Overview

Human beings are visual creatures. Children naturally learn to associate meaning with pictures and symbols far earlier than they do with the written word. Academic research has also shown us that the brain is able to process, retain and recall visual information more quickly, accurately and consistently than when the same information is expressed solely in words.

Unfortunately, in a business context this phenomenon is often overlooked in favour of emails, reports and other forms of verbal communication that can often fail to create the desired impact. However, in recent years the concepts of ‘Visual Thinking’ and ‘Sketchnoting’ have grown in popularity with many companies now starting to recognise the power of visualisation as a means of exploring complex problems, making information easier to retain and recall, generating ideas, creating engagement and so much more…

This hands-on workshop aims to provide participants with a practical introduction to Visual Thinking and Sketchnoting. It will explain what visual thinking is and why it is such a powerful tool that can help to improve communication, create shared understanding, enhance learning and unleash creativity. By attending the workshop, delegates will get a firm grounding in the building blocks of visual thinking with practical exercises that will help to build confidence and overcome ICD (“I can’t draw”) syndrome!

All public courses are available as in-house training. Contact us for more information.

Learning Objectives

After attending this course, delegates will:

  • Understand what visual thinking is and how it can help them in their work
  • Understand the building blocks of visual thinking and learn how to create their own visual dictionary (no art training necessary!)
  • Be able to apply principles of design, structure & layout and understand when to use different visualisation approaches to amplify their work
  • Gain useful tips and tricks to help them get started with ‘sketchnoting’ (visual note-taking that helps improve understanding and retention)
  • Understand the tools of the trade and be given useful references to allow them to further explore this exciting field!

Course Outline

Introduction to Visual Thinking

  • Visual Introduction: A practical demonstration of visual thinking in action in the form of a visual introduction to the speaker!
  • What is ‘Visual Thinking?’: A brief explanation of the different aspects of visual thinking and the context of their application
  • Systems Thinking: A practical exercise to illustrate how people naturally think about ‘systems’ and how visualisation can help to reveal hidden assumptions and create shared understanding in groups.

Key learning points:

  • Using simple drawings to tell a story makes the content more engaging for the ‘listener’
  • Visualising complex systems through a series of links & nodes allows us to see the big picture
  • Visual co-creation invites diversity of ideas whilst retaining a unified understanding

Benefits of Visual Thinking

  • Why Draw?Participants will be invited to explore in groups the ways in which visualising their thoughts might benefit them
  • Science & Statistics: A deeper dive into some statistics that explain the science behind why visual thinking works.
  • Overcoming ICD:A discussion designed to challenge ICD (I can’t draw) syndrome and explain why anyonecan apply visual thinking in their work

Key learning points:

  • Visual thinking helps with Attention, Comprehension, Retention & Exploration
  • Human beings are naturally wired to process visual information more easily than verbal
  • Visual thinking is about communicating ideas, not art!

Visual Thinking Building Blocks

  • The Visual Alphabet: What a visual alphabet is and how it can be used to simplify the visualisation process
  • Objects & Icons:A practical explanation of how to combine basic elements to represent simple but effective objects and icons
  • People: An exploration of different ways to draw people and how to apply this to explain actions and emotions
  • Faces: A deeper dive into the expression of emotions and some simple tips on how to easily sketch more realistic looking faces
  • Hands:How to ‘cheat’ when drawing hands (which are notoriously difficult to master) and how they can be used to link and connect information
  • Links, Connectors & Dividers: Further exploration on different ways to link, connect and divide information in a visual composition
  • Lettering:How to write quickly and legibly and an exploration of some simple methods for creating effective titles and subheadings
  • Containers:How to use containers to logically frame and group information

Key learning points:

  • The ability to represent information visually can be be decomposed into simple building blocks that anyone can master
  • Visual elements can be logically grouped or separated and complemented by lettering to provide structure and meaning to visualisations

Bringing it all together

  • Combinations & Metaphors: Combining basic building blocks to represent intangible concepts and techniques to help generate creative metaphors
  • Design Principles:A discussion on basic design principles, shadow and colour to enhance visual composition
  • Layout & Structure: Options for visual layouts and when to use different structural approaches
  • The Sketchnoting Process: Practical tips on how to approach sketchnoting an event or talk
  • Visual Thinking Applied: Group exploration on how visual thinking could be applied in practice
  • Getting Started:Discussion on useful tools and resources and how to take the next steps into the world of Visual Thinking

Key learning points:

  • How to bring together different visual thinking building blocks to create effective visual representations
  • How to approach the often daunting process of sketchnoting and apply visual thinking in practice
  • Where to go to find out more and some useful tools & resources

Who It's For

Practitioners from any field or discipline who believe they could benefit from being able to explore, facilitate, communicate and explain things in a more engaging way through the use of visualisation, including:

  • Business Architects
  • Enterprise Architects
  • Solution / Technical Architects
  • Information / Data Architects
  • Business Analysts
  • Project / Programme Managers
  • IT Consultants
  • Agile coaches, product owners and team members
  • Test / QA practitioners
  • Business Change Managers
  • Management Consultants
  • Trainers / Teachers
  • Strategy / Business Consultants
  • And many more…

Speaker

Grant Wright

Principal Consultant

Scarlett Solutions

Grant has over 20 years’ experience of delivering and leading enterprise-scale transformation and digital service design across government and financial services sectors. He is a Principal Consultant and Director of Scarlett Solutions, a UK based consultancy specialising in business analysis/architecture, agile product management and business transformation. Grant combines his passion for business analysis with tools & techniques from other fields such as user/customer experience (UX/CX), P3M and lean/agile delivery in order to clearly define problems and identify effective solutions for his clients. He actively practices Visual Thinking throughout his work and is passionate about its ability to create alignment, improve understanding and generate creative ideas. Grant actively participates in the visual thinking community and is co-host of The Visual Jam, a regular meetup that aims to help people to improve creativity and engagement through the use of games, storytelling, visual thinking and other stuff that makes work fun!

 

Fees

  • 1 day
  • £695
  • LIVE STREAMING - £695 + VAT (£139) = £834
Group Booking Discounts
Delegates
2-3 10% discount
4-5 20% discount
6+ 25% discount

Venue

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