Doodling. I recently gave a talk at the Health Evolution Summit conference in Dana point California. It was a humbling experience, as I was expecting to give the standard PowerPoint presentation, and was told: “no,” that instead, I would be out on the lawn in front of the wind and surf and be giving a talk on a flip-chart.
This provoked a great deal of anxiety, and prompted ego- and personality-rebuilding. Then I thought of my sister’s book recommendation “The Doodle Revolution.” And so I took my story, boiled it down into symbols, and give a talk, which was not unsuccessful.
Turns out, googling any concept attached to the word “symbol” allows you to see what other people have used for symbols, such as for “strategy” or “manager” or “project manager” or “consensus”. Try, for example, googling “consensus symbol.” Well, at least it starts the creative juices flowing.
I challenge any of you to understand my chicken scratch doodles and interpret them into a coherent narrative. The good news is, I’m no longer afraid that my terrible chicken scratch will be criticized. I know that it will, and it’s still helpful to me and to my audience. I’m learning to get over myself.
For those of you interested:
- The “upside down spaceship” in the corner is really a handshake symbolizing “partnership”
- “…and…but…therefore” comes from a previous blog post on storytelling*
- The elephant is a reference to slow moving, large academic medical centers
- The drowning man refers to Healthcare organizations in the age of acceleration
- The USB symbol refers to technology companies
CMIO’s take: What are you waiting for? Get out and doodle! OR, if you’ve doodled successfully (or even unsuccessfully), let me know in your comments!
