To Boost Your Leadership, Change The Narrative About Drawing

I am willing to bet that you used to draw pretty much every day.

That’s until you started to believe that you were not a good artist or that drawing was for babies.

Somehow the narrative about drawing changed for you at a young age, most likely towards the end of elementary school or the beginning of middle school.

I am saying “most likely” because there are exceptions. A few of us kept drawing, and so we were labeled as “artists”. Art is vital. It is essential for the betterment of humankind.

The problem is that society loads the word “artist” with judgment, shame, exclusivity, and inaccessibility. Let’s admit it, what comes to mind when you hear a colleague say that “this person is a little bit of an artist”? I hate that line.

Drawing is a vital part of humanity. Thanks to cave paintings and industrial design sketching, we evolved and survived.

Unfortunately, the common narrative about drawing is extremely narrow and limits our abilities to transform society, businesses, and ourselves.

This is because drawing is only understood as art.

Let’s change that narrative because drawing is way more than art.

You don’t have to be an artist to draw. This is not the only way.

What else is drawing? Here are three examples:

• A thinking tool: use it to reflect or brainstorm on your own. It will help you make sense of complex concepts, organize your ideas and create neural connections.
• A collaboration tool: when you go to the whiteboard with colleagues (physical or digital), you open the conversation with the visual channel. You increase your chances to align with a shared solution.
• A cultural change tool: when you listen to people and draw their stories, you make them feel heard. This is the first and most important step in transforming how your organization works.

Mike Rhode is one of the most articulate and affluent advocates for changing the narrative about drawing. He has developed a unique approach for taking visual notes that he named “sketchnoting”. Mike wrote two bestselling books on sketchnoting: The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook. He teaches workshops on sketchnoting and also has a podcast called The Sketchnote Army Podcast.

Mike invited me as a guest for his latest episode to the Sketchnote Army Podcast.

During this episode, I share how drawing can help you:

• save a 20 million euros procurement project
• facilitate the merger of two major US airlines
• put one of the biggest tech conferences in the US on the map
• innovate faster than your competition
• change your own narrative
• and many more things.

To listen to the show, click here: https://sketchnotearmy.com/blog/2021/4/12/guillaume-wiatr-se09-ep11

You will learn how drawing can boost your leadership.

I hope you enjoy it.