Get Drawing

Alternative title, “What Have I Let Myself In For?”

I’ve been inspired by several things over the last few years when it comes to presenting things. In the first case I was pulled away from Powerpoint/OpenOffice Impress by the siren song of Prezi. I love making Prezis, but I get obsessive about the details, much as I did with Powerpoint. More recently, I’ve felt a growing urge to draw more in workshops: to just use a flipchart/whiteboard and get drawing. This is largely down to reading a few good books – Gamestorming and The Back of the Napkin spring to mind – and also seeing a great TED talk by Sunni Brown on the importance of doodling.

More importantly, on the occasions when I have used hand-drawn pictures and when I have encouraged people to use them too, I have seen more engagement from participants. For the GRADschool that I am directing next week I am not producing any powerpoint slides at all. I’m not sure if this would be considered heretical by some people! Instead, I am going to draw things. I’ll prepare some flipcharts and diagrams, it won’t all be done on the fly. But the introductions and reviews will be done with me next to a flipchart or whiteboard. Adding to doodles, drawing things as I go. It’s an experiment, but one based on good observations.

Still: I feel a little fear about this. I’m flinching (incidentally, a great free ebook from the Domino Project). I wonder how it will play out. I wonder if people will engage. Or when I give them an activity will they say, “Oh not me, someone else, I can’t draw.”

Anyone out there got any tips for encouraging people to draw things in workshops?

I’ll be documenting a lot of this as I go, and I’ll try and get something up by the end of next week on how the drawing went.

I don't know exactly where I'm headed, but I know the direction I want to go in