Presto Sketching

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5 MORE tips for better whiteboarding awesomeness

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My last post about whiteboard tips seemed to really strike a chord with a lot of readers, so here for your further whiteboard mastering pleasure are 5 MORE tips. If you missed out on the first 5, don’t worry; you can read them here.

There’s no harm in saying again that writing and drawing on a whiteboard is not only a great way to visually reflect what’s being said in the meeting, it’s a great way to command the meeting. By that I don’t mean making YOU the centre of attention; I mean making the IDEA, or the QUESTION, or the DECISION the centre of attention.

So, here are 5 more ways you can rock the whiteboard, to make sure everyone in the meeting focuses on what really matters.

1: Plan the structure  of your whiteboard space

It’s really easy to let a meeting take your hand all over the whiteboard. Before you know it, you’ve scrawled willy-nilly all over it like a bee on Red Bull, darting from flower to flower. This might feel good, in a Beautiful Mind aren’t-we-brilliant kind of way, but it may not help everyone in the meeting to get more clarity, meaning, structure, and connection from what’s being discussed.

Instead, plan the spatial structure of what you’re going to write and draw on your whiteboard ahead of time. Using either a dashed line, or just your mind’s eye, mark out a set of smaller areas on the whiteboard, where each area will correspond to a particular part of the meeting or workshop, like this:

This will help everyone understand and remember the various parts of the meeting much better. Also, try to make the shapes photo-friendly, to make taking photos of them easier (see point #5 below).

2: Use colour to add meaning and emphasis

Now, I’m assuming you’ve done tip #2 of the last 5 tips for whiteboarding awesomeness, and you have several good-quality whiteboard markers in several colours at the ready. Choose one marker for the bulk of what you write and draw (hint: black), and then choose a colour or two to use with the black, to represent specific meaning(s).

In the example below, I’ve used red to emphasise some elements of an outcomes hierarchy that I would need the room of people to pay attention to:

In this example, the red emphasises 3 things at a glance: There’s a box in the bottom right corner that isn’t connected to anything (this could represent a project that isn’t contributing any outcomes); another project added to the left that we’ve forgotten about; and the highest-level outcome is in a warning-state somehow.

3: Breathe life into those boxes and arrows

If I had a dollar for every box and arrow I’ve ever drawn on a whiteboard, I could definitely buy an island right now, and I’m guessing you’d probably be on your way, too. Boxes and arrows are the bread-and-butter of whiteboard discussions, so why not give them a lot more life and meaning?

You’re probably used to sketching something like this on your whiteboard, or seen it done:

But what if you did something like this:

There are several extra things going on here:

The shape of the arrows adds more meaning – The middle arrow is in a spiral, indicating something that’s either iterative, or complex, or just plain dizzy. The top arrow arcs up and over, indicating a part of the process that soars over the rest, leading to a positive outcome.

The boxes have character – Simply adding a face to a box gives it life, character, and meaning. Depending on what you want to communicate, this sort of tip can be a powerful ally for helping people to remember certain concepts and ideas.

Colour is used to indicate meaning – Red is used for something unfavourable, while green is used for something – well – good!

4: Give them the pen

According to maestro visual communicator and author Dan Roam (and I’ve seen this in action myself), there are 3 types of people in the room when it comes to whiteboards:

  • The Black Pen People – they can’t WAIT to jump up and start drawing on that whiteboard (me!)
  • The Yellow Pen People – they’re happy to hang back a bit, and add to someone else’s work
  • The Red Pen People – they wait until the end, question it all, and might just jump up and re-draw it all

It’s really useful to know what sort of Pen People you have in your meeting, because you can use that to your advantage. For brevity, I’m going to focus on the Yellow Pen People, since they’re the ones who will give a lot of value to a meeting through visual communication, if nudged in the right way.

Here’s how. On your whiteboard, draw things that let the Yellow Pen people easily see where they can add their bit to, give them the pen, and then ask them questions. Here are a few examples:

  • Sliding scales – Draw: a sliding scale, with an alternative at either end // Ask: “Is this a low-risk move or a high-risk move? Where do you think a circle should be on this risk scale?”
  • Fill in the gaps – Draw: a set of circles representing the set of whatever you’re talking about (e.g. projects) // Ask: “Are there any projects missing? Could you draw any more in?”
  • Make connections – Draw: a set of circles representing the set of whatever you’re talking about // Ask: “How are these connected? Could you draw lines in where you think the connections are?”

5: Capture those whiteboard drawings clean and fast

It stands to reason, the sooner you can get a good clean picture of the whiteboard into your team members’ (or stakeholders’) inboxes, the better. The more you use images that they’ve seen before to reinforce what was talked about or decided, the greater your influence will be.

Thankfully, there are some great (and free) smartphone apps out there that will take a great photo, clean it up and send it to your inbox in a jiffy. My current favourites:

You can read a whole lot more about capturing your whiteboard drawings in this Presto Sketching blog post: Capture photos of your sketches like a pro.

