If you have lots of complex or detailed information to get your head around or convey to others – why not consider a Sketchnote?

Rachel Burnham writes: Many of us need to digest and make sense of detailed and complex information such as regulations, health & safety requirements, project plans and organisational policies as part of our work.   And having got our own head around this material, need to go on to convey this to others in a meaningful way.

Sketchnoting the key points from this kind of material can help you to get to grips with it.   Creating a Sketchnote is a dynamic process that can help you to step back from the detail and identify the big picture – the main story, if you like. Sketchnoting can help you to identify the most important aspects of the information for your needs and map out how these aspects are connected – arrows, proximity and size are often used to indicate relationships within a Sketchnote.   Sketchnotes are versatile and can make use of a variety of different types of graphics – flowcharts, simple illustrations, diagrams (such as Venn Diagrams or Input/Output Diagrams), cartoons, plus words and even combinations of these.  By playing with different ways of representing the key elements you can discover what best represents this information.  Working visually and on paper is often easier – in a way the paper becomes an extension of your brain.   By Sketchnoting you can set out your own understanding of complex information in a one page format. 

Going through this process in an iterative way can help you to identify your own gaps in understanding and enable you to focus your efforts to get further clarity. 

By making visible your understanding, you can also use this to test out with other colleagues and stakeholders, how your understanding compares to theirs, making it much easier to develop a shared and more rounded understanding of the information and insights from it.

Once you and other stakeholders are happy that your Sketchnote represents a helpful summary of the information, you can use this as a basis for communicating with others.   You could use the Sketchnote as a summary or introduction to the more detailed original information.   A Sketchnote could be used as a talking point within a presentation or learning programme or could be used as a curated resource conveying the key information, with access to the detailed material for those who require it.  

Sketchnotes are often experienced as a more engaging and accessible way into a topic.  And for complex or detailed information they can be computational more efficient because they summarise the material in a single page and so allow people to access the main points more easily.

If you would like to learn to Sketchnote why not book a place at my online ‘Thinking Differently:Introduction to Sketchnoting’ workshop? 

 

Rachel Burnham

3 February 2023

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

 

Sometimes you don't know what will be useful, until it becomes essential

 

Rachel Burnham writes: I was clearing out some shelves in my office the other day and I came across a notebook with my notes (& pictures!) from when I was first learning to facilitate live online sessions – though back then I called them webinars and was just learning to distinguish webinars and virtual classrooms.  It was 2208/9. 

I started learning about them and how to facilitate online out of sheer curiosity, rather than a need or specific demand from a client.  As a result I was able to suggest to a client that we started to make use of live online sessions as part of a blended approach to the redesign of a programme that I went onto to develop.

When the pandemic began I had 10 years’ experience of designing and facilitating live online sessions.   And I was so glad of this!  And the client had developed its provision by then to offer options for all courses that were either blended or totally online.  It was comparatively easy for them to move over their offerings to a totally live online programme.

Somewhere in between these times, a fellow volunteer for CIPD Manchester, Mike Collins, introduced me to using some new-fangled online meeting tool called ‘Zoom’.  As we found it useful for holding planning meetings in the evenings to bring together our small but dispersed team of volunteers for CIPD Manchester’s L&D work we adopted the practice of using it. It saved us all having to struggle into the centre of Manchester for a short meeting and made it much easier to find mutually convenient meeting times.   Back in 2017, it never occurred to me that I would be using Zoom for hosting most of my professional work, chairing CIPD Manchester committee meetings, painting socials, #LnDCoWork Manchester Christmas Curry and even family Christmas parties.

I started using drawing in my work in about 2015 and found myself developing skills in Sketchnoting, before I had even heard of the term!   Now the majority of my work is drawing and Sketchnoting related and I have even illustrated Gary Cookson’s ‘HR for HybridWorking’ book.  My art teachers from school would be flabbergasted.

Last week in the #LDInsight chat 13/1/23, we were discussing how we could explore the use of AI in our work.  And that made me think back to that notebook I had found earlier in the week.

Sometimes, you just don’t know what will be useful and in what way, until it is essential to have that skill and experience. Message to myself - keep exploring, keep learning, keep experimenting.

 

Rachel Burnham

17 January 2023

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

 

 

How paper & pen can enhance virtual learning sessions

 

Rachel Burnham writes: I think paper & pen can enhance the effectiveness of digital learning and particularly virtual learning sessions. I have been experimenting with the use of drawing-based activities over the last few months, as most formal learning, whether in the workplace or in education, has moved into the digital sphere.   

