said...

Wow, Kare, what a wonderful comment and beautiful thoughts. Thank you.

Rob said...

The "To get to 'I get it' faster" struck me. I'm wanting to spend time enjoying the unfolding of the process and trying to understand how I got there instead of jumping to I get it.
That's my want.

MacMama said...

To learn how to make my own herbal tea. Coming to a store near you in 2009.

Anonymous said...

hey dave - how do you feel about laying off 15% of your company today?

Unknown said...

Hi Anonymous,

How do you think I feel? It sucks when you have to lay people off. I feel terrible.

It's a fact of life and business that it has to happen sometimes. But that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking.

Menelaos Gkikas said...

Broken Hearts, Vital Arts!

Anonymous said...

I want to understand what i want.

Anonymous said...

I want to understand what i want.

Unknown said...

:)

Sinaka said...

Peace with myself. Going through the list, many are means, many are outcomes. My list isn't different, getting better. What do I want? Getting it without feeling that I lack it.

Sheridan Voysey said...

I love looking at these kinds of lists. It's interesting that your original list on the whole has a more pragmatic in-the-office feel to it, while the comments include things like joy, happiness, peace.

For what it's worth I think we long for 4 things: purpose, guidance, liberation and love. For me, that led to a spiritual quest. I guess that's the case for many above too.

Thanks for the thoughts.