Move from Frozen to Action
One visual method to get unstuck
Some days, moving from ideas to action can feel impossible. It’s understandable in a massively distracting world. Most days, avoidance seems so much easier, right? (Tasty snacks in the kitchen? Way better than confronting sticky issues.)
But then life storms in and says DO SOMETHING.
Believe it or not, a simple visual technique can help you move from idea to action.
Clustering represents a powerful way to help break gnarly topics into more manageable pieces. Writers have long used this method as a pre-writing technique, building scaffolds to guide their efforts.
It turns out the approach is useful for more than just writing. As a visual technique, clustering can help you break down a complicated idea, a daunting challenge, or even dinner party planning. Why? It helps you see how to categorize, sequence, and prioritize steps.
I’ll take you through one example where clustering helped me make a plan around a persistent and gnarly issue.
A few years ago, a friend was going through rough times. She showed up at my door wanting to talk . A lot. She rang the doorbell late at night, early morning, during dinner — whenever she felt the need. When she showed up unannounced on Christmas Eve, as my relatives had just been seated for dinner, I knew I had let the pattern continue too long.
(You might be saying, “You idiot! Why don’t you tell her off?” Listen. I live in the Midwest, where “Midwest Nice” is a thing. Most people don’t tell each other off. It is what it is. Get over it.)
In my past, setting healthy boundaries had proven somewhat challenging, in friendships and a few other parts of life. Several friends ran roughshod over my empathic self, and this time was no different. But I kept making the same mistakes in other areas, too: Saying “yes” to too many things, curbing sleep and good nutrition to accommodate other people’s priorities…you know the drill.
After having listened for many hours to my friend describe her predicament (a cancer recurrence, then suddenly divorced — her distress was warranted!), my clumsy, abrupt explanation of my need for boundaries did not sit well with her.
I needed to do this boundary thing differently.
I started reading about how to set healthy boundaries. I also got some great guidance from a pastor friend. But I still felt overwhelmed. I was peeling an onion, and each layer felt slippery. Where should I start?
I simply wrote “setting boundaries” in the middle of a big sheet of paper. From there, I jotted down ideas I had read and heard. Getting the ideas down on paper felt like climbing into the ring with a wild mustang of a problem. I had at least taken some first steps.
You know what’s great about clustering? It’s not linear. There is no wrong way to do it. You can move ideas around and see how they relate to one another. You can do it alone, where no one but you will see it, or you can do it with a team. (Don’t worry, you run a very low risk it will turn into a cluster!)
What’s more, research suggests that people who write down clear, specific goals are more likely to take action toward those goals than people who don’t.
As I kept going with my diagram, it became easier to fill the white space. I went back to the notes from my reading. Themes emerged from my download, so I numbered them on the paper: 1. Triggers. 2. Consequences. 3. Signals of failing to set healthy boundaries in relationships. And one more: Actions.
One obvious first step? Notice it happening. I could do that! This realization, that there were low-hanging fruit in the Action Orchard, got me over a hump of inertia. Seeing the ideas in front of me felt so much more concrete than when I spent time “in my head,” feeling taken advantage of, or kicking myself for “not saying something earlier.”
I turned the diagram into a more orderly list, which helped “itemize” where the patterns were coming from. I then took the relatively “messy” diagram and drew a poster to remind myself of my plan. Geeky? Of course. But by drawing out the main ideas in a more ordered way, I think I took them more seriously, considering them “simple rules of engagement” for myself and my relationships.
It felt like I had designed my flag and could now stake my boundary-setting claim. I put the poster on the bulletin board above my desk to remind myself to take action.
The whole effort — from reading, to talking with my pal, to drawing the diagrams and poster — took about five or six hours total. The effort was a small investment for a valuable return .
Was my plan perfect? Not a chance. Do I still make mistakes? Absolutely. But I can recall several very specific instances in the past couple of years when my efforts to define healthy boundaries paid off.
I still refer to my poster on occasion, and I often use clustering to help move from ideas to action. I hope you can, too.
Mary Davis Michaud is Founder of VisuaLeverage, an organizational development firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Pairing research methods with art, she uses visual methods to fully engage people in decisions, learning, and innovation.