Whilst many in Learning & Development were already using webinar technology, elearning and other digital technologies such as video and podcasts (or at least some of these); for others in L&D, it has been a major shift.    I have been using a range of webinar technologies for live online learning, as part of my practice, for many years.   As fellow professionals have been discovering, there is a whole skill set to designing and delivering effective learning using webinar based technology.  As a Sketchnoter myself, I have been testing out how we can use drawing for more than just a fun element to enable effective learning within live online sessions.  

I am, of course, always keen to encourage the creation of Sketchnotes by individuals to aid their own learning and thinking (see previous blogs on this subject and I offer workshops to help people get started in doing this).  However, I also wanted to explore the how and why of using very simple drawing based activities that any L&D professional could incorporate into their sessions.

I think drawing-based activities offer the following five benefits for learning designers and facilitators:

·       They can add a wider range of options for learning activities beyond the standard polls, chat and whiteboard activities and thus enable online learning to be more tailored for the particular topic and impact required.

·       They bring a hands-on tactile element to a session that can enable a session to standout as more memorable from multiple online sessions, plus give time away from the screen within a session, both of which can contribute to reducing the digital screen or ‘Zoom’ fatigue that many experience.

·       They provide an opportunities for activities that are learner-centred rather than instructional eg asking participants to map out their own understanding of a process or illustrate a concept.   This can be used to create more challenging recap activities, or activities that tease out deep understanding and enable more personal sense-making.

·       They often have the effect of slowing things down and getting participants to think more deeply, which is great for encouraging reflection and application of learning. Drawing often makes use of observation in order to draw a physical object, process, or even our own behaviour – it requires us to slow down and pay attention to ‘what is’, rather than what we think there is. It can help us to notice how things are working currently and provide space to look at what we can do differently.  

·       They can enable different voices to be expressed and new insights gained. Often drawing something out, will help us to see something differently and give us a fresh insight. Drawing-based activities can enable some individuals to express themselves more clearly than other more traditional online activities.  Whilst there is a concern that not all participants may feel comfortable drawing or may feel excluded by a lack of skill, I think that often we don’t recognise that some voices are silenced or muted by the tools we currently use – not everyone is comfortable speaking up over the microphone in the free for all of a Zoom, not everyone is comfortable typing comments into a chat panel eg because of dyslexia.

For example, imagine encouraging a verbal discussion of what ‘leadership’ involves or facilitating a whiteboard activity to record points on the same topic or inviting people to each draw a picture using metaphors of what ‘leadership’ involves, which are then shared and discussed.  The latter often enables different people to express a range of more thoughtful and nuanced ideas, providing the basis for richer learning.

Considerations

I want to be very clear – this is not about learning styles.  Whilst individuals do seem to have preferences for how they learn, there is no evidence to support the idea that using different types of activities to match individual preferences improves the effectiveness of the learning. 

In contrast there is evidence from studies into Dual Coding (see my earlier blog) that the combination of words and pictures used effectively can be a helpful tool in learning for all people.

Secondly, many people feel that they can’t draw or simply haven’t drawn since they were a child and feel uncomfortable drawing.   You don’t need to be an artist to either facilitate these sorts of activities or participate in them – the sorts of activities I have in mind are based upon the simplest of drawing – neither art nor even illustration. You can reassure participants that it is definitely not about the quality of the pictures.

The best way to encourage participants to have a go at a drawing-based activity is to be comfortable with it yourself. Practice drawing in preparation.  Keep the activities simple, be positive & encouraging and focus on facilitating the learning from the activity.

I think getting comfortable with using drawing-based activities within online learning sessions is a great addition to any L&D professionals’ toolkit.  Why not give it a go yourself?

Rachel Burnham 

29 January 2021

For further support

If you would like to explore the use of drawing-based activities but would like some support in getting started, why not sign up for my new short programme ‘The Power of Paper & Pen in Digital Learning’?  I have designed a series of ‘pick-up and use’ drawing-based activities that can be adapted for use in many different contexts – this session will enable you to have a go at them and explore how they can be used.   Follow this link to find out more & book a place. 

 

I help individuals and organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources.  I make use of Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and learning.  

 

5 Tips for Getting Started with Sketchnoting

Rachel Burnham writes: I have recently started offering workshops in Sketchnoting and as a result have been contacted by a couple of people asking for help in getting started with Sketchnoting and making use of visuals in their work. 

