The back of a bar's napkin has become a metaphor for improvisational and passionate brainstorming about a new business idea. In the volatile and exhilarating new technology world of just a few years ago, sometimes the business plan itself was but a collection of bar napkins. And why not, if that plan includes a sentence on how your business is going to make money, it works.
Management consultant Dan Roam has written the book on The Back of the Napkin. He now brings us this ChangeThis manifesto on "The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking." I am interested in visual thinking for many reasons. I won't give you 10.5, just a couple.
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(1) They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I had this conversation with many writers and they usually come back with the thought that a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures. Fair enough. A metaphor is a way to envision with the mind - very powerful.
(2) When I had the fortune of working with a team of experience design professionals, they taught me how to envision information. Having the ability to display quantitative information is a big advantage that can help you glean more from what you have - and solve problems. Edward Tufte writes and teaches all about that.
(3) The visual display of information can lead you to insights. Let's face it, we are visual beings. All of our daily stimulations - much of which you may contend is noise - include a strong visual component. Our vision is always on from the time we get up in the morning, to the time we go to bed. We may temporarily block our auditory by zoning out, but vision stays on longest.
[...] it’s always worth it to take our picture to the point where something new emerges. When you think you’re done, push that pen one more time to write a title, a conclusion, an insight, or a comment. Squeezing one last drop out of your visual thinking muscle almost always delivers a “eureka!”
I could say the same for writing. My question to you is this - do you find yourself doodling at meetings and on conference calls? What happened to all those white boards? Or maybe all you ever need are bar napkins. They would make the meetings much more fun.
Valeria, it's funny how our culture has changed. Now you have high school students who are using technology in ways we never did.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words then a VIDEO is worth 100,000.
What do you think of that?
Posted by: Dan Schawbel | March 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM
I can't think of bar napkin brainstorming without thinking of the brilliant "Bartlet for America" episode of The West Wing. That is irrelevant to this discussion though, so I will also say that visuals are invaluable to understanding. Look at the success of the Common Craft videos--they made RSS and Twitter accessible to non-geeks by using simple visual cues.
Posted by: Sarah Wurrey | March 11, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Whoever said "A picture is worth a thousand words" forever warped our understanding of the power of pictures. The goal of a picture isn't to eliminate a thousand words, it's to replace those that are better represented pictorially, so that the words we do use are the ones that trigger real insight.
Think about how much of a typical verbally delivered story (spoken or written) is taken up with describing the visuals. If those ideas are simply shown instead, then the speaker or writer can spend their words guiding us towards what's important to notice.
An interesting thing happens when we force ourselves to sketch out an idea rather than write it down. Because our mind MUST shift into "whole-brain" mode, we guarantee that the ideas generated in both our analytic and synthetic minds receive equal time -- something that does not happen when we just WRITE a list.
For proof, try this. Take a piece of paper and write down the names of five people that matter to you. Great.
Now go back and force yourself to create a smiley face sketch of each of those people. What do they look like? What hairstyle do they have? Do they wear glasses? It just takes a couple minutes, but triggers infinitely more in your mind about those people that writing the list did.
Now imagine doing the same thing the next time you have a business problem to solve. New ideas are going to come to you -- it can't be avoided.
- Dan
Author of THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN
Posted by: Dan Roam | March 11, 2008 at 01:44 PM
@Dan - I think there is still something very powerful to be said for putting hand to paper and making a drawing in real time.
@Sarah - the Common Craft videos show simple drawings and because they are so easy to understand across languages and technology knowledge levels, most people resonate with them.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | March 11, 2008 at 05:26 PM
Dan:
You are so right about lists being less complete and helpful than talk with visuals. One of the reasons why I find PowerPoint with bullet points without any visual context so sterile. It's a way to have a top down transmission of information, without the conversation or ideation wrapped around it.
Maybe we can bring back Pictionary at work! Wouldn't that be great.
As for the saying, yes, it is dangerous to take statements as absolutes. Doing that closes off possibilities. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I enjoyed the manifesto, and your example here.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | March 11, 2008 at 06:01 PM
I'm such a right-brained AND left-brained person that this post both appeals and makes inherent sense to me. Love it!
And as far as powerpoints go, I include minimal words, and big pictures that cover the whole slide. People need that visual stimulation.
Posted by: Rebecca | March 11, 2008 at 07:38 PM
Hi Valeria
I agree that PowerPoint is sterile. The only thing that keeps me awake during most corporate presentations are the cool effects built into the software.
Dan is onto something. Brainstorming business strategy with napkins is a cool idea as it forces you to think out of your comfort zone. You could even use different colours to celebrate each department.
Using Pictionary at work in a brand brainstorming session would help unravel the corporate story in a very innovative way. If people "see" your idea, chances are they'll believe it!
Posted by: Karen Hegmann | March 11, 2008 at 10:18 PM
@Rebecca - now that I use Keynote for Mac, I have an ever harder time forcing myself to work on PowerPoint. Alas in corporate America it has become a crutch. You don't count unless you have a thick PowerPoint to show.
@Karen - the only valuable piece of a PowerPoint is off the screen and in the room. When something stirs a discussion, people actually get something done. Whenever people don't get something the easiest path is to get up and draw something on the white board. It gets everyone on the same page faster than any PowerPoint they have to sit through. And it gets the blood flowing.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | March 12, 2008 at 07:05 AM
I suggest EVERYONE in the NY area visit the new exhibit at the MoMA, "Design and the elastic mind" overall just an amazing exhibit showcasing the intersection of media, social interaction, nano-tech, design, organic design, etc etc. Beautiful stuff. The kicker is that there is also a stunning data visualization component that you can geek on for quite sometime. Check out the site here: http://moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/
Site is very interesting too as it threads together the multiple influences of each piece.
Seni
Posted by: Seni Thomas | March 12, 2008 at 09:34 AM
Thank you for the tip, Seni, and the link. Maybe we can do that during Blogger Social? Would love to be in a group. Museums to me are "please discuss" experiences : )
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | March 12, 2008 at 01:30 PM
Whether picture or metaphor, the key is clearly describing a great, simple idea. Often the brainstormer is using the tools to spell the idea out rather than show it clearly and let it sell itself.
Why does your use of a mac not surprise me ;-)
Posted by: Russ Savage | March 17, 2008 at 03:00 PM