Visual Intelligence

Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life (2016), a psychological workbook by Amy E. Herman, is based on the course that Herman offers leading military, law enforcement, and medical professionals to help build visual intelligence and spatial awareness. The book is popular with a wide audience ranging from general readers looking to communicate better, to Fortune 500 companies. A successful art historian and attorney, Herman is a world-renowned speaker who created the pioneering Art of Perception program. She has been featured in numerous leading print publications and on TV shows.

Herman’s book is based on the central premise that our professional success is determined by our ability to observe and perceive the world around us. She believes we can all improve our spatial awareness and perception without going through tiring, regimented, and rigorously intellectual training to do so. All we must do is look at art with a more critical eye. Visual Intelligence teaches us how to do this.

Herman delivers her lessons through specific art pieces, ranging from photographs to sculptures. Each work of art is bold and unnerving to some degree; Herman specifically chooses these works to keep us engaged. She explains that everyone, from doctors to crime scene experts, is in danger of missing critical details because they see the same things all the time. Doctors may see patients presenting with similar symptoms every day, and police officers know the evidence they expect to find at a crime scene.

The point of Herman’s lessons is to teach us how to look at the familiar with a fresh perspective using all our senses. Art is the perfect way to teach most people how to engage all their senses, because most people don’t look at art every day. It is stimulating and fun for everyone, and the teaching process is relatively simple.

First, we’re given a piece of art to look at. Herman teaches us how to then gather information about the piece, evaluate this information, and look at everything from multiple perspectives. This inevitably means we spot things we wouldn’t notice if we simply skimmed the painting once in passing. Looking at art becomes a sensory and intuitive experience.

Once we understand how to engage all our senses and expect the unexpected, Herman moves away from art to other scenarios. She presents us with examples ranging from miscommunicated words to misplaced punctuation, and how these simple errors can radically change the meaning of something such as a legal contract or medical diagnosis.

The problem for most people is that, too often, we are complacent when it comes to the familiar. For example, when we are reading a sentence, we often miss errors because we only see what we expect to see. Herman offers us simple techniques to use to freshen our perspectives. For doctors, this can be as simple as inspecting the patient instead of only looking over their diagnosis chart. Looking at things from a different angle will either confirm the diagnosis or throw up anomalies that must be explored.

Herman provides insight into the science behind how this works. She explains that the act of observing something is objective, whereas how we perceive those details is subjective. We perceive and jump to conclusions, based on factors that are unrelated to the problem before us. For example, we may be tired and looking for an easy explanation. Our own values and life experiences also shape how we perceive things.

By understanding that our perception is influenced by so many different factors, we can challenge ourselves, and come to more informed conclusions. This is critical if, say, we wish to solve a challenging crime or help a patient with confusing and vague symptoms.

Finally, Herman offers techniques that are specific to different industries and professional career paths. Entrepreneurs and managers, for example, benefit from looking at what we don’t have, and what the market is missing, so that they can bring something new to the market. Similarly, inventors would do well to first ask what we already know about a technology or product, then what we don’t know, and finally what else we should be asking ourselves to answer those questions.

Essentially, Herman concludes, we have all lost the art of acutely observing the world around us. Too often, managers or speakers fail to see that they have lost their audience, that no one is listening anymore, which means they don’t respond and reengage their listeners. This is inefficient and counterproductive for everyone.

Visual Intelligence is not only for people working in high-powered jobs. The techniques in the book are designed to apply to all situations, whether at home, in relationships, or at work. She encourages everyone to take the first step—go to an art gallery, look at a painting, and try to make sense of what you see. More importantly, pay more attention to the unanswered questions you’re left with, and figure out how you might go about answering them.