Well, there you have it! 5 more tips that I hope will really improve your whiteboarding skills, as well as the meetings and workshops that you and your team have. Let me know in if and how you put these tips into practice, and if they’ve improved your meetings.

5 tips for better whiteboarding awesomeness

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No-one likes boring aimless meetings, or long wordy slide decks, and a big way to make meetings much more engaging is to use a whiteboard. Writing and drawing on a whiteboard is a great way to visually reflect what’s being said in the meeting. In a way, the whiteboard becomes your second voice in the room.

No matter what you think your ability at the whiteboard is, here are 5 ways you can take your own whiteboarding skills from good to great.

1: SLOW DOWN

Drawing on a whiteboard is a lot like public speaking: if we rush it, we won’t sound very confident in our ideas, what we draw will look like an unruly mess, and others won’t be as confident in our ideas either. How often have you seen this sort of thing on the whiteboard, scratched your head and wondered what it was:

Just slow down. Slow. Down. Breathe. Spend just a few extra seconds as you draw, and be more deliberate with each line. It will inject so much more confidence in what you draw and what you say. And when you project more confidence, others will have more confidence in your ideas. And they’ll remember them longer, too. Try to aim for something that’s just a bit neater, like this:

2: Get decent whiteboard markers

There are a lot of really ordinary whiteboard markers out there, and they do you and your ideas no justice at all. Let the ink speak to the quality of your ideas, and get a set of decent markers that don’t run out by the end of the meeting. Chances are, there’s a newsagent or office supplies store near you that has a range of markers to choose from, for less than the price of a cup of coffee. My favourite tends to be a chisel-tip marker (rather than a bullet tip), so I get a chunkier line:

3: Practice your writing

This is related to tip #1: be a little more deliberate and neat with your writing. What you write is like your voice recorded on that whiteboard long after you’re not in the room, so it’s worth putting a bit of effort into your lettering.\

We’re not aiming for precise calligraphy with graceful ligatures and flourishes, of course! But just a bit of neatness goes a long way to projecting more of your character, and more of that confidence. Try practicing on the whiteboard before the meeting, in both lowercase and capitals:

4: Master outline text

Outline text is eye-catching and, used sparingly as a title or two on your whiteboard, will command attention and inject a little more life and energy into the meeting, for very little effort. It’s best to practice beforehand, if you’re not confident. The best way I know to get good at outline text is to draw each letter in capitals first (with plenty of breathing room between the letters), draw an outline around it, and then rub out the first line:

5: Master a small set of icons

Try to practice a small set of simple icon-like pictures that you’re likely to use over and over, from meeting to meeting. You might like to start with some like the ones below, that represent things like goal, problem, process, conversation, security, company, options, and so on.

These tips will really take what you draw on the whiteboard to the next level, and inject more confidence and life into what you have to say, so why not try them in your very next meeting?

Let me know if and how you’ve put these tips into practice, or maybe a share a killer tip of your own. Here’s to better whiteboarding, and better meetings!

Get to grips with your Inner Critic

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We’ve all heard it, and you might’ve said it yourself: “I can’t draw!” You can, you just have to kick that inner critic. Here’s a great way how.

I’m afraid there’s an elephant in the room. I’ve been putting up these tips and techniques about using simple sketching to help you think better for quite a few weeks now, but all along I’ve ignored a very important factor in helping you sketch. You know what that is?

It’s your inner critic.

Yeah. That thing inside you that holds you back. That voice that silently says things like:

  • “You’re going to suck at this”
  • “You should be doing more productive things with your time”
  • “People are going to think you’re stupid” 
  • “Just give up”

You get the idea. Not fun to be around, hey? But we have to tame our inner critics if we’re ever to get ahead. Here’s a true story about making mistakes in front of bosses:

A true story about making mistakes in front of bosses

Once I was in a meeting with a couple of very senior executives and my immediate boss. While they were talking, I was trying to capture a summary of what they were saying on a whiteboard. I was really nervous and hesitant in front of these guys.

At one point, I drew a few boxes and arrows that I thought described their view of the technical system they were talking about. One executive looked at what I drew. He immediately blurted out, “No, that’s wrong, that’s not what I meant.” But then he paused, still looking at the boxes.

And then it happened. He asked me why I drew the boxes the way I had (it had to do with what part of the system conceptually ‘contained’ another part), so I explained. It turned out that I (and others in the room) had been carrying an assumption about the system, and once that assumption was called out, it unlocked a whole new – and much better – conversation about how the system should work.

See? Even though the sketch itself was ‘wrong’, it was a catalyst to a better conversation.

Never ever be afraid of other people seeing your sketches. Your sketches will be viewed through a different lens than your lens, and the catalytic potential they have is huge.

But back to that inner critic.

Your inner critic is just trying to keep you safe

There’s lots of advice around about kicking the inner critic, but to me it’s all mind games that don’t really work (at least not for me). But what is important to understand that as fun as it might be to externalise this urge for self-editing and self-criticism, it’s still actually an integral part of you. And what’s more, it’s being critical because it’s the part of you that is just trying to keep you safe from harm.

