Friday, February 9, 2024

How Sketchnoting became the key to unlock a whole new way of working

 Case Study - Sketchnoting in Use in the Chemical Industry


Background

  • Janet Greenwood runs a specialist consultancy, TT Environmental Ltd, helping high hazard industries such as heavy industry and manufacturing understand and comply with chemical regulations. They provide environmental consultancy services and GHS Classification Courses, which provide introductions to CLP, and also CLP mastery, which is all about ensuring that organisations are able to communicate clearly to customers and staff the hazards of chemicals.

How Sketchnoting is being used

Janet has been using Sketchnoting in her work since she did an introductory virtual workshop to Sketchnoting facilitated by Rachel Burnham in the summer of 2021. There are two main ways in which she is using Sketchnoting:

  • Firstly, as a way of communicating urgent news to customers and contacts in a quick and easy to digest format. This has enabled Janet’s consultancy to get breaking information out rapidly to her client base and industry to inform and reassure.  Eg  a problem with the law underpinning CLP was identified and it was important to provide professionals dealing with this with timely advice on how to respond. Here is the simple but effective Sketchnote used to do this: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/janet-greenwood_state-of-play-with-annex-viii-to-clp-as-we-activity-6900757098003517440-W51n/
  • Secondly, Janet and her team are now making extensive use of a variety of Sketchnotes within their training courses to summarise complex and detailed information on a single sheet.  She describes Sketchnotes ‘as a way of getting across years or even decades of experience concisely and in an easily understandable form, both to beginners and more experienced professionals.’ They had previously make use of flowcharts and infographics - one of the advantages of Sketchnotes is their flexibility, so that you can vary the approach used to present the content most effectively and also combine a number of approaches within a single Sketchnote such as flowcharts, words, diagrams, arrows, structure and pictures. Some of their Sketchnotes are more word based and some more visual eg setting out the hazards of particular chemicals. With a Sketchnote you can both get the big picture, the context and also specific details.

The impact of using Sketchnoting

  • Janet and her team have had a very positive response to their use of Sketchnotes both as a communication tool and also as a learning aid from their customers and contacts.  Communications using Sketchnotes shared on social media have had an excellent response with people commenting on the usefulness of the information contained.
  • Participants in their training courses undertake a series of tests covering each of the course modules and since the introduction of the Sketchnotes pass rates have improved. As other improvements to the courses were made at the same time this cannot be wholly attributed to the introduction of Sketchnotes. However, the trainer’s view is that participants understand the information presented more quickly and easily when a Sketchnote is used. In addition, individual participants have commented on the ease of understanding the Sketchnotes in discussions. This feedback from trainer and participants. when coupled with the test results, indicates a positive impact from using Sketchnotes.
  • Clients have responded very positively to the use of Sketchnotes in their work – in this field of work, clarity is highly important – the risks of getting information wrong are high. So any tool which leads to great transparency of information is valued.
  • Janet was so impressed with the impact of Sketchnotes for her business that other team members have now been on the online Introduction to Sketchnoting workshop and are now using Sketchnoting in their work.

Key Learning

A Sketchnote doesn’t have to be perfectly drawn to be highly effective as a communication tool. This is not about producing art.

In Janet’s and her colleague’s experience they have found that they can create one in about half an hour – providing they fully understand the topic. What the process shows up is where your own gaps in understanding are and so it helps you to pinpoint where you need to do more research.

The only downsides are that you go through a lot of pens and sometimes end up with ink all over your fingers!

‘It is like turning a key in a lock and opening up a completely new way of working’ says Janet.


Rachel Burnham

25/4/2023



How can Sketchnoting make a difference to the way you work?

Here is a case study looking at how Sketchnoting has been used in a business to work with customers and help the team become even more effective at communicating complex and technical information in easy to understand ways. It shows the value that visual thinking can bring and how it is a highly effective way of working, rather than just a fun activity.

Sketchnotes make use of a combination of words and simple graphics to communicate information. They can combine pictures, diagrams, flowcharts with words and so are a very flexible tool for use in learning, thinking and working. I offer workshops introducing professionals and students to using Sketchnoting for note taking, planning, reflection, sense-making and communicating.

With many thanks to @JanetGreenwook of TT Environmental Ltd for telling her story. It is great to be able to share this experience of Sketchnoting from the chemical regulations and health & safety field.

Friday, February 2, 2024

Collection of Sketchnotes from World of Learning Summit 30 & 31 January 2024

Rachel Burnham writes: I spent a very interesting two days at this year’s World of Learning Summit, which was held in January 2024, at Olympia, London. I was fortunate to be able to attend the conference to Sketchnote a wide range of sessions, but of course also enjoyed meeting and speaking with people in between sessions, over lunch and whilst wandering around the exhibition. 

