It’s not worth having a meeting unless it changes people’s perspective.

A team I worked with had been stuck on the same collaboration issue for months.

Lots of complaints, reports, and memos, but the conversation kept looping back. Too many dependencies. Too many familiar stories.

So instead of holding another meeting where people would just repeat what they already knew, I asked them to draw how they saw collaboration across departments.

With limited time, people went straight to the essence.

Their sketches revealed, synthesized and communicated what they hadn't been able to do with words:

- A big river with smaller streams flowing in: “We’re working well together to contribute to a bigger cause, so we should just get over the slight bumps.”

- A row of buildings: “We’re close and solid, but we rarely connect.”

- Arrows pointing in different directions, divided by walls: “We all move fast, just in too many different directions.”

- A circle made of different shapes: “We’re different, and even when placed closely, we just don’t click.”

In minutes, the room felt different.

People saw their challenges more clearly, and understood each other’s perspectives without defensiveness.

A new medium created space for new insight.

Then came the breakthroughs:

- “If departments are separate buildings, we can’t force bridges. People cross them only when there’s a shared reasons, like a sport center” → We saw the importance of honoring shared KPIs.

- “If all arrows point in different directions, maybe we need a magnet.” → We clarified our north star.

- “We may have concerns about collaboration, but we’re still generally aligned - and that’s a foundation we can build on.”

The mood shifted. People stopped debating and started imagining.

The focus moved from who caused the issue to what we could build together.

Changing perspective is the single best way to get unstuck.

When people see differently, they think differently, and solutions often follow naturally.