Crackerjack Visual Thinking

Author: John Ashton

  • Half term school holidays – the perfect time to practise your drawing! #visualthinking #communicate #engage #draw

    In the UK, it’s the half term holidays for many schools and many of you may be taking a few days off to spend time with your kids.

    Although there are many things that take up children’s attention during the holidays, (from sports activities to X-Boxes), in my experience kids still really enjoy drawing. A blank piece of paper and some felt-tip pens allow them to be creative and share their ideas (whether it’s Star Wars inspired picture, a fairy story or a new monster from their own imagination!).

    So why not get involved too and practise your own drawing skills whilst also spending some quality time with the kids! From simply helping them finish one of their drawings through to having a full-on family drawing competition (e.g. who can create the best monster…), the practise will help develop your own drawing skill and confidence.

    And then of course you can put these skills to use back in the your workplace and sketch out ideas (maybe not monsters or fairies!) to share your thinking with colleagues more quickly and effectively.

    Remember, drawing your ideas is not childish – it’s the smart way to share information!

    To find out more about visual thinking and drawing your ideas, please CONTACT US.

  • The latest rich picture created by Crackerjack Visual Thinking #visualthinking #communicate #engage

    Here’s the latest rich picture we have created for one of our clients.

    one-third-more-vision

    Chris Henderson of One Third More asked Crackerjack Visual Thinking to create rich picture that he could use in presentations to describe the key concepts and ideas contained in his latest book JUMP! (Delivering astonishing results by unleashing your leadership team).

    We worked with Chris to develop the narrative he wanted to tell and then created a rich picture to support this. Unlike our normal stand-alone rich pictures, this image is designed to be used as part of a presentation or with a voiceover.

    We are currently finalising the hand-drawn animated version of the rich picture for Chris to use during presentations as well as the version featuring a voiceover for use on his website. We will share these with via the blog shortly.

    To find out more about rich pictures and how they could help you to tell your story, please CONTACT US or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

     

  • Dan Roam’s guaranteed way to get your team drawing, fast! #visualthinking #teams #drawing #thinking

    I was in Texas last week. I lead a multinational financial services company through my half-day visual training seminar. They loved it, and asked how they might quickly get colleagues around the world to start drawing more. I suggested a quick visual exercise I call, “The Double-Venn Drill.” It goes like this: The Double-Venn Drill…

    via A guaranteed way to get your team drawing, fast! — DanRoam.com

  • My #graphicrecording nearly made someone cry!!! #engage #communicate www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

    Last week, as part of an event I was supporting, I was lucky enough to graphic record in real-time the inspirational career journey of a champion of diversity and equity in the NHS, Yvonne Coghill OBE.

    Her story was thought provoking and clearly highlighted how people can champion and enable diversity and equity for all. Clearly people were moved, challenged and energised by the story of her career journey.

    Afterwards, Yvonne came and had a look at the graphic recording I had created of her journey. Her response was one of amazement as she was able to review her career journey visually for the first time. She said she found it very emotional to see her journey mapped out on paper and almost felt like crying (in a good way I hasten to add!). She was also kind enough to Tweet about it after the event.

    yc-1

    yc-2

    She liked the graphic recording of her journey so much that she wants to use it in future presentations that she gives about her work and journey.

    For me, this once again highlighted the power of visualising information and the effect this can have on individuals (and in turn teams and organisations). Engagement is the shared goal of virtually all organisations and therefore I would encourage everyone to think about how visualising information in a way that stimulates and connects with people can help them in this goal.

    To explore how visual thinking can you engage the people in your organisation, please feel free to call 0775 282 6227 or contact us.

    John Ashton
    Crackerjack Visual Thinking

  • How visualising the outputs from focus groups is good for the organisation and good for the participants #focusgroup #marketing #insights

    Focus groups continue to be a valuable source of insight for organisations wanting to learn deeper insights into their past, present and future customers needs.

    Whether it’s a retailer wanting to learn more about how customers will react to a new product or a pharma company wanting to understand how their products can better help patients, a focus group remains one of the key insight tools available to organisations.

    One way in which the key conversations, ideas and insights coming out of a focus group session can be captured is by having a graphic recording created during the session itself. This large scale visual is created by a graphic recorder live in real-time on a large sheet of paper (circa 2.5m wide and 1.5m deep) using words, images and other visual thinking techniques. The example below is not from a focus group session (they tend to be confidential!), but gives you an idea of what a graphic recorder can produce during an event:

    OUH 12th Dec 2016 Graphic Recording

    The benefits of using graphic recording to capture the outputs from a focus group session are:

    • The graphic recording details how the comments, ideas and insights emerged during the focus group and how they are linked together. This adds an extra level of insight for the organisation on top of the actual content captured on the graphic itself. This is not always possible with more traditional methods such as bullet-pointed flip-chart lists etc.
    • The participants see that the graphic recording is an accurate and truthful record of the focus group session and their comments and insights. This can further engage them with the session and build higher-levels of trust. This increased level of trust can encourage them to offer deeper, more personal insights than they otherwise might have done.