The sessions I participated in were on a real mix of topics – AI and its importance for L&D, skills-based organisations, learning in the flow of work, neurodiversity, reverse mentoring, the advantages of curiosity and developing our digital skills as L&D professionals. 

The sessions that were most effective from my perspective dug deeper – for example Kerry Richardson from Thames Water presented an excellent case study (see Sketchnote later in post), which was about ‘Learning in the flow of work’ as advertised. But she also set out clearly how to run an effective pilot, including focusing the intervention clearly on a business need – in this case reducing complaints with clear success criteria and showed how to cost the results generated from the pilot. There was so much useful stuff in this session – not necessarily new, but practices that are important and often don’t get done. 

Some of the less effective sessions attempted to cover far too much material and so skimmed over the surface. I think it is easier to get more depth if sessions involve just a single presenter or case study or if sessions are slightly longer and I would encourage conference organisers to take this on board. 

 Here are all 8 of the Sketchnotes that I created live over the two days. 


The Opening Address on AI 

Not surprisingly, the first two inputs at this year's conference were on AI and how L&D can be making use of this. My favourite bit was the Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly stages that Trish Uhl outlined that we need to go through in our learning about how to get the most out of AI.

The Skills-Based Organisation 

This is from a session by Asi De Gani and Dani Saadu, who each talked about their organisations' approach to taking a skills based approach to Learning & Development. People I talked to about this session had very mixed responses - some feeling that this was bread and butter L&D and wondering how it was different from a competence based approach, whereas others found it incredibly helpful for the journey that their own organisation was in the midst of. 

Have a look and see what you think. 




A practical look at learning in the flow of work 

Great session from Kerry Richardson, Thames Water detailing how they ran a pilot to add a learning in the flow of work element to the mix using 'Clever Nelly' to pose questions. So many super things about this approach - it taps into both 'retrieval practice' and 'spaced repetition', they focused on addressing a key business needs - reducing complaints - and identified success criteria ie what success would look like, they carried out a pilot and compared with a control group, and costed the results sharing their workings out. Kudos to Kerry and her colleagues for such a rich case study. 




Navigating the spectrum in a neurodiverse world 

I am so excited to be able to share my Sketchnote with you from the session led by Leena Haque and Sean Gilroy from the BBC, titled 'Navigating the spectrum in a neurodiverse world'. Leena described her experiences of autism and of the challenges of school and finding her way into the world of work - she used pictures and video clips to vividly communicate her story. Of course as a Sketchnoter, my favourite bit was when she told us about how she drew pictures at school to process her learning! This is something we can all do and benefit from. 

Sean also explained about the initiatives the network they co-lead had taken at the BBC to address the needs neurodiverse people had identified - training to increase awareness, changes to the built environment and to technology to make it more accessible and to build community. 

I know a lot of people in the session were very moved by this presentation. 




L&D skills for the digital world 

Here's my Sketchnote from Jo Cook 's session 'L&D Skills for the Digital Word' which was getting us thinking a bout the Digital skills we need now and how to future proof are skill sets. 




The curious advantage 

Great conversation about curiosity and how it benefits organisations and how to nurture it. So good to hear Peter Ashcroft, Garrick Jones and Tim Munden discussing this. 




The evolution of reverse mentoring 

This session was co-delivered by Emily Cosgreve from 'The Conversation Space' and Mark Taylor from RSM UK. They shared their experience of using reverse mentoring to stimulate intergenerational conversations at work and they included lots of helpful detail about the way they did this. 




I hope you have found it useful to see summaries of the sessions in Sketchnote format. I am always interested to hear what people think of them. 

If you are interested in learning to Sketchnote yourself or have colleagues who would find this of interest do get in touch – my next open workshop is online from 1pm on 29th February. Or get in touch if you would like to commission me to create a Sketchnote for your organisation. 

Rachel Burnham 

2 February 2024
 
I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Resilience Tested

Rachel Burnham writes: Back in early February we had a fire in our kitchen and had to call out the fire brigade.  Whilst neither my son or myself were hurt, we have been unable to live in our home since then.  I want to write about this experience and its impact.  I am not writing this looking for help or advice – I have wonderful close friends and family who have been a tremendous support during this time.  Instead, I want to focus on what I am noticing and my reflections on the experience so far.

