INSIGHT - How Visual Imagery Shapes Collaborative Sensemaking in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

This post is based on research published in our paper “Beyond Words: How Visual Imagery Shapes Collaborative Sensemaking in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” (Wurth & Mawson, 2024). The workshops that formed the basis for this paper were funded by the Scottish Government under the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Fund and in-kind support from the University of Strathclyde.

Introduction: When Pictures Help Us See the Bigger Picture

Have you ever found yourself in a room full of people discussing complex ideas, each person coming from a different background and speaking their own “language”? Now imagine that same room with a professional illustrator capturing those conversations in real-time, transforming abstract concepts into vivid visual representations. This is exactly what happened during our research into Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and what we observed has profound implications for how we understand and develop these complex social systems.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are inherently complex - they bring together diverse actors from entrepreneurs and investors to policymakers and academics, each with their own perspectives, goals, and ways of understanding the world. The conventional wisdom suggests that simply bringing these people together will create connectivity and shared understanding. But our research suggests there’s a missing piece to this puzzle: the power of visual imagery to transform conversations into genuine collaborative sensemaking.

The Challenge: Making Sense Together in Complex Ecosystems

Before diving into our findings, let’s set the stage by understanding the fundamental challenge we’re addressing. Entrepreneurial ecosystems aren’t just collections of people and organizations - they’re intricate networks of relationships, shared meanings, and informal institutions that emerge through interaction and communication. The key word here is “shared.” For an ecosystem to function effectively, its participants need to develop common understandings of who they are, what they’re trying to achieve, and how they relate to each other.

Think of it like trying to navigate a city without a map. Each person might know their immediate neighborhood well, but without a shared understanding of how these neighborhoods connect and relate to each other, movement and coordination become incredibly difficult. This is the challenge facing entrepreneurial ecosystems: how do we help diverse actors develop shared mental maps of their complex social environment?

Ecosystems, institutions, and the role of different actors (Wurth & Mawson, 2024).

Beyond Verbal Communication: The Role of Visual Imagery

Our research draws on the framework of communicative institutionalism, which suggests that institutions (the “rules of the game” that shape behavior) aren’t just reflected in communication - they’re actively created through it. While previous research has focused primarily on verbal communication - conversations, narratives, and stories - we discovered that visual imagery plays a crucial, and largely overlooked, role in this process.

During a series of five workshops bringing together various ecosystem actors in Scotland, we employed a professional graphic illustrator to create real-time visual representations of the discussions. What started as an experiment in documentation quickly revealed itself to be something far more profound: the visuals weren’t just recording the conversations; they were actively shaping them.

Three Key Discoveries: How Visuals Transform Ecosystem Conversations

1. Broadening Participation and Diverse Perspectives

One of the most striking observations was how visualizations helped surface and legitimize diverse perspectives within the ecosystem. In verbal discussions, dominant narratives often prevail - successful startups, major investors, and established institutions tend to command attention. But when these discussions were translated into visual imagery, something remarkable happened.

For example, when participants began discussing who constitutes the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the conversation initially focused on the usual suspects: successful startups, universities, and support organizations. But as the illustrator began drawing, unexpected suggestions emerged. One particularly powerful moment came when someone mentioned prisons and the rehabilitation process as part of the ecosystem. The illustrator captured this idea visually, showing prisoners with entrepreneurial mindsets who hadn’t aligned their talents with society’s values and laws.

This visual representation did more than just record an unusual suggestion - it legitimized it, made it tangible, and prompted deeper reflection from other participants. The image sparked discussions about inclusivity, overlooked potential, and the true boundaries of the ecosystem. By workshop three, the question had evolved from “who is part of the ecosystem?” to deeper considerations of belonging, voice, and creating environments where diverse actors can thrive.

Inclusivity and (informal) institutions in entrepreneurial ecosystems (Wurth & Mawson, 2024).

2. Stimulating Metaphorical Associations

Visuals also proved remarkably effective at creating and sustaining powerful metaphors that helped participants grasp complex concepts. Two metaphors in particular demonstrated this power:

First, the concept of nested ecosystems - local systems within regional systems within national systems - was visualized using the metaphor of Russian Matryoshka dolls. This simple visual captured a complex idea about multi-level dynamics in a way that participants could immediately grasp and reference. More importantly, this metaphor became a shared reference point that persisted across workshops, helping new participants quickly understand previous discussions.

Nestedness of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Wurth & Mawson, 2024).

Second, the unicorn metaphor evolved throughout the workshops. Starting as the standard reference to billion-dollar startups, the visual representation transformed this into something deeper - a symbol of Scotland’s broader ambitions that integrated cultural narratives (the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal) with entrepreneurial aspirations. The continuous visual refinement of this metaphor helped participants move beyond simplistic success metrics toward more nuanced understandings of ecosystem goals.

The unicorn depicted in various visual images, reflecting both Scotland and the ambition of entrepreneurship (Wurth & Mawson, 2024).

