I have always had a soft spot for my friends who make their livings as "artists". I think they're very gutsy people and I admire the fact that they've abandoned the proverbial 9 to 5 to unleash their muse, chase their dream or live their symphony. In fact, I'm very much like them - except I still have the day job.

One of the advantages of my "current state" reality is that I've really honed by business modeling skills in the last few years. Before Alex' work, I was busy reading everything that I could about Enterprise Analysis, ROI, Benefits Realization Management, etc., etc. When the BMI canvas came along, it was possibly one of the more liberating and insightful moments of my professional career. The canvas laid it all out VISUALLY.

Why Visual Thinking is Critical to Problem Solving...

I'm a huge fan of Dan Roam's "Back of the Napkin" series. If you've not read this book, well... please do yourself a favor and read it. Like Alex' canvas, it's about Visual Thinking. In fact, Dan's books offer a complete approach to problem-solving using pictures that anyone can draw.

I want to stop now and emphasize one point (which I'll make in a second) by stating the following fact about my academic up-bringing: While I've attended possibly one of the best bilingual public education programs in the world and have spent more than nine years at one of the best universities in Canada, NOBODY has ever taught me about how to think visually to solve problems. Nobody, that is, before Dan Roam.

The point that I want to make is this: From the time we acquire oral language, there's a historically-rooted bias towards using text (reading and writing) as the de facto medium for learning when this complex system of sensory input, processing, etc., is far less efficient and effective than pictorial media in many learning contexts.

For problem solving, using textual media as a strategy is almost absurd. This is one of the reasons we employ another symbolic system - mathematics. However, again, mathematics involves complex processing, abstract ideation, higher ordered thinking and a symbol set that can be a frustrating as learning a new textual language.

The closest I've ever come to having someone suggest that I use visual thinking to solve a complex problem has, ironically, been a mathematics teacher who told me to "draw a picture of the problem before trying to work out the equations. This teacher knew that the symbol system was getting in the way of the problem-solving (to some extent) and encouraged me to draw. Most of the time, it worked. I kept doing that most of my adult life; doodling here and there whenever I had a problem to solve. I sometimes imagined that Michaelangelo must have does this all the time since he combined fine art, mathematics and engineering.

Dan's book teaches a process; one that is neurophysiologically and psychopedagogically sound.

Alex's BMI canvas, on the other hand provides the meta-level framework for solving business problems by drawing. Since it covers all aspects of the potential business model, one cannot draw an incomplete or unbalanced picture without noticing it.

Why This Is Important to Artistic Business People...

Many weeks ago, I met with a friend who has successfully run a city-wide music festival with almost no funding for three years in a row. That's pretty impressive. He held a meeting to brainstorm the 2010 festival and I offered to attend, take some notes, and offer any advice that I could. I told him that I might be able to help with business development and funding this year.

I sat in a circle of musicians; many of them very locally successful. We talked about all sorts of things: What worked last year, what didn't work last year, what would be great to see or do this year, and so on. The session was pure brainstorming. We didn't use anything but a tape recorder (and our individual notes) to collect any formal data.

A few weeks later, my friend came over. I took all of the ideas from the session and wrote them on sticky notes using as few words as possible and drawing pictures wherever I could. I showed him where they belonged on the BMI canvas. We I was done, I said: "This is your current business model." He was impressed... not by the fact that we'd been able to articulate the business model so much as by the fact that he could now visualize all of the inter-related aspects of the festival. "This makes it so clear!” he said excitedly, "Now I can see how one change affects other aspects of the whole project."

Precisely. The BMI canvas' power lies in its ability to directly/efficiently and effectively communicate how the business all comes together, how things interrelate, etc. You simply can't, I would argue, achieve that type of insight with a written business plan. Now I'm all for writing up a business plan complete with financials but without a clear vision of your business - without really understanding HOW it works, those documents won't really have a tremendous amount of strategic value.

Many artistic people can't or don't relate to the limitations of "text as (sole) media for learning". They're constantly using auditory, visual and/or kinesthetic sensory stimuli in ways that many of us never do. So it's hardly surprising that their eyes glaze over when one speaks of them using financial terminology.

"Value proposition? What? What's that?"

You wind up translating: "Oh, that's whatever you wish to sell to your customers - um - your audience."

It's amazing to me how quickly artists engage the BMI canvas. Now my friend, the one that I mentioned earlier who runs the music festival, is also a research scientist. So he's used to solving problems, albeit using methods that I'm guessing probably don't often include drawing pictures. But even he (a highly intelligent person with graduate level formal education) couldn't put in stronger terms how much the BMI canvas made sense. We would up talking about the future state (2010) festival and, I'm happy to say, it's looking very innovative.

I'm 99.9% sure that we would not have been able to create a vision of the 2010 music festival in under a few hours without it. I think Michelangelo would approve.