Sketchnotes combine simple pictures, with words and graphics – they are often colourful and are a way of making notes that are memorable and aid reflection and sense-making.  I started Sketchnoting about 3 years ago and these are some of the things that have helped me.

Recent Sketchnote summarising a book chapter

1.  Getting beyond ‘I can’t draw’ and ‘I’m terrible at drawing’

If I am ever talking about Sketchnoting or drawing or using visuals at work, someone is bound to say ‘I can’t draw’ or ‘I’m terrible at drawing’.  So many of us hold this belief!    And of course, this belief makes it hard for us to get started at drawing or sketching, which in turn makes makes it harder for us to practise and get better and more confident at drawing.

As children we all draw.  Confidently, unworriedly, messily, happily.   And then most of us stop.  There are all sorts of factors in why we stop, but opportunities to practise and fear of looking foolish are probably two key ones. 

The latter is something I work with all the time – I can picture this rather disapproving looking person with her hands on her hips looking over her shoulder at my pictures and pursing her lips and saying ‘What makes you think you can draw!’ She is probably based on one of the art teachers I had at school.

I find what helps me to ignore this voice, is to recognise that there are all kinds of levels of ‘drawing’ and types of drawing.  There is beautiful art work, there are rigorous representations of the real world, there are lovely drawn illustrations in children’s books, there are cartoons – so many styles, so many purposes for drawing.   And what I draw  is ‘good enough’ for my purpose  - my Sketchnotes work for me – they help me to recall information, I refer back to them all the time,  they help me to make sense of disparate information, to summarise what I am listening to or reading and so on.  And I know from sharing them, that other people find them of interest and of use.  So, they work and that is ‘good enough’. 

This is my very, very first Sketchnote from June 2015 - we all have to start somewhere!  

And secondly, I can see that my pictures are getting better all the time.  

This was live-Sketchnoted in November 2017 - my Sketchnoting has definitely come on a bit! 

I think we can all draw.  But like any skill, if you don’t use it, you lose it.  And for many of us, we haven’t drawn for a long time, so we are rather rusty and a bit stiff and self-conscious.   We need to play and relax and have fun.

2.  Make it easy to acquire the drawing habit

If you want to draw, then you need to make it easy to practise.   And that means have things to draw with easily to hand. 

For Sketchnoting, I use A4 blank notepads that are spiral bound.  I prefer using Staedtler triplus fineliner pens – they are easily available for lots of shops and when the children are starting back at school, can usually be found at a better price.

I now always carry a pencil, black felt tip, rubber and pencil sharpener so that I can draw whether I am – I have them pre-loaded into my everyday handbag.  I recently read Gretchen Rubin’s book about habits ‘Better than Before’ and she says if you want to build a habit, one approach is to make it convenient.

3.  Practise – build your visual repertoire

Even if you think you can’t draw, there may be things that you already doodle.  Sunni Brown in ‘The Doodle Revolution’ suggests that there are different kinds of doodlers – some of us are drawn to doodling words, some to faces, some to abstract shapes and some to naturalistic shapes.   If I am ever in a meeting or long phone call, I will find that my notes are interspersed with doodles – mostly plants – sunflowers, roses, trees, tropical climbers and ferny dells.   So you may find that there are some things you can already draw – even if it is only arrows – and this in part will be because you are already practising them – they have become part of your repertoire.

The next step is to practise drawing simple outlines, to form simple images of things.   I would suggest objects – it is useful to build up a bank of simple images/icons that you are likely to use eg laptop, mobile phone, pens, car, sun, sea.  What images you are likely to use will vary depending on the field you are working in.

Secondly, think of metaphors for more abstract ideas and again practise drawing them eg heart, rainbow, mountain top, ladder, measuring tape.

It is also good to practise lettering and symbols such as exclamation marks, question marks, plus signs, speech or thinking bubbles.

Gradually, build up the range of things you feel comfortable drawing.   This takes time.  I am still working on this.   

4.  Practise – listening and sketchnoting

The next step if you want to Sketchnote is to put it altogether and create sketchnotes.   Again, it is useful to practise.

A useful place to start is to create a Sketchnote to summarise something you have read or to listen to a podcast and summarise key points in a Sketchnote.  

When Sketchnoting from a podcast or to a ‘live’ session, listening is key.   You can’t capture everything, so deciding what to include and what to skip is essential.

5.  Let go of perfection

I want to return to the mindset needed for Sketchnoting as I think this is the crucial thing.   When you are Sketchnoting, you don’t need to aim for perfection in your drawing – actually I don’t think this is possible or even desirable. 

