In this chapter we will look at how we can use our drawing skills for communicating ideas. You may want to encourage others to draw as well as using sketching skills yourself. Perhaps you need to explain ideas or explore issues in meetings, during presentations or even in one-to-one situations. These are all really useful everyday applications for your drawing skills.
Whether you are creating the drawings yourself or assisting teams to do so, there are plenty of ways in which creating pictures can help communication in your business.
Sketching ideas is a refreshingly informal way to get thoughts across. Just pen and paper make it possible to use your drawing skills virtually anywhere and in almost any situation when you need to explain information or ideas.
It can be difficult at a meeting for people to understand colleagues’ ideas and information. Furthermore, it is impossible for them to see ideas in their minds in the same way as their colleagues. This leads to many different interpretations and misunderstandings.
As people collaborate to create pictures to express their ideas they develop a common visual language. This helps them increase their joint understanding of the topics and issues they are exploring. It can make it possible for people to literally ‘see’ a colleague’s point of view or way of thinking.
Drawing is a great way for everyone to see the big picture. Whether this is a business process, model or diagram, people can see the whole idea in one image. This gives a focal point for discussion and makes it easier for people to contribute to the discussion.
When an idea is explained verbally it is not always easy to see how the elements relate to each other. This is especially so if the idea is at all complex. Once ideas are expressed visually it becomes really easy to see the relationships between the component parts. This means people can also more easily see problems or new possibilities. Having the picture visible makes it easy for them to point out their observations to colleagues.
Once people have a picture such as a model or diagram to look at they will see immediately not only existing relationships but new connections between elements. Having the whole picture visible enables them to add, subtract or modify parts of the picture easily. In this way the visual is far from a static image, but instead becomes a dynamic tool that enables people to not only share ideas, but also to develop and modify their thinking.
One of the biggest challenges in meetings is getting buy-in and ownership for ideas and decisions. One way to encourage ownership and buy-in is to have people involved in developing those ideas and making decisions. When people engage in creating something tangible together they are much more likely to own it and feel it is a part of themselves. Their level of commitment to its content is therefore much more likely to be high.
We know just how much state of mind affects performance, whatever the discipline. Whether it is music, sport or business, how someone feels directly affects their ability to work effectively. Drawing ideas as a team really does create an energetic and positive atmosphere. This in turn leads to people being alert yet relaxed which is a productive state.
Drawing together helps to spark new ideas as people jointly contribute to the development of a picture. As people begin to add parts to the picture, this will prompt others to see ways to build further. An additional factor is that people associate drawing with creativity and therefore the very act of drawing is seen immediately as creative.
Drawing ideas together is a great team-working activity. People are working cooperatively and, even if not everyone is actually drawing on the board, they are all involved in its creation by contributing ideas. As they create the picture, model or diagram together they learn more about the strengths of team members and their contribution to the team.
This is where you draw everything in advance and then use your picture to help your explanation.
Spike has his drawing pre-prepared
This is where you draw part of the picture in advance and then draw the rest as you explain it.
The visual is prepared partly in advance – then the rest drawn ‘live’
Lacks the attention-hooking potential of the ‘blank page’ start.
In this variation you draw pictures in advance but then present them one at a time. You could sketch pictures onto sticky notes or cards first. Then make sure you have them ordered in a suitable sequence enabling you to stick them up on a surface one at a time to tell your story.
Spike’s drawings are already done on coloured cards – he then builds the storyboard
This is also great for teams who can prepare a series of pictures (e.g. on coloured cards or sticky notes) and have them ready to place up on a board. It is an excellent way to tell a story or present a model.
This is where you start with a blank sheet and you draw whilst talking.
Spike starts with a blank sheet and builds the picture ‘live’
A whole range of equipment is available to help you when communicating ideas with drawings. Here we take a look at some of the main choices, including those with more advanced technology.
Ideally, choice will be guided by the method by which you or your group would like to present the drawings. Reality, however, may dictate that your choice depends on what is immediately available to you. One of the great advantages of getting used to ‘live’ drawing is that minimal equipment is required. As long as you have the idea in your head, you can explain it almost anywhere.
Big surfaces help teams express their ideas visually
Yes – your number one resource is good old-fashioned stationery.
The flipchart is probably the most obvious and commonly available piece of kit for presenting drawings.
The beauty of using whiteboards is that words and pictures created with ‘dry-wipe’ markers can be erased immediately, if necessary. This allows you to make instant adjustments and variations to your drawings as you discuss them with a group or individual.
