Are you one of those people who can draw on a white board, draw meaningful things that everyone can understand and make things crystal clear, a white boarder? I’m not, I’m rubbish at it. There are several people I know who can pick up a dry marker, think for a few seconds and the sketch out a picture that exactly describes the problem that we have been discussing. A few strokes of a pen and a network diagram appears, or the arrangement of servers in the data centre or a pictorial representation of the flow of data between systems. They appear as if by magic out of the white in a Rolf Harris kind of way.
When I try to draw something it looks like a dog has vomited on the board. My lines aren’t straight, my circles aren’t round and nothing seems joined or connected.
The white boarders can annotate their drawings as well, they can build them up in layers using different colours and they can put in arrows or other marks to add to the depth of understanding. Their works (oeuvres) turn out like safety information cards you find in the pocket in front of you on a plane or like the assembly instructions from an Ikea flat pack.
I can’t, my drawings add nothing to the viewers’ understanding, nothing at all. They look like the meaningless scribbles of a disturbed mind. I even have to write something in my best handwriting in the top corner to remind me what it was meant to be.
The white boarders have a skill that should be recognised, perhaps with a diploma, a certificate or at least a trade association, the League of White Boarders? They are very useful especially in technical meetings where complex ideas need to be described and digested, quickly and effectively. They are like knights in shining armour who arrive in our hour of need, dry wipe marker in hand, by getting out of their seats and uttering the immortal words, ‘Do you think a picture would help?’
Such as skill!
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 