Written by: gfesadmin on May 23, 2013

“A Peace of Napkin”

Dan Roam’s book “The Back of the Napkin” contains fantastic ideas about ways to change our thinking and solve problems. Specificaly, he addresses the way our mind visualizes and the simplicity of using pictures. His concepts include how we “Look, See, Imagine and Show, the who/what/how much/where/when/how/why of things, as well as the SQVID model (simple vs. elaborate, quality vs. quantity, vision vs execution, individual attributes vs. comparison, and delta/change vs. status quo.) He includes a variety of ways in which to use these concepts to solve issues. Most of the practical examples he uses come from his work with businesses and corporations. I decided to try to apply some of his methods to the problem on which I am currently working – my dissertation topic. It may seem to be fairly abstract so I am hoping to clarify it with the pictures I draw on napkins. Also, I am traveling to Israel in a few days for fun and to do some ethnographic research on my topic which is “Interfaith Peacebuilding through Music.” The group I am traveling with, the Yuval Ron Ensemble, directly works with people of the three Abrahamic traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with music as the main peacebuilding medium. I will specifically be looking at how interfaith peacebuilding through music works. What are the practical elements put in place and how do these affect the relationships between Arabs and Israelis as well as Jews, Christians and Muslims.

I am actually one of those “squishy” creative types that Roam mentions, who try to visualize what peace might look like. So, in my napkin drawing I used Roam’s concepts of “Look, See, Imagine, Show,” and his SQVID category of “Vision vs. Execution.” Putting an abstract concept like peace into a picture was harder than I imagined. Visualizing a peaceful world becomes more complex when trying to realize the execution of this. However, in my mind’s eye I imagined how different musicians come together with a variety of instruments in order to create a beautiful song. My biggest hurdle however was feeling like it is too idealistic of a goal. But I can’t focus on that as without a “Delta/Change” then we get “Status quo.”

Did the drawing help clarify my topic?

How might you draw “peace?”

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