These are special free-standing boards that are excellent to use when facilitating group work. They come with backing paper that exactly fits the boards.
Their best feature is that you can stick card shapes onto this paper, yet take them off again and place them elsewhere on the board. This works because the boards come with glue that you spray lightly onto the surface. This makes the surface act rather like a sticky note. When you place a piece of card on the surface it does stick to it, yet at the same time you can remove it easily because the glue is not permanent.
This means that teams can write and draw easily on the cards (e.g. to illustrate a process), but then place them on the board and still move them as many times as they like to make adjustments.
Alternatively you can pin cards to the boards which gives equal flexibility of use.
A visualiser is a device like a video camera that will project images onto a screen.
These can be used to help you create drawings and save them in electronic format. Then they can be saved and incorporated into documents and electronic presentations.
There is an endless range of drawing features available on computers, tablets and tablet PCs.
There are many things to consider when presenting a drawing ‘on-the-fly’. I am a great believer in paying attention to detail because everything you do makes a difference. If you do enough things right, when these are all aggregated together the difference becomes huge. Sir David Brailsford, who achieved great success with the British Olympic cycling team, refers to ‘marginal gains’. By this he means that excellence is achieved, not through doing one major thing differently, but doing numerous things really well. When all of these potentially small actions are aggregated they are sufficient to make a dramatic difference to performance.
Everything counts – attend to the detail
For this reason I will break down the process into different elements all of which are important if you want to achieve the best results.
You will make your job easier if you work out the following in advance:
Some people I have taught even use faint guidelines in pencil so that they can draw the picture accurately in front of the group. The guidelines usually are not visible to the group and, even when they are noticed, it makes no difference to the impressive effect of drawing ‘on-the-fly’.
If you are speaking to a group, your impact is different depending on where you are positioned in relation to them.
The most powerful presenting position is in the centre
A chairperson at a meeting usually will occupy the central position at the top of the table. This is a far more powerful and influential position than that of those seated at the sides. It is where you will have the most impact.
Likewise, when you are explaining an idea with a drawing to a group or even an individual, you will find that the same applies. Therefore, if you are using a flipchart, position it so that you can occupy the central spot. This means that the flipchart is a fraction to the side of centre.
If you intend to draw on two flipcharts, then it will work best to position them equidistant from the centre. Then you can move to each as appropriate, knowing that you can always return to the centre, especially to make important points.
When speaking to groups there is always a position that is just right for the equipment:
It is worth paying attention to this kind of detail. Just imagine a drummer at a concert trying to play when items of his equipment are not positioned quite where he likes them to be. Similarly, if you find yourself having to stretch too high, or bend too low to be able to draw, then this is not good. It will seriously affect your level of comfort and that in turn will impair directly your ability to draw effectively. There is also likely to be an adverse knock-on effect with your levels of confidence as well.
Small adjustments to equipment make a big difference when drawing
Therefore, take a moment just to check and adjust everything so that you can draw comfortably.
Whether you are explaining your idea to one person or to a large group, we cannot talk about creating the drawing in isolation. This is because the message you deliver when speaking to people will comprise the following elements:
All of these will combine to affect how your message is received. Therefore, these four elements play a part in conveying your message. They need to be in harmony if you are to get your message across as you intend it. If those elements are not in harmony, then those listening will receive a mixed message.
Your words, voice and body language must give a consistent message
Here are some tips to get your ideas across when drawing.
One of the best ways to maximise the effect of ‘live’ drawing is in shorts bursts. Just a one- or two-minute sketch as an introduction to a meeting, training course or coaching session can really grab attention and set the scene.
Equally, a quick sketch in the middle of a traditional electronic presentation can have a very high impact. You could reserve your sketch for an idea that is central to your presentation. This can help you to make your point in a concise, yet engaging, manner.
Even for the more detailed drawings, such as models and visual maps, drawing inputs of no more than 5–10 minutes typically work best.
If you rush a drawing you are likely to make yourself more nervous and this will transmit itself to those watching. Professional sportsmen and women who are at the top of their game always seem to have plenty of time and make it look easy. The same applies to communicating with drawings. You can go slower than you might think because people will be absorbed in following your drawing as it emerges.
When you take your time:
The words and the drawing need to go together to create the story. The best way to ensure that they do is to have a run through. By this I mean to actually try explaining your idea to yourself, or a colleague, whilst drawing the picture. This is an instinctive approach that works really well.
