How to work a little more creatively

Storyboards are powerful thinking and communication tools in films and advertising ... and we can use them too. 

Just as film creatives map out the proposed scenes of a movie, we can be story boarders too!  

A creative tool I use often with teams to think and work more creatively is storyboarding. 

Six cells or scenes are a starting point or a summary of a bigger and deeper story. 

🔲 Capture one point or theme per cell. 
🔲 Use a storyboard to take notes. 
🔲 Deliver your presentation or pitch with a storyboard. 

Boring notes? Nope. 
Boring meeting? Nope. 
Boring presentation? Also nope. 

We love stories! They hook us in and keep us engaged, curious to what’s coming next. 

Our colleagues and clients need us to be a little more creative - not just to hold their engagement and attention but to get to the most creative and effective outcomes we can. 

For something more memorable, practical and sensible... storyboard it.

More conversations - less presentations

As more of our meetings are online, there’s also an increase in the number of times we’re disappearing down a deep hole of ‘share screen’ and PowerPoint. 

Our meetings shouldn’t be all about the presentation, the monologue - just one or two voices. 

We can have better collaboration and co-creation online and remotely by having more conversation... the dialogue, many and all voices. 

This means we have discussion, debate and exploration of a topic and people’s perspectives of that topic. 

As we witness and experience disconnection and disengagement of people online, we’d do well to try for more conversation than presentation. 

But the pressure !!!
- what questions should we ask
- how do you get the conversation started
- how do you open things up
- and then what
- how do we summarize, synthesise or bring that information together
- what will keep it going
- and how do we wrap it up?


Each of these is a nuanced skill of facilitation - always balancing and rebalancing, conversation and making progress towards outcomes - ebbing and flowing. 

Instead of defaulting to sharing your screen, giving a presentation, try something new and default to conversation. 

‘Does that make sense?’

We ask this question when we’re thinking, talking, meeting, training, and presenting. 

It’s to check with ourselves - am I making sense to myself? 

And then ... am I making sense to you? 

It’s kind of asking, ‘Do you get it?’

We use the phrase ‘making sense' habitually and unconsciously. It’s a human thing. 

We develop our natural Sensemaking abilities as we learn and grow up. 

But given the changing and uncertain world we live in, being able to build and accelerate our Sensemaking capabilities means we can get to decisions sooner. 

And then take action sooner, despite the uncertainty. 

When you hesitate and procrastinated it could be because things aren’t making sense. We may keep plodding along waiting until they do. 

But if we use some Sensemaking tools and techniques, we can move on from indecision and hesitation... to action. 

It’s quite empowering and momentum building! 

Listen out for ‘does that make sense?’ It’s a sign we are most certainly in Sensemaking mode for ourselves ... and others. 

The synthesis of an idea

Many people waffle. On and on. 
Not conscious of the passing of time. 

As the talking continues, it’s harder to hold the thread of the information and it’s more challenging for us to keep paying attention. 

With increased stress and uncertainty in these times, most of us are experiencing reduced capabilities. It's tougher to take in information and process it effectively, for example. 

We must consider how we package information for people: presenting it in ways that make it easier to take in, quicker, clearer. 

Just talking, endlessly, won’t land an idea. 

Synthesis is a tool.

It’s how you analyze everything, bringing all of the parts together, reducing it down to something that can be taken on. It's not simplifying. It's synthesising. 

And it helps people better take up information in times of pressure, challenge and uncertainty. 

Edit again and make it shorter. 
Cut and carve up for shorter sentences. 
Package it up, in a package. 

That information you’re about to send ... revisit it and see how you can synthesise it further. 

Help the receivers do less work. 

Signposts and waypoints

As we deal with increasing amounts and complexity of information, it’s worth remembering a golden rule: people may not be as interested in your stuff as you are. 

That means they won’t work too hard to process it, organize it or make sense of it. 

They’ve got other things on their mind, better things to do, little space to take more on. They’ve got even less capacity for poorly arranged information. 

During an online event recently, I was overwhelmed with the lack of structure in presentations. 

Overwhelmed because it became a dump of information, a series of points that were disconnected, unrelated and in no sequence, theme or logical order. 

Not everything can be important. We can’t take it all in, all at once. 

Just as we can’t complete a journey in one step, delivering information requires a step by step or chunk by chunk approach.

Waypoints and signposts can help. 

📌 Waypoints where you stop or pause along the way. 
➡️ Signposts that guide people along. 

Otherwise it’s just a dump.