This book is all about drawing simple sketches to help you and others to communicate business ideas. The skills can be applied easily in many work situations including team meetings, one-to-one communication and presentations, training or coaching. You may not yet believe that you can draw. However by the word ‘draw’ I’m not talking about being able to produce masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci. Rather I am referring to the ability to be able to draw perfectly acceptable sketches to a standard that is good enough to get an idea across to others.

Something magical happens when you draw your idea ‘live’

As well as learning to create pre-prepared drawings, you will learn the skills of drawing a ‘live’ picture to explain an idea. By this I mean drawing ‘on-the-fly’ so that you sketch an idea as you explain it. There is a world of difference between simply presenting pre-prepared images and drawing ‘live’ as you speak. The moment you move your pen on the paper those watching are hooked. They are transfixed as their eyes follow your every stroke and you have them captivated. Furthermore, by using this technique people can absorb the information so easily and recall it later just as if they were still watching you.

This method of communicating is dramatic and so effective yet vastly underused.

You will learn to draw ‘live’ to capture attention – but you may not believe it yet

With the help of my character Spike, above, I will help you to learn to draw your own pictures to explain ideas in memorable ways whether in one-to-one or group settings.

In proposing the use of sketches I am not ruling out showing pictures electronically. Both methods have their advantages. Rather, I am suggesting that the use of drawing skills is a valuable addition, and at times a brilliant alternative, to traditional electronic methods.

In my work as a speaker and trainer I have used drawing for many years to communicate ideas and information. I have often heard people say they wished they could draw to explain ideas in business meetings and presentations. This really motivated me to develop ways of helping people to be able to draw for themselves.

If you are interested in learning any of the following then this book is for you.

How can you:

• grab the attention of people with a quick sketch?
• make your ideas memorable?
• keep people engaged?
• encourage teams to work collaboratively?
• explain ideas easily and quickly?
• get ideas across visually when coaching or training others?
• differentiate yourself as a speaker?

By understanding how to apply some simple drawing skills and link them to speaking skills you will be able to transform your ability to engage individuals and groups.

No drawing experience required

If you already have some drawing experience then great, if not that’s fine too.

All you need to be successful is to:

• just have a go – it’s amazing what you can learn when you just give it a go; and
• keep an open mind – rather like a parachute, the mind works best when it is open. When you keep your mind open you are receptive to learning and develop faster.

You already have the ability to draw but you may not have discovered it yet

If you do not believe you have the ability to draw, just have a go at the exercise below.

We are going to draw my character, Spike. All you have to do is to pick up your pen and draw along with me.

Just follow my lines and instructions:

So we start with the nose.

Now the eyes, like 66 or speech marks.

Now a nice big smile.

Next the ear and a little line for detail inside.

Now his hair sticking up.

Next a line for the left side of the face.

Then place the pen just under the ear and drop a line down for the back of the neck.

Now the collar of his T-shirt.

Then a line to the left for his shoulder.

And a line to the right for his other shoulder.

If you have drawn Spike you can draw everything else in this book

If you can draw Spike you have all the ability you need to draw simple pictures to communicate with people in engaging and memorable ways.

What are the key benefits of pictures?

A picture is worth a thousand words

Words can often be inefficient at expressing ideas compared with the power of pictures as the following figure illustrates.

In The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan gives an insight into why pictures are so powerful:

‘The reason why, to quote the old adage, pictures are “worth a thousand words” is that they make use of a massive range of cortical skills: colour, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm, and especially imagination.’

The whole point of this book is to build your skill of turning words and thoughts into pictures.

Pictures can be very memorable

The amazing power of pictures to stay in the memory is well documented. Buzan refers to the following examples of impressive research by Ralph Haber and Raymond Nickerson.

In 1970 the journal Scientific American reported on the work of Ralph Haber. He devised experiments to test the ability of the brain to recognise pictures. In one such test he showed subjects 2560 slides, one every 10 seconds. Viewings were carried out in sessions over a few days’ duration, but the total time spent actually viewing the slides was seven hours. One hour after the final viewing he tested the ability of people to remember the pictures. He showed them 2560 pairs of slides that comprised one slide from the original set that they had seen before along with one picture that was new to them. The subjects were asked to say which pictures they had seen before. They were able to do this with an average accuracy of between 85 and 95 per cent.

Furthermore he found that even if he only showed the slides for one second each it made no difference to the results. He was even able to reverse the pictures to show the mirror image with no adverse effect on the results. Haber concluded:

‘These experiments with visual stimuli suggest that recognition of pictures is essentially perfect.’

Some pictures are easier to remember than others

Even more impressive results were demonstrated by Raymond Nickerson and reported in the Canadian Journal of Psychology. He found that if pictures were really vivid then the ability of people to recall them markedly increased. In an experiment using 10,000 vivid pictures Nickerson’s subjects were able to say with 99.9 per cent accuracy whether they had seen a particular picture before.