I think the drawings I do are a bit like home grown vegetables from my allotment – they may not have the glossy perfection you would find on a supermarket shelf, but they taste good!   Like a home-made cake, that is sometimes a bit wonky, hand drawn images may not be perfect, but they are personal and memorable.

Marmalade Cake - with a terrible crack in it, but it tasted lovely! 

So, don’t worry if your Sketchnote isn’t perfect – if a line is a bit wobbly or a drawing a bit hard for anyone else to recognise.   If I make a mistake, I draw a flower over it!

Have fun and have a go!

Rachel Burnham

16/3/18

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.  

The Art of Imperfection

Rachel Burnham writes: When I was 11 or 12 we were set homework by our art teacher each week.  We were to draw, in pencil, an object that she specified – a tea cup, a pair of scissors, a chair.   She marked each drawing out of 10.  If we received less than 5, we had to do the drawing again the next week – alongside the drawing homework for that week.  By the end of the first term, I was having to do 8 drawings a week.   I remember the chair particularly well.  I drew it over and over and over.   After I finished that year, I didn’t attempt a drawing again for 40 years.

Actually that isn’t entirely true, I doodled.  Incessantly.  When on the phone.   In lectures.   When thinking.  And constantly in meetings.   Faces, shapes, houses, patterns and lots and lots of flowers and leaves.  But I never counted that as ‘drawing’.

Years later, I joined Twitter and I saw pictures shared, particularly by Doug Shaw and Simon Heath (You can find them on Twitter @dougshaw1 and @SimonHeath1).  One day in the summer of 2014, whilst doing Harold Jarche’s PKM programme, we were set the task of putting his Seek, Sense, Share model into our own words.   I had had a particularly wordy work week and at the thought of trying to write something over the weekend, my heart sank.   But as I pondered over the model and dawdled in the garden that summer’s day, it occurred to me to draw what it meant to me instead.  And this is what I drew.

And I shared what I drew not only with my fellow course participants, but on Twitter.

Later that year, I was contributing to an event and co-facilitating a session alongside two colleagues, so I decided to draw little pictures of each of us to illustrate the welcome slide.  A year on at the CIPD NAP conference, I took along some coloured pencils and a notepad and started putting my doodling to good use by drawing points from the various sessions at the event.  I then took photos of the pictures and shared these on Twitter.   I was overwhelmed by the positive response they got. 

Over the summer and autumn I practiced at every event I went to.  Gradually switching from A5 notepad to A4.  Working out how to get all the points onto a single sheet.  Thinking about layout.  Experimenting with how best to use colour and combine graphics and simple pictures.  Realising that you can’t capture every point and that careful listening is key.   Letting go of an expectation of perfection.  I had started Sketchnoting.

Last week there was a very interesting thread shared on Twitter about ‘imposter syndrome’ by Gem Dale – here is the link to the storify. ‘Imposter syndrome’ - that fear that so many of us have of being caught out, of not really having the expertise that is required of us, that somehow we have got where we are by luck, rather than as a result of our skills and hard work.

Alongside that, there is also the self-talk, that stops us from even starting something.  That holds us back and tells us that we can’t do that – that we aren’t artistic, or athletic or wouldn’t have anything to contribute to an online Twitter chat or whatever the limit that we have about ourselves.  If we never have a go, it we never experiment, we will never know whether we just might have those talents?

And in most things it isn’t a question of absolutes – it isn’t that   you are either exceptionally talented or nothing.  I think we can all draw.  Not everyone will be Georgia O’Keeffe and that is OK.  Sometimes it is fun doing something even when you aren’t fabulous at it, just for the pleasure of doing.  And by doing it, you can get better at it and develop those skills.   We know that great artists, musicians, writers, athletes all have to work hard for their talent to blossom.

This is one of my very favourite pictures – I am very proud of it – not because it is my best picture, but because I tried something out.  I drew it two years ago on holiday in Greece with my son.  I very often draw from life – sometimes I get a bit stuck doing that and I love this picture, because I drew what I felt, rather than just what I saw.  It captures the feel of the narrow streets and their vibrancy.  I am really happy that I tried something different and did it whole-heartedly.  

Actually, when I look at it I can also see that the perspective is all off.   It is OK to try something and for it not to be perfect.

