How to Paint Pictures with Words
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Imagine this scene: Dr. King sets up on the National Mall—and delivers a PowerPoint presentation! Would we remember his words today?
MLK’s Dream speech worked so well for many reasons, but one of the most important was his ability to seize the audience’s imagination through mental imagery. He didn’t need a big screen set up on the white marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial to get us to picture scenes of black and white children playing together “on the red hills of Georgia”, or to imagine freedom ringing from “every hill and molehill of Mississippi”.
All he had was words, and words were more than enough.
Technology adds so much to our capabilities that we sometimes forget what we give up in return. I wonder if PowerPoint has sapped our power to evoke mental images through words, and if so, does it matter?
I do believe it matters, because mental images can be more persuasive than actual visuals. Actual visuals are good because they are processed instantaneously, and because everyone sees the same image, but these advantages may actually be disadvantages in terms of the persuasiveness of the image. Mental images can be more persuasive because they make people care, they make them remember, and most important of all, they can make them act.
Mind pictures make your listeners care
The right word can be like a light switch in the listener’s mind that lets them see their own personal version of the image you want them to see. Because it’s theirs, it can be more real and more meaningful—hence more persuasive. Political strategist Frank Luntz says, “…the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds.”[1]
Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, compares the effect of two statements: “a vaccine that protects children from a fatal disease carries a 0.001% risk of permanent disability.” Vs. “One out of 100,000 vaccinated children will be permanently disabled.” The second statement is more moving because all we see is that one child, not the 99,999 that are happy and healthy.
Mind pictures make your message unforgettable
When someone is getting ready to decide or to act on your presentation, you want them to remember how they felt when the heard the presentation and the arguments for taking the recommended course of action. Because creating the image actually takes work, the effort of creating the image will get the listener more involved and engaged, and they are more likely to remember the image or have it pop up in their minds when they are getting ready to act on the information. That’s why all memory systems are based on mental images.
Bob Woodward’s book, Bush at War contains this statement uttered by CIA agent Cofer Black in a Cabinet meeting after 9/11: “’When we’re through with them they will have flies walking across their eyeballs,’ he said. It was an image of death that left a lasting impression on a number of war cabinet ministers. Black became known in Bush’s inner circle as the ‘flies on the eyeballs guy’“
Think about it: I read that book 17 years ago, and when I began writing this podcast, it popped into my memory immediately. Now, that’s powerful!
Mind pictures make your listeners act
People are more likely to perform the actual behavior if they envision themselves doing it. One study that tested actual consumers’ sign-up rates for cable service tested two descriptions of the benefits that cable would bring, such as not having to hassle with babysitters and gas to go out. One described the benefits, the second asked people to imagine themselves in that situation were more than twice as likely to sign up than those who just got a description of product features.[2]
It’s especially important for leaders who want to turn their vision into ground truth. One study conducted by Wharton professor Andrew Carton found that hospital leaders who “communicated visions with image-based words triggered better patient outcomes that leaders who communicated visions abstractly.” They also found similar results for teams who were tasked with designing new toys.
Even better, when you can get them to picture themselves in the image, it tends to increase the likelihood of the behavioral change.[3] Stories are powerful image creators, and they are even more powerful when you make the listener the hero.
By the way, it even works great when your audience is yourself. There’s an idea called implementation intentions, which is basically picturing in your mind actually performing the action that you intend. So, for example, instead of saying, “I’ll work out after work”. You say: After I grab my keys and get into my car, I will start thinking of my workout routine as I drive directly to the gym…” It makes it much more likely that you will remember it and actually do it.
Mind pictures make you look better
There’s also a more personally selfish way to look at what painting word pictures can do for you: it makes you seem more charismatic. There has been research done that correlates the imagery content of presidential speeches with perceived leadership charisma; and also studies that actually manipulate the variables experimentally which demonstrate the same thing.
How to create mental pictures
First, make it a priority. You’re already spending a lot of time trying to find the right visual for your slide presentation. Why not spend some of that time figuring out how to generate the virtual image in their minds? You don’t have to give up slides, but try a little harder to use them less. Give yourself a goal of adding one or two verbal paintings to your dry content.
A great way to do this is to picture the scene in your mind after you’ve written it. For example, I can take that last sentence I just wrote and re-write it this way: Look at the words on the page, sit back, close your eyes, and imagine what it would like for your listener to do it. Then draw that view for your listeners.
Sketch your points first in black and white to make sure you get the message down properly, but then go back and stir the pot of your vocabulary. I know I’ve said before that short plain words are the best, but the ones that come out in your first draft are the dull everyday words that have lost their fizz. Dig a little deeper where the colorful interesting words lurk just beneath the surface.
Some of the best words are adjectives that convey vivid details, names of concrete things that everyone can envision (think of Churchill’s “iron curtain” descending over Europe), and strong action verbs that can make those pictures in their minds move and act in ways that make them more memorable and vivid.
Analogies and metaphors are especially easy for listeners to picture in their minds. In 1940, Great Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany and desperately needed supplies and weapons that it could not afford. President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to provide them, but the isolationist mood in the US made that very difficult. FDR came up with a plan called Lend-Lease, under which the US would “lend” materials to Britain in exchange for leasing some of its naval bases. It was legally dubious, but instead of quibbling with fine points of law, here’s how he sold it at a press conference: “Suppose my neighbor’s home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire…I don’t say to him before that operation, “Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.”… I don’t want $15–I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. ” The average voter couldn’t be bothered with legal clauses, but could easily picture the idea of their neighbor’s house being on fire.
Notice how FDR said it. He didn’t just compare the situation to a house on fire, he made the listeners picture the scene, with the hose several hundred feet away, and the physical acts of fetching it and connecting it to the hydrant, and helping him put it out.
Build it into your presentation structure. Where are the best spots to add a dab of living color? The introduction is a great place to flip the visual switch in their minds. When you’re describing the problem and the pain it’s causing, is another great spot to put it in. But probably the best spot for visual imagery is the end of your presentation or speech, you give them a psychological power boost before you send them on their way.
Imagine
Imagine this scene: you’re in a boardroom about to make your presentation to a group of decision makers. As the previous speaker quietly fades from the premises and their memories, your listeners are chatting idly or fussing with their phones. You launch into your presentation and bodies lean forward, the room clicks into silence, and heads snap to lock eyes onto you.
Or you describe the problem and the risks they run in not solving it, and eyes widen, people almost visibly shudder, and heads shake. You can see that they are feeling the pain you’ve painted for them…
Finally, imagine your team after you’ve delivered your vision for the year, pouring out of the room charged up with palpable energy, eager to get started.
You can turn any one of these pictures into reality by
painting pictures with words.
[1] Frank Luntz, Words that Work, p. 21.
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