Unlock your artistic self

Picture perfect: Author Dan Roam says pictures make people focus on the essence of an idea, not on what isn't essential.

Graphic designers of the world will rejoice. Pictures really are worth a thousand words.

And guess what else? You are a visionary. No, really. Three quarters of your brain’s activity center is processing information visually. Babies spend their first four months of development processing and developing their vision and their movement. World leaders’ doodlings often illustrate their thoughts, plans, and possibly their personalities.

Cocktail napkin drawings have literally launched the most profitable airline in the world—Southwest Airlines.

The more simple the picture it seems, the more effective the communication. Dan Roam is the author of “The Back of the Napkin” and a proponent of learning, communicating, and problem solving through simple pictures.

It's unlikely Roam is suggesting that the vast wasteland we call television is suddenly the world’s greatest learning tool, however. What Roam is suggesting, is that it's extraordinarily difficult to make something visually simple, but it's extraordinarily effective when you do. Drawing simple pictures that illustrate a problem and its solution may well be the most effective way of problem solving.

Rachel Best, CUNA's meeting and exhibit manager, hands out napkins before Dan Roam's thought leader session at the America's CU Conference & Expo. Roam, author of "The Back of the Napkin," claims if you can draw a circle, a square, an arrow, and a stick figure, you can solve many problems. Everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, he said as he led attendees through a drawing exercise, but most people--especially in the business world--aren't encouraged to develop this skill.

“Pictures make you focus on the essence of an idea, and not on what isn't essential,” Roam said at Tuesday afternoon's General Session. Your brain breaks down visuals into individual components and then goes through a process of  evaluating and reconnecting the visuals.

You may become a more effective communicator and problem solver if you can just draw a stick man portrait to illustrate “who or what”…a chart to show “how”…a map to illustrate “where”…a timeline to show “when”…a flowchart to give a “how”…and a ‘multi-variable plot’ to illustrate “why,” he said.

Better yet, check out Roam’s book at the library for a picture of what he said.