There are parallels with  Working Out Loud (WOL), the idea of sharing what you are working on at an early stage, partly so that you can benefit from other people’s input and partly so that other people can learn from and be inspired by what you are doing.  Sometimes our self-talk holds us back from Working Out Loud – ‘ I don’t have anything special to share’, ‘I’m not an expert’, ‘What if look foolish?’  It was WOL by Doug and Simon that inspired me to start drawing and it was the positive feedback and support of my contacts on Twitter, my Personal Learning Network, that encouraged me to continue.  If I hadn’t shared publicly what I was doing, I wouldn’t have benefited from that encouragement.

This picture began as being about seeing the world through rose-coloured lenses, but ended up as the much more exuberant rose-covered glasses - probably in need of some garden maintenance!

I have found that I love to draw.  I am so glad that I took the risk and shared that first drawing publicly.   I have learnt so much as a result about how to draw.  But I know my learning is much broader than just about drawing. 

I have discovered that if I want to get better at doing something then:

• ·       I need to make a start
• ·       It is OK not to be perfect – forgive yourself for mistakes and spend time enjoying what you are doing well
• ·       Iterate and improve
• ·       Work with a generous spirit – share  with others
• ·       Nurture the people around you and you will be nurtured in return

Rachel Burnham

28/1/18

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals update and refresh their skills.  I do this through: writing & design commissions; facilitating learning to update knowhow, 1:1 and bespoke ‘train the trainer’ programmes; and the use of Sketchnoting to facilitate learning.

Developing Ourselves

Here is a Sketchnote that I created to summarise some key points from Learning Live 2016 7 September, organised by the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI).  It focuses on the importance of investing in our own development for L&D professionals.

Rachel Burnham

7/9/16

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance. 

Sketchnote 'The Secret Learning Life of Managers' LSG Webinar

Creating a Sketch Note Gallery for CIPD NAP 2015

Rachel Burnham writes: Inspired by last week’s #PKMChat I found myself spending the CIPD NAP conference in York drawing pictures as sketch notes, rather than doing my usual live tweeting. I have curated all my pictures drawn at NAP 2015 in an album on Flickr. Here is an account of that experience and my learning from it as a late addition last week’s #WOLweek.

 

Sketch Note of opening keynote from Ryan Cheyne

As I often do, I set out for the annual CIPD Northern Area Partnership Conference in York having packed a sketch pad, set of pencils and a packet of fine tipped coloured pens.  I often add them to my luggage, because I like to doodle and sometimes find the odd half-hour or so when I’m staying away to work on a drawing.  My intention was to live tweet from the conference sessions as usual, but during the opening session, I found myself reaching for pencil and pad, rather than phone and drawing out a title page.

As I hadn’t planned to do this, I used my drawing pad of the moment, which is spiral bound and does work better for me as a notepad, compared to the cloth bound sketch books from which I am always losing pages.  My first pictures were drawn using pencil, but I quickly started to incorporate some colour and these are much more distinctive and reproduce better.   

 

Positive Psychology - with lily

I kept the pictures simple and didn’t think about them too much – picking out key words, using arrows and other easy to draw symbols, plus images that sprang to mind from what was said.  If you look at the gallery you will find that I often add in flowers, trees and other greenery, because that’s what I doodle when listening – even if it is not immediately relevant to what is being said!

During the session, I took photos of the pictures to live tweet.  I don’t think the quality of the pictures is that great, I kept getting the conference badge or bits of cardigan or shadow in the way, but they were useable.  

On the second day, I switched to drawing in a notebook provided in the goodie bag for the event – this felt great to draw in and is a lovely record of the event for me.  However, I think this isn’t as easy to scan as the spiral drawing pad and so is not so good for sharing electronically.

Reviewing the pictures after the event, it is very apparent that the easiest sessions to sketch note were the sessions that had the clearest messages and where the presentations were more strongly structured.

I decided to curate the pictures using Flickr and first scanned them into my PC, so that I had clearer images than those ones created during the session.   I collated the pictures into an album for the event and Flickr provided me with a shortened link to the album.    I think an alternative way of doing this would be to use Pinterest and may well try this out at some future point – but I’m out of time tonight!  

I am really pleased with this approach.  I tend to make notes at events and find that I have books and books of notes taken from various meetings and conferences – and I hardly ever look at them.  These notes at least look more attractive, so possibly might get refered to again.  Certainly I can recall them better – at this stage…

Let me know what you think of my sketch notes.  Why not have a go yourself?

Rachel Burnham

22/6/15

Burnham L & D Consultancy helps L&D professionals become even more effective.  I am particularly interested in blended learning, the uses of social media for learning, evaluation and anything that improves the impact of learning on performance.

Follow me on Twitter @BurnhamLandD