    To find out more about graphic recording and how it could benefit you in your next focus group session, please contact us here at Crackerjack Visual Thinking.

  • Give your people the power to draw (a.k.a. communicate more effectively)! #visualthinking #communicate #engage #teamdevelopment

    Getting people and teams to communicate effectively is one of the key challenges facing organisations of all shapes and sizes.

    We here at Crackerjack Visual Thinking believe that helping people to feel confident and empowered to use sketches, diagrams and drawings to communicate thoughts and ideas can create a significant cultural change in an organisation.

    yesdrawingsign

    We have witnessed people having numerous ‘lightbulb’ moments which were only possible because information and ideas were shared visually (rather than the more traditional formats for sharing information including reports, bullet-point presentations etc).

    That’s why we are passionate about helping people develop their drawing skills and offer a number of training workshops which we call ‘Scribble Labs™‘.

    Scribble Lab 1

    Scribble Lab™ 1: Get Scribbling! is ideal for those people wanting to develop their drawing skills. We can offer this as a standalone 1 day workshop or can tailor it to your teams specific needs. Ideal as part of a team development activity.

    We also offer a 1:1 coaching option if that better suits your needs.

    To find out more about how our Scribble Labs™ can help your people to communicate more effectively, please contact us. 

  • Crackerjack’s graphic recording featured on UN Women’s #HeForShe global website #engage #communicate #UnitedNations #graphicrecording

    We’ve just been informed that the graphic recording Crackerjack Visual Thinking created for the University of Leicester’s #HeForShe global ideathon is featured on the #HeForShe global website. View the article here.

    #HeForShe is a UN Women backed campaign developing solutions to ensure the safety of everyone on university campuses worldwide. The University of Leicester is one of 10 IMPACT universities worldwide supporting this campaign and the global ideathon was one element of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign in November 2016.

    heforshe

    heforshe-nov-2016

    The graphic was created live during a 2 hour session. It’s great to see our work being used to visualise and communicate ideas as part of this important global campaign.

    If you would like to have your next event or conference captured visually using graphic recording, please contact us.

     

  • Afraid to draw at work? #visualthinking #communication #drawtothink

    What stops you drawing more at work?

    It is acknowledged that sharing information visually via sketches and diagrams can help people understand concepts more easily and drive more meaningful discussions than more traditional methods of sharing information (i.e. reports,  bullet-pointed presentations etc).

    Is it because you feel your own drawing skills are not up to scratch?

    Or is it because you feel drawing ideas doesn’t align with the culture of your organisation (i.e. you might be laughed at or looked down upon for using a ‘childish’ way of working)?

    What I’m pleased to tell you is that both of the above reasons for not drawing are wrong!

    yesdrawingsign

    You don’t need to be a great artist to draw ideas. Simple stick people, basic shapes and a bit of colour are all you need. A simple sketch that helps people understand something is better than not giving it a go and people not understanding the idea you’re wanting to share! Have a look at Dan Roam’s website (one of the thought leaders in visual thinking) to see how he encourages people to use simple sketches to drive business conversations. Crackerjack also provides training workshops to help you develop your drawing skills – click here to learn more.

    If it’s a cultural issue, then simply point out that successful companies like Google and Apple actively encourage their employees to sketch ideas out wherever possible. Many forward-thinking organisations have ‘drawing walls’ where teams can work together to sketch ideas, develop new thinking and explore different ways of doing things. They then simply take a picture on their smartphone to share what they’ve created. Simple, efficient and effective!

    So, join the visual thinking party and start sketching out ideas in your workplace today! And remember to share in the comments below how drawing has helped you and your colleagues develop ideas and increase understanding where you work!

    Happy and productive drawing!

    John Ashton
    Crackerjack Visual Thinking

    For visual thinking help, advice and training queries Contact Crackerjack

  • Crackerjack Visual Thinking’s new ‘menu’ helps you find the best way to #engage and #communicate with your people in 2017. #visualthinking

    Happy New Year!

    To help you get 2017 off to a flying start, we’ve created a new Crackerjack Visual Thinking ‘Menu’ that provides you with a quick reference guide to our services and how they can meet your organisations needs. So if you are looking to engage and communicate with your people in new and different ways during the coming year, click below to view the menu:

    crackerjack-menu-2017-small

     

    If you would like to explore how Crackerjack’s services could help you in your work, please contact us for an initial discussion.