The benefits of this approach are as follows:
The way we say words can easily alter their meaning. We have all had the experience of hearing people say a reluctant ‘yes’ in a tone that really means ‘no’ or ‘I’m not sure’.
‘Yes, I’m really excited about that’
Therefore your voice needs to match your words if people are to receive the message as you intend it.
Use your voice to help convey the true meaning of your drawing. You will do this most naturally by:
The first thing to ensure is that you position your flipchart in such a way that you can easily turn to see the audience. This means not having your back to the flipchart but instead standing side-on in such a way that makes it easy to draw, but also easy to turn to the group. The same applies when using whiteboards or any other surface upon which you are drawing.
When drawing ‘live’ naturally you are focused on what you are drawing. However, this does not mean ignoring those watching and listening. Making eye contact is an important way to connect with people and build rapport.
Therefore, break off drawing now and then to make eye contact. As you make eye contact, this is an ideal opportunity to:
It is important to include everyone in your eye contact because if people are excluded they tend to feel left out. With larger groups it is not possible to look at people individually, but you can achieve the same effect by looking at sections of the audience. As you look at a section, people get the sense that you are looking at them individually. In this way you create a positive connection with them.
It is important to make sure that people look where you want them to look. In this way you keep them focused on either yourself or the visual. This is much better than allowing them to look wherever they want, because this results in fragmentation of attention.
Spike looks where he wants the audience to look – they will always follow the speaker’s eyes
Believe it or not, when you are speaking, people tend to look in the direction that you are looking. You may have noticed in everyday conversation that, when you are speaking to someone if you glance behind them, they will also look around. In fact, the visual cue is so strong that it even overrides an audio cue. This can be demonstrated by looking directly at a group and asking them to look to the left while you are still maintaining full eye contact with them. They find this really difficult to do. What tends to happen is, despite asking people to look away, they keep their gaze on you because the visual message is stronger than the auditory one.
You can use this principle to really great effect when drawing while speaking to a group. All the time you are looking across at the picture the audience will look there too. When you turn towards them their eyes will look back to you. In this way you can easily control where they will look. The reason why this is so important in presenting is that it is really helpful to have full eye contact with the audience when making certain points. For example, when you want to make an important point it is best to look directly at the group. In doing so you will deliver your point with full impact.
Your ability to draw well in front of a group is affected directly by how you feel. If you are nervous then this will not only adversely affect your own confidence but also will have an impact on the group’s response. People will pick up easily on signs of anxiousness.
One of the quickest ways to change your state is to change your physiology. Just try smiling and feeling unhappy now at the same time. It is actually impossible to do.
Likewise, when you want to be in a confident state, your posture makes such a difference. If you stand up straight with your feet about hip width apart you will not only start to feel more confident but also you will look more confident too.
Change your physiology to change how you feel
When we change the way we sit or stand we change the way we think and feel
You may have noticed that when people are nervous often they have shallow breathing too. This is a vicious circle because by not breathing properly they become more nervous.
However, if you stand up straight with feet evenly balanced and take several deep breaths you will cause changes naturally in the body chemistry that increase feelings of confidence and calmness. This often is called being ‘centred’ and is a very resourceful state. The simple act of being aware of your breathing brings you into the present moment. When you are fully present you are much more able to connect with the group and will be able to speak and draw much better.
Using gestures to explain ideas actually makes it easier for people to understand us. It is also the case that we can flow much more because we find our words more easily when we use gestures as we speak. When I run professional presenting courses I often do an exercise where I ask people to speak whilst keeping their arms still and at their side. They find it surprisingly difficult to do and discover that their words do not flow as easily as when they allow their arms to move. Therefore, if you use gestures, you will find advantages for both yourself and your listeners.
Gestures are more effective and easier to do without a pen in your hand. It means you have both hands free and can do open-handed gestures that look natural. This will help you when you want to turn to the group to make key points.
Furthermore, when we keep a pen in our hand there is also a tendency to fiddle with it, which can be a distraction when speaking to groups. Therefore, putting your pen down when not actually drawing will be beneficial all round.
If we are to keep our audience engaged it is important to deliver our talk in a way that feels much more involving and is a two-way experience. When we do this the experience for the audience is much more active rather than passive. We will now examine a number of effective ways of doing that when we are using drawings to present ideas.
