Think Ink Studios

The Back of the Napkin Goes to Washington

Dan Roam gave a workshop to the heads of staff for Senators from the Democratic side. His post shows a great working example of his principles from his book The Back of the Napkin. He condenses a lot of heavy data comparing eight years of the Clinton Administration with eight years of the George W Bush administration into graphics that are easy to understand and that anyone could produce.
Consider this next time you have to present any boring company data!

See the full post with many more graphics here

A Wise Tree In The Grove

I was intrigued by a posting on David Sibbet's blog of The Grove Consultants. He eloquently recapped a recent Facilitation Mastery session that he led where participants learn the Grove's methodology and the four flows. Having a meditation practice of my own I was drawn to this exercise on working with the flow of attention (see below) and his metaphor that likened personal growth to the growth rings on a tree. I really like that metaphor and believe we are always adding to our edges or rings through our experiences.

From his posting Working the Flow of Attention
Since attention is fundamental, we threaded reflective process throughout. If you think of attention as a flashlight (metaphor again), then it can be broad or narrow beam. It can also be turned inward or outward. A facilitator needs to not only be aware of his or her own awareness but also imagine what people in the group are attending to. So how does a person develop mastery in being aware of attention?

Our big exercise day one was having people create large personal portraits of themselves inside an outline of their bodies drawn by a partner. These portraits were “current state” pictures looking at four aspects of ourselves (these questions were derived from thinking about the four flows). The question we asked of ourselves are the following:

1. What inspires you?
2. What nurtures you?
3. What intrigues you?
4. What are you committed to?
5. What gifts are you bringing to this workshop?

The graphic below was David's answer. Answers to question #1 are along the top. Question #2 answers are along the left side. Question #3 answers are along the bottom. Questions #4 answers are on the rights side. And Question #5 answers are inside his body outline.

Dan Roam on AtGoogleTalks

This is Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin, on AtGoogleTalks.
See previous posts for more info on Dan's book and approach to visual thinking.

Dan Roam on Fox Business

Here's the Happy Hour segment from Fox Business with Dan Roam.
He has a simple explanation of Microsoft's strategy to buy Yahoo.

You can download the The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking: The "Lost Chapter" from The Back of the Napkin here at ChangeThis

Also see previous posts:
Dan Roam's Napking Sketches on Fast Company
The Back of the Napkin

Evernote - A Visual Cataloging & Search Tool

This is a new tool I'm trying out. Evernote catalogs, tags and makes the text in an image searchable. You can capture notes via photos, videos, web clippings, handwritten notes, etc. Use it on your computer, web or mobile phone. For anyone that facilitates meetings (whiteboards, sticky notes, flip charts), creates napkin sketches or doodles, this will be a handy tool!

TED 2008 BIGVIZ Sketchbook

The BIGVIZ is an exploration in visualizing the Big Ideas presented on the TED mainstage. Two visual cartographers, David Sibbet (Grove Consultants) and Kevin Richards (Autodesk), created over 700 spontaneous sketches of the presenters' ideas using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro software running on Wacom Cintiq tablets and rendered on a Perceptive Pixel multi-touch display. These tools illustrate the power of interactive visualization to present the big picture to foster insight and communicate ideas visually, central principles of design innovation.

You can download the TED2008-BIGVIZ Book and see an amazing Movie of the 700 plus illustrations.

What is Graphic Recording or Graphic Facilitation?

A graphic facilitator typically works live assisting the participants to draw out their best thinking by capturing the moment and confirming that they have been heard. This way of working dramatically increases the efficiency and productivity of the group's time. Clarity and focus increase along with participation as this process draws upon the collective wisdom of the group.

A recorder or facilitator typically works on several 4ft by 8ft wall charts illustrating key issues & elements, emerging consensus, metaphors & stories, decisions, action plans, & questions & answers that the group brings forward. This method reveals and puts to memory the story, vision, concept, and history of collaborative endeavors through words and images.

Below is a time lapse video of graphic recorder Stephanie Crowley creating an amazing journey map or large wall mural!

The Back of the Napkin

Dan Roam's new book The Back of The Napkin is a hit. All in a style that is quick and enjoyable to read, Roam offers great practical advice that you can put to use immediately to solve problems and sell ideas with pictures ! He introduces a powerful system that eases the removal of the barriers and fears associated with visual thinking. I've really enjoyed this book.

Additional resources you may find useful:

A 53 minute podcast from the Principled Innovation Blog

Back of the Napkin Book Overview on Vizthink

A 59 minute podcast from Vizthink Podcast is broken into 3 segments.

Peter Durand's interview from the Center for Graphic Facilitation is also very good

The Back of the Napkin site and blog

More Napkin Sketch Examples on BusinessWeek

How To Sketchcast

Rich from Basement.org did a great how to video on sketchcasting.

Here is a link to the resources he mentions.

Highlights from Vizthink '08

Vizthink '08 was the 1st conference of its kind focused on visual communications. There were many people there from all types of people that create: infographics, mindmaps, comics, panoramic graphics, simple explanations, user experiences, videos, presentations, illustrations, and art, etc.

David Sibbet from The Grove led a breakout session to assist Artrain, a non-profit organization, that utilizes trains to bring art to communities that have had hard times and no longer have museums or art programs. Our group broke into 4 sub-groups to multi-task:

1) This group focused on capturing stories from the Artrain executives - here is an example by Dave Gray from XPLANE.

2) This group focused on the current contexts and factors at play...

3) This group brainstormed a future vision for Artrain

4) Lastly, the group produced a set of next steps

We used templates from The Grove as a starting point. I believe we only had 30 min. or so; not very long to complete the task.
The templates were a great way to give structure to the ideas that were flying around in a short period of time!

Christine Valenza created an awesome history map - "The Modern Story of Visual Dialogue"!