Visual design is the core of every Do Tank workshop. Why? It’s our greatest weapon against the ultimate innovation roadblock: Perfectionism.
Perfectionism is an ever-present threat in every team, business, and board. A nagging, intrusive piece of self-doubt that prevents new projects from leaving the ideation phase and truly taking flight.
In this article, we’ll explore how drawing and visual exercises (regardless of their simplicity) can help nurture new ideas and bring your workshop to the next level.
The Draw Yourself Exercise
Many of our workshops start with the draw-yourself exercise. The premise is self-explanatory: Participants anchor themselves around a table, brush off their artistic talents, and draw a representation of themselves or their role.
Still, this exercise never fails to generate some resistance.
“I can’t draw.”
“I only know how to make stick figures.”
“I don’t see the point.”
It’s easy to underestimate such a simple exercise—but you should never underestimate the power of visual thinking.
People are easily stuck when thrust into new situations. When you’re trying to create something new or change organizational culture, the typical rules of work don’t apply. Drawing yourself is a great way to break the ice.
Think Big and Have a Little Fun
Once you’ve drawn yourself, it’s time to share with the group. Or, as we like to call it, is the fun part. Sharing helps spark collaboration, generate empathy, and get us closer to action.
The share-out is your first moment of real communication. You aren’t telling a story, you’re telling your story in a new and vulnerable way—plus it never fails to create few laughs, once you realized everyone else is drawing stick figures too.
The goal of a workshop isn’t to dream up solutions, but outline the real, scalable actions needed to accomplish your goal. Simple drawing exercises like this are the first step in transitioning your team from a thinking to a doing mindset.
Your team does a lot—but how much of their work makes a real impact on your business, patients, and stakeholders? The draw yourself exercise is a hard reset. Before diving into the deep end, we take a step back to better understand our roles and what our contributions really look like.
Once we know this, we can start to think big and attack the workshop’s goals.
Dismantle Your Road Blocks
The road to a new product launch, initiative, or training program is rife with blockers. Drawing exercises are the best way to avoid these types of traps.
Remember the quotes we mentioned earlier? Well, they’re not the only resistance points that come up during a workshop. If we want to have a real impact, we need to learn how to recognize roadblocks and overcome them.
Sketching is the fastest way to bring your idea to life, tangible enough for others to comment and build upon. Unsure whether the product could exist? Draw it! The easiest way to get out a hole, is to draw your way out of it.
Ready to think big with visual exercises? Learn more at Dotankdo.com.