One way to keep people interested is for them to be trying to figure out what you are drawing, or about to draw. Therefore, anything you do or say that gets people curious about what is coming next is helpful.
You do not even have to ask them questions in order to get them thinking. The fact that you are drawing ‘live’ should do that for you.
However, you can always say a few things that will heighten the chances that they will take a guess at what is coming next, for example:
If you keep the guessing principle in mind, you will find ways to involve people naturally as you draw.
The simple act of asking questions is the most obvious way to involve a group in your presentation. However, if you are trying to get a concept across to the group you may not want your input side-tracked. Therefore, ask questions only where the responses will be helpful to you and will move your talk in the direction you want.
Open questions are helpful when you are happy to receive a lot of information:
Closed questions are helpful when you want a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response:
A closed question can help you to gain the group’s agreement at the end of a key point.
There is great benefit in asking rhetorical questions as you proceed with your drawing. Even though you are not expecting an answer, these questions still prompt a reaction from the group. Furthermore, if you ask questions to which the answer is ‘yes’, this would result in building up agreement between yourself and the group. This, in turn, will increase the level of rapport between you and group members.
Rhetorical questions are useful when you want a ‘yes’ response, e.g.:
By being flexible in using different types of questions, you can really enhance the level of rapport and engagement between yourself and the group or the individual to whom you are presenting your ideas.
Keeping your eyes on the reaction of the individual or group will give you a good idea of how well they understand you. You may, however, wish to check now and then if they have questions. Alternatively, if you prefer not to have questions until you have finished, simply ask the audience at the start to keep any questions until the end.
You can do this quite easily, as you are about to draw certain items. In other words, just stop short of drawing the item and let them call out what they think you will draw and say next.
This works best when the end of your sentence is fairly obvious:
When someone gives the answer, you can draw an appropriate symbol and write the word.
This is where, instead of saying a word or phrase, you get the audience to say it back to you.
This can help you to reinforce a key message that you have presented already. The fact that the audience is able to say it instead of you reinforces the fact that they already know it. Let’s look at an example.
Imagine that you are speaking about health and safety and the key message is that people need to keep their eyes open for suspicious people or behaviours. You have come up with the key phrase ‘always be looking’.
Assume that you have already introduced the phrase and drawn a pair of eyes as a memory jogger.
You might say, for example:
‘The consequence of someone leaving a suspicious package in the store is potentially disastrous and that’s why we need to…’
and trust the audience to say,
‘… always be looking’.
Simply pointing to the picture or phrase on a flipchart often is enough to get the response. This is a very effective way in which a drawing can reinforce key points.
There are some things to watch out for when drawing ‘live’ but, with a little preparation, you can avoid these easily, or deal with them if they do occur.
By this I mean that you embark on the drawing only to realise that you have begun it in such a way that you are going to run out of space. This is not usually an issue with very simple drawings. It is more usually a problem with drawings that involve a number of elements and perhaps some detail.
This problem usually is caused by one or both of two factors:
Forgetting what you are going to draw is just as problematic as forgetting what you were going to say in a presentation. Whilst people may tolerate the odd lapse, it usually is a certain way of appearing unprepared and unprofessional.
The most common causes are:
Keep a copy of your drawing where you can see it
If you ask a room full of people ‘who can draw?’ you will typically get only one or two positive responses. Most of the reasons for people saying they cannot draw are to do with belief rather than skill. The majority of people have not had a positive experience of drawing and are convinced it is beyond them.
There is no one answer to this question. However, there are a number of things that you can do all of which will help to get people to the point where they are prepared to have a go. Different things will convince different people and therefore, by using a number of different ‘convincers’ and reasons, you are more likely to get everyone on board than when just one reason is given.
Some teams will already be naturally more open and creatively minded than others and may need little encouragement to pick up a pen and draw. The following guidance is for teams where this is not the case and they need some convincing and encouragement to take part.
Let us look at what you can do easily that will help people.
Most people will be willing to give it a go if they can see a reason for doing so. You can use some of the ideas in this book to make the case, for example:
Recognise that what you’re asking might seem a bit different. Therefore, give them some valid reasons why drawing will be helpful for communication.
Having a practice or warm-up is usually sufficient to get people into the idea of using drawing skills.
Choose from some of the activities that you have learnt in this book to give them the idea that there is a basic visual toolkit.
In my experience, even a few minutes of warm-up will do the trick for most groups. You will also find many excellent ideas and practical techniques for working visually with teams in David Sibbet’s book, Visual Meetings.
