Giving feedback can be uncomfortable. But holding back and letting small frustrations simmer is far worse. When we […]
The Importance of Giving Feedback Early: Don’t Let Resentment Fester
Switcheroo for Practicing Difficult Conversations
A great role-playing exercise for practicing difficult conversations is The Switcheroo, which helps participants step into different perspectives […]
Why We Struggle to Get Things Done: Common Pitfalls
We all have things we want to achieve—whether it’s personal goals like getting fit or professional milestones like […]
Five Effective Ways to Quiet a Room After a Workshop Exercise
Getting a room of workshop participants or students to settle down after a lively exercise can be tricky. […]
Psychological Safety in the Classroom
This is from a talk I gave in the weekly faculty meeting. Feel free to use and share […]
Working the Weekly 1:1
A better approach for the most important meeting of the week There are a lot of work “rituals” that […]
Three Writing Frameworks to Get You Through Nanowrimo
If you plan to do NaNoWriMo, you’re going to write 1,667 words a day. That’s a lot of […]
Book of the Week: Thanks for the Feedback
Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well Very few people are good at […]
A Visual Vocabulary for Concept Models
Part One: Rendering Relationships Sign up to be alerted when Pencil Me In, my book on visual thinking, […]
MicroStories for Pitching
If you want to craft a compelling narrative for a book or a presentation, I recommend the format […]
Pencil Me In
Working with Pictures was so well received, I decided to do a “real” book. Eight months later (a.k.a. […]
Drawing Books
I usually try to write up the books I read each year. This year I apparently read 250, […]
Five Models for Making Sense of Complex Systems
In one of the classes I teach at CCA, students were confused by mental models, conceptual models, concept […]
Story Secrets for Understanding and Communicating
My Convey UX presentation is up! Live drawing, improv and heaps of storytelling! Learn how to incorporate story […]
Alphabets and Logographs
When I first got into Visual Thinking, I came across a core concept that no one agreed on: […]
One Big Idea
I was enjoying a sazerac with a old friend of mine at a local watering hole. And by […]
Block Your Talk
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. You’ve written a great talk, you’ve […]
Presenting is Performance
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. When the Game Developer’s Conference invited […]
For TinyLIpsum, with Love and Stories
I’ve been teaching storytelling for a couple of years now, and have discovered there is a particular shape that […]
How to Make a Concept Model
Originally published in Boxes and Arrows May 6th, 2014. I realized recently I never published this here, on my […]
A Joy Project
Last spring, a class I was going to teach got cancelled because of a scheduling mixup. I got […]
Beyond the Slide
It’s 2006, and I’m sitting in the office of my pal Rasmi’s company, Uzanto. We’ve been chatting about […]
In Praise of Q&A
At a recent conference, I ran into the organizer at the first coffee break of the morning. She […]
Product as Hero Storyboard
Long time readers know I am completely obsessed with story architecture, and use it in many things: writing (of […]
The Secret to a Great Presentation
The class I teach is called “Story,” and the first assignment was to give a “TEDette.” I defined […]
A Library of Visual Thinking
Over the last two years, I’ve deeply committed to working visually. I’ve sketchnoted talks, used visual stories to […]
The Shape of Story
“Perhaps because polish is so visible, many people erroneously believe it to be the most important part of […]
Resources for Drawing Ideas
A few months back, I started a journey. As a painter, I was confident in my ability to […]