The Back of the Napkin

In marketing, management and business in general, communicating successfully is a fundamental skill. Yet it is ironic that while many of the tools and techniques we pick up in our professional life promise to help in this respect (PowerPoint, Word documents, Excel tables and charts, database reports, etc.), they often get in the way to conveying the essence of the message in a quick and immediately accessible manner.

"The Back of the Napkin" by Dan Roam reminds us of the power of visual expression and the deep-rooted emotional connection we have to hand-drawn illustrations. Part of the adoption process is to embrace the idea that hand-drawn illustrations and cartoons are not childish, and Mr. Roam lays out a good case. Then the book moves on to give guidelines, examples and frameworks for putting the ideas to work.

I have something of a reputation for being a "visual" thinker and communicator. Walk around my office, and you'll find whiteboards covered with my illustrations and writing. Long ago, I adopted the whiteboard as a tool to get everyone in a meeting on the same page. Having a picture or list of points "in the face" of meeting participants is a great way to ensure we are all "seeing" a topic the same way. Plus I find the whiteboard is a good tool for pulling out contribution from more reserved meeting participants. This is important because I've found such folk are often the more thoughtful and analytic. It seems some people find it is easier to criticize or extend an idea on a whiteboard, than directly engage with a more dominant personality or higher-ranked attendee.

So while I had a predisposition to the ideas presented in the book, I found there were many good tips and suggestions contained therein. And sometimes it is just comforting to have some external validation for an existing work style or approach.

I use the book from time to time to help my staff adopt a more "visual thinking" style. An important side-effect of the approach is that it forces the participant to organize and prioritize their thoughts. That's because an illustration only works if the illustrator has a clear idea of what they are trying to say. A convoluted and unintelligible illustration suggests the message is not clear in the illustrator's mind.

Strangely many people seem to have a stronger sense of ownership and pride attached to their drawing than other media such as a document, email or report. I guess that comes from childhood experiences, when we craved the appreciation of teachers and parents of our drawings. This can be harnessed to subtly drive your staff to really think things through.

As with so many good ideas, the key to success lies in moderation. There's no need to ban PowerPoint or traditional tools in favor of an exclusively hand-drawn world. But overall, I strongly recommend paying attention to the main points in "The Back of the Napkin", and encourage more experimentation outside of the traditional comfort zone many fall into with internal business communications.