Safe from physical harm, sure. But also safe from judgement, safer from failure, and safe from disappointment.

Sketch your inner critic

A big part of taming the inner critic is to face up to the negative talk. Not dismiss it, ignore it, or manage it, but acknowledge its value to you, and deal with it as if it was a real conversation with a real person. And this is where sketching your inner critic comes in. When you make it ‘real’, on paper, in front of you, it’s out of your head and in front of you, for you to talk with it, and have true command over it.

It goes like this:

Think about your inner critic. What does he/she/it/they (insert fav pronoun) actually look like? Sound like? What does it say to you? What habits does it have? Think about the times it has held you back from something, anything.

Now sketch that critic in all its safe-seeking glory. No-one else is going to see this sketch, so go nuts. Is it small and dark? Big and pale? Horns? Bad teeth? Droopy eyes? Big mouth? Bad acne? Really pour what you think of it into that sketch.

Write a name there, too.

Take a good look at that inner critic that you have now made real on a piece of paper, and listen to what it’s saying. Try to find the gift in what it is saying; there might actually be an inner strength or a super-power hiding in there. For example:

  • From: “Your drawing looks dumb” – To: “I have great visual taste, and my drawing abilities don’t match my great taste yet“
  • From: “This is useless” – To: “I get to draw, which exercises my imagination and helps get ideas out of my head and into the world“
  • From: “Nobody is going to like this on social media” – To: “I like to share who I am and what I care about on social media, and people will appreciate my authenticity“

You get the idea? Bonus points for turning each critical statement into a power statement.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about getting rid of negative self-talk is to talk to yourself like you would your very best friend.

Once you’ve had this heart-to-heart with your (now visualised!) Inner Critic, you can thank it for its contribution, reassure it that you’re in command now, and that you don’t need it anymore.

Now screw up that piece of paper, and put it in the bin.

Go ahead and try it. It takes 5 minutes, and it might be the best 5 minutes you have today. And if you’re brave, why not share a photo of your inner critic sketch on social media? 😉 Let’s normalise being authentic about our drawing abilities!

Capture images of your drawings like a pro

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There’s nothing better than showing your drawings and sketches in the best way possible. Here are some tips and techniques on how to make them look their best.

This post is inspired by one of the questions I had after giving a drawing workshop the other night: what are the best ways of capturing what we sketch, and getting them into formats we can use and share?

Great question. These days, it’s dead easy to capture and share your sketches using your smartphone or tablet, but it’s worth knowing a few finer details if you want to get the best results. Here are some tips and app recommendations to get you capturing your sketches like a pro. All are free, and (unless otherwise stated) all are available for both iOS and Android.

Just so you can see how the results of these recommendations compare, here is a photo of my sketch, taken with my iPhone:

It depends on how you’re going to use the sketches

First things first: you have to know what you want to capture your sketches for. It’s all about where your sketches will end up:

Instant sharing on social media or your intranet – Snap away! That camera phone is fine

Capturing for project work or for a presentation – You’ll want your images nice, white and clean, in a way that fits your workflow

Enhancing, colouring and editing – A smooth vectorised image is best

Instant sharing

If you just want an image of your sketches to share on Instagram, X and so on (or maybe your work intranet or chat room), the camera app on your smartphone is fine. Some pro tips:

  • Always get your sketch in as much light as possible
  • Watch out for shadows of either you or your phone
  • Try dynamic angles for added interest
  • Include the edges of the paper or sketchbook, and the markers you used; people love to know more about the process behind the magic of the final sketch

Capturing for project work or for a presentation

Your camera phone probably won’t give you a sharp clean bright squared-off image, so go for a scanner app like:

CamScanner – for iOs or Android

Office Lens – for iOS or Android

Scanbot

TinyScanner

Both of these are mainly meant for document scanning (as well as receipts and business cards), but their image scanning is great too. Both have great edge detection and perspective fixing… so no more wonky images at odd angles to tidy up! What’s more, both include optical character recognition (OCR), so depending on how neat your writing is, they will automatically capture that in an editable format too.

Office Lens is perfect if you already use OneNote or OneDrive, and you can export your scans as editable Office files. It also has a great feature of being able to toggle between ‘Photo’ view, ‘Document’ view and ‘Whiteboard’ view, depending on what result you’re after. The ‘Whiteboard’ view can give amazing results of your scrawls on a whiteboard, even in a dim room. But beware! As you can see in the demo image below, coloured shapes end up looking pretty janky.

Note that Scanbot and TinyScanner knock out the colour.

Enhancing, colouring and editing

Maybe you need to capture your sketches to tidy up a lot more in an image editing application? Or add colours, or combine sketches together? If that’s the case, any of the scanning apps above are fine, but try Adobe Capture (for iOS or Android), and capture your sketches as vectorised images. It does a tremendous job of cleaning up, clarifying and smoothing out the lines of the sketch.

Try them out

I hope these tips have given you some ideas for how to get better results when capturing and sharing images of your sketches. What works best for you?