3. Facilitating Alignment on Shared Meanings

Perhaps most significantly, visuals helped participants align on shared meanings around fundamental concepts. Ecosystems, by their nature, involve complex feedback loops and dynamic interactions that are difficult to grasp through verbal description alone. When these concepts were visualized - using natural analogies of forests, rivers, and wildlife - abstract ideas became concrete and comprehensible.

For instance, the visualization of entrepreneurs as differently sized fish in the same pond prompted recognition that ecosystem diversity equals ecosystem health. Similarly, depicting the government’s role in ecosystem development enabled more nuanced discussions about top-down versus bottom-up approaches. These weren’t just illustrations - they were thinking tools that enabled participants to explore complex relationships and dynamics.

Practical Implications: Moving Beyond Events and Connectivity

Our findings have significant implications for how we approach ecosystem development:

For Ecosystem Builders and Policymakers:

Incorporate visual practice: When organizing ecosystem events, workshops, or strategic planning sessions, consider incorporating professional graphic illustration or other visual methods. These aren’t just nice-to-have documentation tools - they’re active ingredients in fostering collaborative sensemaking.
Create sustained platforms: One-off events have limited impact. Create platforms that allow for iterative visual sensemaking over time, enabling narratives and understandings to evolve rather than crystallize prematurely.
Leverage visual ambiguity: Don’t aim for perfect clarity in visual representations. Some ambiguity can be generative, prompting deeper exploration and allowing multiple interpretations to coexist productively.
Bridge perspectives: Use visuals as boundary objects to help different ecosystem actors understand each other’s perspectives. Visual representations can make tacit assumptions explicit and create common ground for dialogue.

For Researchers:

Expand methods: Consider how visual methods can complement traditional verbal data collection and analysis in studying entrepreneurial ecosystems and other complex social phenomena.
Study visual processes: Focus not just on the final visual artifacts but on the process of their creation and evolution. How do visuals emerge from and shape conversations over time?
Connect to practice theory: Explore how visual practices become embedded in ecosystem routines and how they contribute to the embodiment of institutional logics.

The Future of Ecosystem Development: Seeing and Shaping Together

As we look to the future of entrepreneurial ecosystem development, our research suggests that visual imagery should play a central role. We need to move beyond the assumption that simply bringing people together creates meaningful connection and shared understanding. Instead, we should create environments where diverse actors can literally see their thoughts, assumptions, and aspirations take shape together.

The power of visual imagery lies not just in its ability to represent complex ideas, but in its capacity to transform how we think and interact. When we draw together, we think together. When we see our ideas visualized, we see new possibilities. And when we create shared visual languages, we create the foundation for genuine collaborative action.

A graphical representation of going from understanding EEs to thinking about collective, purposeful impact (Wurth & Mawson, 2024).

Conclusion: Drawing Our Way to Better Ecosystems

Our research reveals that developing effective entrepreneurial ecosystems requires more than words - it requires ways of seeing and making sense together that transcend verbal communication. Visual imagery, when thoughtfully integrated into ecosystem conversations, can:

surface and legitimize diverse perspectives,
create powerful, persistent metaphors for complex concepts,
facilitate alignment on shared meanings, and
enable exploration of “distant futures” and alternative possibilities.

As we continue to grapple with the complexity of entrepreneurial ecosystems, let’s remember that sometimes the most powerful conversations happen not just through what we say, but through what we draw, imagine, and visualize together. In the end, building better ecosystems might just require us to become better at seeing - and helping others see - the bigger picture.

After all, when it comes to understanding complex social systems, a picture really can be worth a thousand words - or perhaps more accurately, a thousand conversations.

Below are the complete graphical illustrations (two per workshop) from which the excerpts for the paper were taken.

You can also download the high-resolution version of each illustration here:

Download Workshop 1 - Illustration 1
Download Workshop 1 - Illustration 2
Download Workshop 2 - Illustration 1
Download Workshop 2 - Illustration 2
Download Workshop 3 - Illustration 1
Download Workshop 3 - Illustration 2
Download Workshop 4 - Illustration 1
Download Workshop 4 - Illustration 2

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are complex social systems dependent on connectivity and shared understanding between diverse actors. An often used, albeit oversimplified view, implies that diverse actors connect, collaborate and contribute to the EE in an almost frictionless way. However, this perspective overlooks the need for deeper forms of communication that can shift actors’ perceptions, goals and motivations to trigger meaningful change. Recent research has highlighted the role of conversations, narratives and stories in developing (informal) institutions and shared understandings. What is missing from this discussion, however, are non-verbal forms of communication, which enable interpretation, support meaning-making and help implementation. This paper draws on communicative institutionalism theory and empirical observations from a larger participatory action research project. We discuss how visuals support richer interpretation of ambiguities, different perspectives and collaborative sensemaking. Images act as boundary objects enabling creative associations, revealing assumptions and catalysing explorative dialogue through inherent ambiguity. Representing complex concepts visually facilitates participant engagement over time. The co-creative process of iterative illustration also captures shared meaning as it emerges. Implications highlight visuals’ potential for fostering future-oriented dialogue, reflective practice and embodied institutions fundamental for EEs. From this, we outline suggestions for further research and practice.