Eyeing What’s Ahead

Author Todd Cherches On Visual Leadership During Changing Times

While talking with Todd Cherches last week, I momentarily lost sight of the fact that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic.  He was calm, cheerful, and focused during our phone conversation last week— characteristics that I found refreshing for someone at the epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis in the greater New York area. 

Given the distraction that this pandemic is exacting on so many of us, I was grateful that he agreed to share some nuggets of his life journey and how it informs his forthcoming book “VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life’ (Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster, May of 2020)

About Todd. He is the CEO and co-founder of the NYC-based management, leadership, and executive coaching firm Big Blue Gumball. He’s is a TEDx speaker (The Power of Visual Thinking) two-time award-winning Adjunct Professor of Leadership at NYU School of Professional Studies/Division of Programs in Business and a leadership lecturer at Columbia University. 

As an undergraduate,  Todd majored in English Literature (with a concentration in Shakespeare and poetry) before getting his master’s degree in Communication, all at the State University of New York at Albany.  His original career dream had always been to work in the television industry in some capacity. So he started out in advertising in NYC, as an assistant media buyer at Ogilvy & Mather advertising, in the network television division. He notes that there were only three television networks at that time, and cable tv was just in its infancy…so that’s how long ago this was. 

“It was an interesting experience, and ok for a first job out of college, but it was a numbers-driven role – all about tv ratings and ad dollars…and I always wanted to be on the creative side.” 

So, after a year there, Todd says he packed his bags and headed out to L.A., where he ended up working in a series of entry-level jobs – some good, others not-so-great – at a number of top-tier companies including Aaron Spelling productions, Columbia Pictures Television, Disney, and CBS. 

“I was unable (for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here) to break into a management-level role. So I ended up leaving television to take a job as a project manager in the theme park industry, and stayed in that business for a number of years.”  

But after ten years in L.A., Todd elected to move back home to New York City – where, through a series of chance happenings – he somehow ended up in the management and leadership consulting, training, and executive coaching field.

“Twenty years later, is what I still do today, in addition to teaching leadership at both NYU and Columbia” 

The Itch To Write A Book

Asked about his upcoming book, Cherches had this to say: 

“Well, when you add it all up, VisuaLeadership is about using visual thinking and visual communication to manage, lead, and succeed. It’s about using visual imagery and drawing, mental models and frameworks, metaphor and analogy, and storytelling and humor to get others to “see” what we’re saying and to help turn our vision into reality. “ 

He says that all of these methodologies – from visual imagery to storytelling – are rooted in his background in literature and entertainment. 

“BigBlueGumball’s motto is, “We make training entertaining,” and our mission is to “Educate, Engage, and Excite” – so it all ties together.”  

He continues: 

“As such, my book, VisuaLeadership, is a compilation of the highlights of my life’s work – some of my top leadership tools, tips, and techniques – packaged and presented in a fun, colorful, and visual way so that others can better be able to leverage the power of visual thinking in their own life.” 

Cherches says that the theme of my book can best be summarized in the phrase, “I see what you’re saying.” In other words, how does one get an idea out of their head and into someone else’s so that their message lands and sticks? 

Asked to elaborate on this, Cherches responds:

“One way is through painting a picture with words…which is why, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand of them. And why visuals? Because, as science has shown, using visual imagery and visual language enhances our abilities in these three areas: attention, comprehension, and retention. When you use visually-oriented techniques to communicate your ideas, it gets people to focus their attention, it greatly enhances their understanding, and it increases their recall. That’s the power of visual thinking in action.”

Ideas Informed By His Own Book Addiction

Cherches has no qualms in sharing about his own personal book addiction.  

“I was always a big reader from a very early age. My mother used to read to me every single night before bed. A big baseball fan – something I got from my father – I started reading the sports section of the daily newspaper around the age of six or seven…and – without exaggeration – I don’t think I’ve missed a single day of reading a daily newspaper ever since. So, as a kid, whether it was reading the Hardy Boys mysteries series or Baseball Digest and Sports Illustrated magazines – or even the back of the cereal box – I was always reading.” 

He fondly recalled the Golden Book Encyclopedia for children that he was obsessed with while growing up and would spend hours reading. 

“Whenever I had a question about anything, instead of just guessing or making something up, my mother would always say: “I don’t know. Let’s go look it up, together.” And that’s one of my philosophies that I carry with me today – both in my teaching and in my approach to leadership: None of us has all the answers, so we should always be willing to say, “I don’t know. Let’s look it up…together.”

When he was around thirteen, Cherches recalls his parents dropping him off at the local library and picking him up hours later, usually with three-to-five books in my hand. 

“The librarian would always say to me, ‘You’re never going to finish all of those before they’re due back.’ But I did.”

Innately curious about everything, Cherches says he was always asking, “Why?” and I was especially obsessed with the origin of things, wanting to know why things were the way they were…and how things got started. He says that this is an obsession that he still has to this day.  

