Hi there: I’d like to take the liberty and respond to your question. Mike may or may not agree with my thoughts. IMO it is very important for non-designers to understand what we do and why we do it. It will help you hire a great designer when you need to, and if you will have a career in marketing, or even running a startup, you WILL have the chance to hire a design professional.

1. Learn about the “old school” masters of the design profession. My favorite is Paul Rand, the guy who designed logos for the likes of ABC, UPS and IBM. Most of his contemporaries are worthy of study as well.
2. Read the trade magazines of our profession. Communication Arts, PRINT, Graphis are three of the big guns in this regard.
3. Also read some of the advertising trade pubs like Advertising Age.
4. I believe there is a “Graphic Design for Dummies” book, but also read Paul Rand’s books.
5. Do a YouTube search for the Saul Bass video, his pitch film for the Bell System (AT&T) logo from the late 1960s. All design students should watch that film, because it is a sales film aimed at non-designers produced by a designer and filmmaker, one of the better ones at both.
6. Get a pad of paper (I like to buy a ream of copy paper) and start doodling and drawing stuff. Draw stuff on a regular basis. Draw stuff you see on TV. Draw stuff you see online. Importantly, draw an idea for a new product, service, business, what have you. I think Jack Dorsey and/or his partners drew the first ideas for Twitter on a yellow legal pad. Who cares if you can’t draw. Practice makes you better over time. And it gets your thoughts and ideas out there in a written sort of form that can get revised, critiqued and improved.