 

What happened

The fire started with our toaster, one lunchtime. We were eating in another room when the power cut out and when my adult son got up to check the fuse box, he smelt smoke coming from the kitchen.  Although the toaster was not in use at the time, it had still been plugged in and by then the fire was well away – before too long the kettle was in flame and the fire had spread to the top of the fridge/freezer.  Our priority was to get out of the house, call the fire brigade and alert our neighbours from the houses adjourning.  Two fire engines arrived very quickly and they soon had it put out.  It was in many ways a small fire - but it left us with no electricity downstairs, a wrecked kitchen and smoke damage throughout the whole house.    Four months on we are still dealing with insurance, the entire contents of the house is in the process of being destroyed or cleaned and put into storage.  We have just got a date for the work to start and it is likely to be another 10 weeks before we can begin to move back in.

 

Gratitude

We have a great deal to be grateful for!  Neither of us was hurt, the fire was relatively easily contained, the fire brigade were super, we are fully insured and my parents live nearby and were willing and able to take us both in.   My son was able to get extensions for his course work and got caught up and I have been able to work from my parents’ house.  We both get on very well with my parents and as they are both in their late 80s it is great to have the opportunity to spend more time with them.   They have even got me interested in cycling by watching the Giro D’Italia together and I am now keenly looking forward to the Tour de France.


Impact

But of course, this whole experience has had an impact on us.   I would like to share some of what I notice in myself – it does vary a lot from day to day, so some weeks I am fine and some hours or days I am really struggling with it.   

·       Initial shock – In the first few weeks there was the effect of the initial shock and the adrenaline of trying to tackle insurance claims and get settled into our temporary living quarters.  I found sleeping very difficult at this stage and kept waking up either with worry about insurance or smelling smoke.

·       Uncertainty – I am used to working as an independent consultant with a very fluid diary and changing patterns of work, but the aftermath of our fire has generated so much uncertainty and made any planning beyond the immediate exceptionally difficult.  There is uncertainty over big stuff: timescales, what happens next, who is doing what, what the insurance covers, what will need to be destroyed because of smoke damage and uncertainty over small matters – ‘which paper pile did I put the last water bill in?’  One of my notebooks is now entirely given over to lists of fire related business and I have several digital spreadsheets too.

·       Loss of agency/control – I am definitely finding the loss of control a challenge – having other people pack up the contents of my house and having little opportunity to get organised before - for example I keep wondering whether the TV and DVD controls have gone in the same box as the wires for this equipment and a thousand and other similarly small anxieties.  It is also hard not being in my own home – it is 40 years since I last shared a house with my parents – I am used to making the rules.  (There will be a parallel loss for my parents too.)

·       Cluttered mind – I find that my mind is less sharp than usual and also seems much more narrowly focused – at times there is a lot to get your head around and not much energy for anything beyond what has to be done whether work or house-related.  Sometimes weeks go by with no contact at all from insurers/builders etc and then there will be a flurry of communication with multiple decisions needed.

·       Mourning for my home and garden - I am feeling a real sense of loss for ‘our home that was’, particularly since the company started packing up and clearing our house. Not only are there specific things that the fire destroyed, but also furniture that has had to be destroyed due to smoke damage, including some furniture that had come from previous generations.  As many of you will know I love gardening and I have also felt the loss of time in my garden this spring and summer – some of the plants in pots are really suffering from lack of watering during this hot dry early summer – I am not sure that they will survive.   I do know that we will get to unpack in time and will make a new home and this will have its joy, but right now, we are without a home.  I have found myself painting little hopeful boats in rough seas, which expresses some of these feelings.


Two small boats with bright orange and red sails on a rough sea with dark clouds overhead - in ink and watercolour
'Unmoored'


·       Resilience – I have had more colds, viruses and other physical ailments in the last 4 months than since I was two!  I guess I must have less resilience and ability to bounce back.  It certainly feels that way emotionally – I managed to wash a pair of new trousers with pale coloured clothes and dye them all primrose yellow last week – normally I would have taken that in my stride, but this time it felt like a disaster.

 

Self-care

During this time all the usual suspects have been extra important and valuable.  I have been exercising each day, eating lots of healthy food, cooking favourite and new dishes, walking in the park – it has been particularly good to do this with my father, and working on the allotment.  The first time after the fire, that my son and I got to the allotment we felt this huge sense of peace and relaxation – even though we were digging and chopping, so we have made it an essential part of our week.

The other crucial element has been time and contact with close friends with opportunities to share how we are feeling and also do completely different things.  And it was great to get back to painting and drawing regularly after the immediate press of insurance claims. 

 

Reflections

·       One of the things I am reflecting on is what happens to our resilience when we face an extended period of stress and challenging circumstances – when we are in it for the long-haul.  For example, I have a number of friends who are or have been caring for parents who are seriously ill.  I am not sure that we focus sufficiently on the kind of support that people need when resilience is tested over an extended period.