It is amazing that rooms can feel different depending on how they are set up. People get a feel for the atmosphere as soon as they walk in. It is easy to appreciate how different levels of formality can be created simply by how the room is arranged.
There may be times when you have little choice or can make only minimal adjustments. On other occasions you may have free rein to arrange a particular set-up such as for a team workshop or meeting.
Let us take a look some of the choices.
An informal cabaret or café-style arrangement is often ideal when encouraging people to express ideas in drawings.
For a group of 12 one might imagine 3 round tables with 4 people seated at each. Then flipcharts and/or facilitation boards may be placed around at the front, sides and back. This allows groups to have plenty of space between them.
Usually this will have a more formal feel to it and therefore may not seem ideal for team drawing work. However, even if groups start by being seated at a boardroom table, it is quite easy to get them up on their feet and working at facilitation boards or flipcharts placed around the room.
This is a traditional set-up for some training courses. It can also have a rather formal feel to it. However, like the boardroom arrangement, once you get people up and out of their seats you can create a much more informal atmosphere.
There is often a chicken and egg relationship between the materials and equipment available and the visuals people will produce.
We have already discussed equipment such as flipcharts, facilitation boards and whiteboards. The key thing is to ensure that they are in sufficient quantity and of sufficient size to allow people to draw comfortably. If people are trying to cram pictures onto small surfaces it is not ideal. Having large enough surfaces is also important for presenting ideas back to make it easy for people to see.
In the absence of large boards for drawing it is possible to join flipchart sheets together to create larger surfaces.
Attractive and good-quality drawing materials often will inspire people in their creations. In other words, materials will, to an extent, inform the different methods and techniques people may employ.
I have already spoken about having a good range of colours of water-based chisel-tipped pens. However, I would recommend having thin felt-tipped pens too, again water-based. It can be really handy to have thinner markers. I have noticed that people find them very useful even when creating large diagrams or maps because they sometimes need to draw certain items smaller or wish to label certain parts with smaller letters.
The first thing to say is be careful if you use music as it can be entirely inappropriate in many business settings. However, there is no doubt that music creates states and moods and therefore it is worth considering for group work. An occasion when it is more readily accepted is when a team gets together for a facilitated workshop or training session.
I have found that when people are working in groups on drawing activities then the use of baroque music in the background works well. I have used many pieces by composers such as Vivaldi, Handel and Bach, playing them quietly in the background or even a little bit louder at times. There is much research concerning the use of certain music that points towards its positive effects in connection with learning and productive working. Personally, I avoid using music with lyrics whilst people are working and stick to instrumental pieces.
Much baroque music tends to have around 60 beats per minute, equivalent to the average resting heart rate. This creates a state of relaxed alertness which is good for learning and productive working. If music is very slow then it will induce a soporific effect. Similarly, extremely fast music may be just too upbeat in most cases. As you try different pieces you will get to know what works for you.
Providing you are well prepared and have thought through what you are doing, you will find that groups always produce something positive when asked to represent their ideas in drawings. It is something that they really enjoy and often they surprise themselves by coming up with unexpected and creative results. It really is just a matter of using the ideas and techniques we have discussed. Once people are up and running then there is no stopping them.
Furthermore, when groups see for themselves how much drawings help them to express their ideas, they too will be convinced that the use of drawing skills is highly valuable. The trick simply is to get them started and be willing to have a go. Therefore enjoy introducing the drawing techniques to groups and be ready to be amazed at the innovative ideas and visual representations they come up with.
You will be the best judge of whether you choose to do drawings completely ‘live’, partly prepared or completely prepared. It may be that you use a combination of all of these. Your choice may depend on your level of confidence in being able to carry out a particular drawing successfully. It may also depend on what you believe will work best in terms of creating the best impact.
Whichever approaches you choose, the great thing is that you have a range of options each of which will help you to convey your ideas in memorable pictures.
You will be amazed how, with practice, you can very quickly develop your confidence at drawing ideas while explaining them. Some key things to remember:
Have a go at explaining an idea with a picture.
Here is an excellent chance to practise. Ideally, it would be great to choose a real example, such as an idea you need to explain to an individual or group.
If you do not have a real example right now, you could select something from any topic familiar to you. It may be work-related or a leisure subject.
In either of the above cases it might help to find a willing volunteer who will watch you have a practice once you are prepared.