When pictures are unusual they are easier to recall

When we think of this in relation to using pictures to explain ideas, we can see that by paying attention to the types of pictures we use we can make a big difference to the ability of people to recall them. When we make pictures colourful, different, imaginative or unusual they are much more likely to be easily absorbed and easier to recall than dull or ordinary images.

The ability for the brain to remember pictures is almost limitless

Linking a picture with an idea helps us remember it

The brain’s natural ability to make imaginative links is a key factor in helping us to remember. We all have experiences of associating one thing with another. A piece of music may bring back memories of an experience such as a holiday.

This means that learning to draw will help us to make imaginative links that will make our ideas easier to absorb and recall. Therefore, by drawing a picture to go with a word or phrase we can make it more memorable.

Use both a word and a picture to make your idea memorable

Showing a picture whilst speaking works well for the listener

People find it really easy to look at a picture whilst listening to a voice. One only has to think of young children looking at pictures whilst the story is being told. When news is broadcast on television the power of the pictures is a perfect complement to the voice of the newsreader. In communicating your ideas you can create the same effect when you use suitable pictures and interact with them in an appropriate way.

However, in presentations many people tend to be reading or summarising the text in a presentation whilst the audience is reading it simultaneously. This practice has been shown to be fraught with problems and is one of the key reasons why people find it so difficult and often tedious to sit through a series of electronic slides.

People cannot read text and listen effectively at the same time

The fact is that the brain is just not wired to read and listen at the same time. Research from the University of New South Wales concluded that people process information perfectly well in verbal or written form, but not in both at the same time. Therefore it is not helpful to present a lot of text on a presentation slide and expect people to read it while you speak.

The brain cannot effectively read and listen at the same time

People find it really hard to keep concentration levels up when faced with lots of text in a presentation. If you have very brief amounts of text, for example just one line or a few bullet points, then people can cope better with listening. However, even then, to repeatedly be talking while showing text is going to become wearing for the listener. Therefore use pictures wherever possible.

Pictures look different – words look very similar

Sometimes people feel that when giving a presentation the key thing is to have all of their points written for the audience to see. This practice tends to lead to a set of slides being produced that are, largely, written bullet points. The problem with this is that lines of text look rather similar.

Lines of text look rather similar

Whether printed on a screen, written on a whiteboard or flipchart paper, the overall perception is that each slide or page looks very much like the previous one. One of the key problems with this, in terms of memory, is that we know that the brain recalls things that are different more easily than many items that are similar. The brain enjoys variation and this is another reason why the repetitious format of text is unhelpful.

Drawings do not have to be brilliant – it is not what makes them memorable

The great news is that to make drawings memorable does not require that the drawings themselves are of a brilliant standard. In fact very simple and basic drawings can work better. There are so many important factors that make a picture easy to recall and the standard of drawing is definitely not one of them. The brain is picking up on so many other visual cues other than the drawing quality.

What if PowerPoint is expected?

As mentioned earlier, I am suggesting drawing skills as an additional tool that may be used alongside methods such as PowerPoint. A presentation could involve many different methods of getting ideas across (e.g. drawings, PowerPoint, videos or demonstrations).

On the specific question of PowerPoint being expected, I would say that, in my experience, the listeners usually are more concerned with whether the speaker is interesting or not than they are with the methods used. Regardless of the techniques you use, if you are keeping people engaged, I would be surprised if someone complains that they wished you had used PowerPoint.

So how will we go about learning?

• First we will build our drawing skills, enabling you to draw lots of useful pictures and symbols.
• Next we will learn how to think in pictures so that we can represent ideas visually.
• Then we will explore how to use many different methods to apply our drawing skills when explaining ideas to individuals or groups.
• I will also highlight ways to assist teams to use sketches to share ideas and how to collaborate more effectively will also be highlighted.
• Finally you will find I have created a Visual Toolkit for you. This last chapter provides a range of simple symbols that you can use time and again to illustrate many different concepts.

Just get drawing – and realise how quickly you can learn

I have worked with many people who thought they could not draw. Through practice and repetition of my simple steps they found that they are capable of producing very acceptable sketches that are easily good enough to communicate ideas.

How to get the best from this book

This is a practical book and the aim is to get the skills into the muscle. I want you to actually acquire drawing skills that you can demonstrate.

Therefore you will find it helpful to:

• Have a pen and paper to hand so you can sketch as you read the book.
• Feel free to draw any pictures that capture your interest.
• Repeat the drawing skills in odd moments to make them automatic.
• Realise that mistakes with drawings is normal – in fact these are a helpful part of learning.
• Enjoy learning – this is the most important thing.

By the end of the book you will have started on a journey of developing skills that you can use immediately to enhance your communication skills.

The key thing is to start putting your skills into practice straight away. You will be amazed at the positive reaction of people when they see you are using drawing skills that they do not imagine they could achieve themselves. Furthermore, as you engage them fully you will find that people absorb your ideas effortlessly and can recall them easily. What more could they want?

We will now move on to start learning our drawing skills

So grab yourself a pencil and paper and be ready to embark on the journey of learning how to draw in order to communicate ideas.

Spike will help you learn to draw and present your ideas.

Just follow along and enjoy learning!