 

·       It is good to talk and share how we feel.  This has been an important message around mental health for many years.  My experience over these last few months has been mixed.  I have great close friends who have listened and I have felt heard by.  I have also sometimes shared something of how I have been feeling at the time and not felt listened to.  It is interesting how quickly many people are to offer advice or remind you to feel gratitude – I have noticed how this has made me feel. I wonder if hearing someone talk about how they are struggling is too hard sometimes for us and so we close it down and make it more comfortable by turning to a positive ‘Be grateful that neither of you were hurt’ or ‘Lucky you, new kitchen!’.   It has made me more conscious of my own behaviour when people are sharing with me. I have been reflecting on the extent to which I really listen and how powerful and healing it can be when someone does.

 

·       We are all different.   One of things that has been said to me and intended as a comfort, is that ‘things can be replaced, but people can’t’.  And at one level this is true.  I have been reflecting on why I have felt so distressed at the thought of various belongings or pieces of furniture being destroyed.  It is because whilst they are just things – together they make ‘home’.  Now that ‘home’ has gone – for us this will be a temporary thing, but for refugees and for homeless people how big and how painful that loss must be?  But it is also about the way that some things become interwoven with your own life story.  For some people photographs are important – I am not a photo person.  Instead, for example, I found myself really upset when I realized that my steamer had been destroyed – it was given to me by my parents when my son was born, so that I could make baby food for him.  Each time I cooked with it, those memories were there and I suppose I had thought I would pass it onto him, perhaps for him to make baby food for a child of his own?   We are all different and what has meaning for us is different too.  We are so quick to see things through our eyes, values and experiences and it is so hard to see them through someone else’s.

 

Rachel Burnham

13 June 2023

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Collection of Sketchnotes from Learning Technologies Exhibition, London |May 2023

 I found lots to interest and challenge me when I spent two days at the Learning Technologies Exhibition at Excel in London in early May. I carefully picked out a few of the very many free sessions to Sketchnote and I am going to be sharing my five Sketchnotes that I created here.


My first pick was a session on Optimizing Learning for the Hybrid Workforce and I chose it because one of the speakers was Fiona Leteney from the analysts Fosway Group. She shared some of the key market trends across L&D field in the use of technology and you will find these captured in my Sketchnote below. The point about poor digital experiences for cohort based courses linked in my mind to a point raised in a later session on Benchmarking about the reduction since 2016 in the use of blended learning - I wonder if they are connected?



My second selection was the always insightful David James, from 360 Learning.  He was talking about the skills challenge that we face and the need within so many organisations to upskill at scale and the particular advantages of doing this when it is hard to recruit for many roles. It makes sense to grow your own and hire from within by building skills. He focused on practical ways to do this by getting subject-matter experts involved - not in developing content as might be expected but by engaging them in solving pressing business problems. Check out my Sketchnote for more details.


My 3rd Sketchnote is of Toby Harris, from Filtered, and his session on 'Applied AI: How to unlock the power of your learning content'. AI was all over the exhibition floor and drew huge crowds to some of the sessions. Toby focused on how AI can be used to solve real problems and specifically Filtered's experience over many years of using AI to make content curation more practical for busy L&D teams needing to create learning journeys or playlists for diverse requirements for colleagues. Manual curation is becoming more and more of a challenge as the range of content materials has grown and expanded along with the different formats of content. The session included a demonstration and fortunately the wifi just about held out for this!




I knew  right away I wanted to Sketchnote this session because it had a winning line up of speakers - Laura Overton,Michelle Ockers, Nahdia Khan and Ross Garner.

The session was marking 20 years of The Learning Performance Benchmark, which is a wonderful tool to aid L&D teams and organisations to gauge the effectiveness of how their organisation is using L&D and provide opportunities for reflection and action as a result. It is free to use and the session include great examples of its use by organisations. The session also included some key insights and trends from the benchmarking tool across organisations. You can access the tool by contacting Mind Tools.


This session was all about how we can transform the way we think and act around delivering business impact in L&D. The speakers were Laura Overton and Bo Dury from Lepaya and they were sharing insights from the Impact Lab's which they have been running with 200+ Learning Professionals. From the experiences of these professionals Laura and Bo have created a wonderful metaphor of the journeys which L&D teams are on to deliver business impact - take a look at my Sketchnote and have a think about your own journey. What do you have in your rucksack that is helping that journey, what might you need to discard and what might you need to pack?

It was great to meet Bo for the first time and to continue the discussion afterwards with Laura and be joined by Paul Matthews and the L&D Detective Kevin M. Yates.






I hope you find some useful morsels in these Sketchnotes to help your thinking and L&D practice. 

Rachel Burnham

24 May 2023

I help individuals and organisations to use visuals to think, learn and work more effectively, particularly though using Sketchnoting and drawing.