Tool No 30: Let the Marker Do the Talking
HOW? Draw the thought pattern needed to implement the change you want, using a marker pen on a flip chart while you explain the concept. The simpler the drawing, the better. Two matchstick men, a mountain, a road and an arrow – perfect.
We think in patterns. Drawing the thought pattern you want the audience to accept is the start of the journey.
I once trained a manager to better articulate the company’s basic premise – that ongoing innovation is needed to maintain competitiveness. Her metaphor was that the company didn’t dare drive to the edge of the cliff for fear of falling over it. She explained that all cliff edges look steep from a distance, but when you approach the edge, you see that the drop is divided into plateaus – so even if you do fall, you won’t fall far.
She illustrated it simply on a flip chart, and concluded by a drawing an arrow that showed that the company had to go right to the edge, as that’s where the “profit zone” was to be found. Even if they occasionally went over the cliff and fell a short distance, it just meant that the company was developing.
