Taking an Artistic Approach

I had a boss once who loved to draw on the white board. It became something of a joke on his team, that at the beginning of a meeting we would hide the dry erase markers before he came into the room. It never stopped him; he started carrying them around. Only recently do I truly appreciate his approach.

Sidebar for a personal story: My daughter’s soccer team recently ended their season and part of my end of season gift was a coloring book and crayons and the missive that it was something to help me reduce my stress (something of a gag gift). At home after the party, I sat down with the coloring book and colored a picture. I took the time to work slowly and carefully, experimenting with different colors and used shading to highlight areas. It took me back to a calmer time: I worked on the image for me, not for my boss, or my kids, or for the executive committee – just for me. I loved it.

I am known among my peers as the visual learning guy. I push hard on the team to use fewer words and more pictures in both the training materials we produce and the presentations we create. If an image is worth a thousand words then we should we be creating voluminous training in images, not pages of text. Too often, the push back is, “I can’t draw” or “I’m not creative.” Let me say now that everyone can take this approach give some processes and tools.

1.       Take some time to tap into your creative side. A quick search on Google yields a plethora of sites on coloring to relieve stress. I’m not saying you should make it a daily habit, but why not take a few minutes once in a while to doodle? It unlocks a thinking habit that thrives on free association and random connections that you might not have considered. Those links are the foundations of innovation and might lead to bigger and better ideas.

2.       Incorporate a process for thinking differently. The Six Thinking Hats framework developed by Edward de Bono is a wonderful starting point for organizing meetings and encouraging a style of thinking. Assign the role of Green Hat to various team members and have them work at being the creative, “blue sky” thinker. By assigning the role to a person you give permission for ideas to flow and remove limitations.

3.       Encourage mind-mapping as a technique for organizing information. On many occasions I find myself in meetings struggling to grasp how all the parts of a program or initiative are tied together. The various stakeholders have input into the problem and the resulting maelstrom can be hard to decode. A mind map can help illustrate the interconnectedness of all the ideas and make concrete the linkages that the entire team needs to see.

4.       Seek out visual representations of complex ideas. I have two sites I visit regularly to keep my mindset firmly planted in a visual approach. One is the RSA.org channel on YouTube. This British think tank does a fabulous job of linking thought leaders to artistic displays of the concepts. The images drawn in the videos make the presentations so much more vivid. Another is visual.ly a web site that shows how information can be presented visually and, in my opinion, more memorably.

Finally, let me say that visuals don’t have to be high end art work to be effective. A very simple visual can speak volumes to the reader and communicate at more levels than a paragraph of text. Visuals are great for learning, meeting management, brainstorming, even project management (what’s a WBS but a visual of all the tasks in a project?). Don’t fear the creative side, embrace it and take your projects and work into a different, better, more holistic place.

How are you using and visuals and creativity to work more efficiently in your role? If you aren’t using them now, how could you?

Running Fast Into the Dark

This morning was a very good run. The morning run after trick or treat is always dicey because

a. I've probably consumed too much sugar that I swiped from my kids' bags, and
b. I've had to unwind from herding hyper kids throughout the neighborhood with a couple of cold adult beverages.

This morning started pretty smoothly though and as I started to loosen up and get into my stride, I started to notice how dark it was. It seemed like there was very little moonlight this morning and as my dogs dragged me along our course I started thinking about how badly injured I could become running in the dark. The dogs have only two speeds: stop and fast and I started getting nervous about my potential to lose my footing. I also started contemplating how often training and development feels like wandering through the dark.

We often get approached with an "opportunity" or an "issue" or (my favorite) a "mission critical" need for training. There is usually an expectation that we take off at full speed into that space and start developing immediately. I'm all about responding to the needs of the business and will often (guilty as charged) start thinking about a brilliant training solution before I've researched the problem.

But, just like my morning run, I have some infrastructure that keeps me on course and makes for a quality outing.

1. I always stop to stretch. Stretching after a half mile or so allows me to loosen up the muscles once they've gotten warm and keeps me injury free. Likewise, when provided an opportunity to bring a training solution to my client, I usually let my creativity run a bit and then rein it in to consider the situation and look at other solutions that that would be more effective.
2. I usually run in the same general area. I prefer running on the street or on sidewalk. I have a history of ankle injuries so protect them at all costs. Because I run on the same streets and go pretty much the same way every time, my dogs are used to the course and are able to lead pretty effectively. By having a consistent process by which we analyze a situation, design solutions, develop using templates and evaluate coursework, our training team can navigate the muddy waters of operations training and keep on course with sound designs and solutions.
3. I pay attention to the signs my body is sending me. Is that a knee twinge? Is my calf tightening up? Why is the bottom of my foot hurting? Being in tune with those signals allows me to make adjustments along the way and complete a workout. Maybe not as fast or as far as I had planned, but mostly injury free. Training projects also have signs for how things are progressing. Your analysis uncovers mitigating factors, your clients give you feedback on the design, and your target population informs the implementation plan. Pay attention to those signs and respond accordingly and you'll keep the project on track.

Running is a microcosm of life; I find metaphor in running for the things I do everyday. If work is supposed to be like play then why shouldn't it have comparison in the things we do for fun? Yet even in the things we do for fun we have routines and processes that keep it fun and rewarding. What are things you do in your role that keep your training programs on track and make them rewarding for your organization?