“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein
Image Streaming is a technique you can use to improve your visual thinking and verbal fluency.
Whether you want flashes of insights or simply to build your working vocabulary, you can practice Image Streaming on your own.
Image Streaming is a creative thinking technique developed by Win Wenger, Ph.D. He modeled it after visual thinkers like Einstein.
Wenger claims that Einstein developed the foundations for the Theory of Relativity while visualizing himself “driving a train and looking into mirror asking a question if he could see his face”.
Think Better, Think Faster, See More
What if you could think faster, more visually, and more fluidly?
What if you could verbalize your ideas in a much better way?
What if you could envision new ideas and describe them in rich detail?
What if you could expand your vocabulary and apply it to come up with new creative ideas.
Enter Image Streaming.
It gets the lead out.
Describe What You See In Your Mind Out Loud
Kids often have an active imagination.
Somewhere along the way, adults often lose their imagination, and yet, that’s exactly what they need to innovate or solve problems or dream up better ways to do things.
Maybe we edit too much and block any ideas from getting a chance to see the light of day.
What if instead of editing, we practiced elaborating?
How often do you practice describing your ideas in rich detail, out loud?
See the gap? (It’s hard to get better at things we don’t practice 😉
How To Practice Image Streaming
Image Streaming is simply a way to examine and explore images in your mind. Simply explore a scene by describing it in as much detail as possible, using all of your senses.
Verbalize it out loud.
As you verbalize the image, you’ll see more, and as you see more describe it.
Describe it as fast as you can.
This will develop your verbal fluency and will help you elaborate on details of the images and the scenes that you see.
It may feel forced at first, but it’s like building a muscle. The more you use it, the easier it gets to do it. And that’s your growth.
Record your session so you can play it back and reflect on your ability to describe what you experience. Alternatively, you could describe a scene to a friend or partner and have them give feedback.
You can practice anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.
Everyone Can Readily Learn and Practice It
What I especially like about Image Streaming is that it’s visual thinking for everyone.
Anybody can practice it, and anybody can develop their creative thinking skills and their verbal fluency.
Via Project Renaissance:
“Starting advantage, differences of birth, wealth, placement, schooling, even intelligence, can make little long-run difference compared to the advantages of simple sustained practice of these activities and your active resolve to see their results through to fruition.”
How I Use Image Streaming
I’ve stumbled upon Image Streaming naturally through the course of my work. I often need to describe scenes of the future and how technology will make an impact in our lives, or I need to think of ways that technology will improve business scenarios.
Because I need to share these ideas with other people, live, I end up exploring ways to quickly explain in rich detail what a scene in my mind for the future is like.
While I still get stuck, or find myself at a loss for words, I’ve definitely gotten more fluent in painting scenes of the future for my colleagues.
Where I need to practice more is using more of my senses when I describe the scenes to really bring them to life in more vivid detail.
The more that I practice Image Streaming, the more I wonder whether Visionary Leaders happen to be good at storytelling about the future, or they simply practice describing it, and they get better over time.
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