“One of my main fascinations, even way back then, was word origins (i.e., etymology, the study of the origin and meaning of words). So, at around age fourteen, I started reading one page of the dictionary every single night before going to sleep, a habit I continued until I went away to college. (Can you say, “nerd.” Yes, I admit it.) And, even to this day, I still, probably look up a few words a day.” 

And, as if the dictionary thing wasn’t enough, Cherches says that his main claim to fame in high school was in having read the Complete Works of Shakespeare – all 37 plays, 4 major poems, and 154 sonnets…along with all the introductions, commentaries, and footnotes – by the age of 18. 

“It began with Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar through Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Twelfth Night, and beyond. Being that I was intrigued and enchanted by the stories and the language, I just started reading…and kept on going, one after another, until I was done.” 

Then came his obsession with business books in 1998. After suffering one horrible boss after another throughout the early part of his career, he figured there had to be a better way to manage people than through tyranny and abuse. So, he started reading a few management and leadership books in an attempt to figure out what was going on. 

Having been hired by one of the country’s top management training companies to revamp their entire mini-MBA, he dove headfirst into the ocean of management books, and never looked back. So, from 1998 through today, Cherches says he read an average of one business book per week.  

He jokes: “If my calculations are correct (remember, I was an English major, not a math major), this works out to over 1,100 business books…and counting…that I’ve read over the past 22 years.”

Reading Into Tough Times

Asked about whether there’s a role that VisuaLeadership might play in helping leaders navigate the rough waters of today’s current economic disruption, Cherches offered this: 

“The pace of work and life today is exponentially faster – and more global – than ever before. This high-speed, high-stress, ever-increasingly “VUCA” (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world we live in can easily make us feel overloaded and overwhelmed. And that was even before the current Coronavirus and economic crisis hit! One way that VisuaLeadership can help us to navigate these turbulent waters is to help us simplify all this complexity to gain a better understanding of what’s going on, so that we can, collectively, work towards a solution and a resolution.” 

He cites a simple and now-familiar example of this, the “Flatten the curve” mantra that we keep seeing and hearing from coronavirus experts. 

“Without any of us needing to have any scientific understanding of either viruses or statistics, this simple visual model, in the form of a two-curve graph, has quickly (for lack of a better term) “gone viral” as a way for us to understand, explain, and respond to this crisis situation.” 

This according to Cherches is just one simple illustration of the power of visual thinking and visual communication – and VisuaLeadership – in action. Others, as he mentioned previously, include using images, models, metaphors, and stories to manage and to lead. 

Notes Cherches: “The power of these visual techniques is that they help us hone in on cross-generational, cultural, and other barriers so that people of all types can “see” what is being said.”

Eyeballing The Path Forward

Cherchescontinues: 

“As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said, ‘The only constant is change.’ And, as I always say, “In an ever-changing world, if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind.” So, when considering “The Future of Work,” we all need to be proactive, rather than reactive, in anticipating, envisioning, and preparing for these changes.” 

Asked about some of the trends to keep an eye on in the days ahead, Cherches provided three: 

Leveraged Technology: “I have been teaching my 14-session NYU leadership graduate class in person twice a year for the past nine years. Two weeks ago, with less than 24 hours’ notice, due to the Coronavirus situation, I had no choice but to learn how to use Zoom in order to be able to teach my class online the very next evening. The lesson here: Rather than waiting until the last minute, we need to develop our mindset, our toolset, and our skillset for not “if,” but “when” we will need to. 

Multi-Generational, Diverse Workforces – “We now have five generations all working together…from Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, and Gen Xers to Millennials (Gen Y) and, now, Generation Z (which some, due to the recent technological adaptation necessitated by the Coronavirus, have been referring to as Generation ‘Zoom’). We also now have an increasingly diverse global workforce – and that is diversity in ALL its many manifestations. In order for everyone to play well together, we need to not only be more open-minded but more empathetic. We need to seek to “see the world” through the “lens” of others, and realize that our way is not the only way or the better way, but just ONE way.”  

“And it’s not just about diversity, but about equity, inclusion, and belonging, giving every individual the respect they rightfully deserve. One of my visual models is a Venn diagram that shows two interlocking circles along with the saying, “Wisdom is where Knowledge and Experience Meet.” So, if we want to be more “wise,” we need to continually leverage the “knowledge” and “experience” of all…and remember that as a “T.E.A.M.,” Together Everyone Achieves More.

Visual Thinking and Visual Communication – “As we seek to communicate across a wide range of barriers, obstacles, and filters, one of the most powerful ways of getting our ideas across is through leveraging the power of visuals. And in order to communicate visually, we first need to think visually. We need to think about the Who, What, When, Where, and Why to determine the How: Who is your audience? What are you trying to say? When and Where are you saying it? Why are you saying it (the purpose)? 

Cherches concludes: 

“Together, all of this will determine the best way to say it – the How. And, while words, alone, can sometimes do the job, when you leverage the power of visual imagery, mental models, metaphors, and stories, you can open people’s eyes up to a world of possibilities and, in so doing, change not only their world…but the world.”