Back of the Napkin - Conveying complex ideas with simple drawings

[Cheryl Hall]

For a conference focused on elearning development, Dan Roam's contention that simple drawings are one of the best teaching tools may have seemed like heresy, but its not. His book, Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures is based on some principles of brain function that are beginning to be understood. If over 3/4 of the neurons in our brains are devoted to processing visual signals, using pictures to communicate ideas and create clarity of understanding seems to be geared toward our strongest impulses. A few years ago (at Intel), our group admin (Teresa Jones) took us (OCCS) through a demonstration of visual thinking. I am not sure where she learned it, but it got me interested in trying to apply that approach to learning and communicating in a business environment such as Intel has. I never got the chance to really work on it there, but it definitely impacts how I work now at Constellation.
One of the breakthrough moments for me was Dan's comment about talking to 6 year-olds and 16 year-olds. All 6 year olds will say they can draw, but only a few will say they can read and write. 16 year olds are the exact opposite. So, if we all could draw at a young age, what is stopping us now. Dan's book positively encourages people to draw in whatever level of detail they can - stick figures and all. In fact, he went through this really cool explanation of the elements that the brain processes, where it processes them and what kinds of drawings you can easily do that address each of these elements. My attempt at capturing this on Paint:

Dan also clued us into a feature on PowerPoint that anyone sharing a ppt in slideshow mode could use to draw on ppt presentations. It is a feature at the bottom of the screen when you are in slideshow mode. Check it out next time you are looking at a ppt.