Via Flickr:
Made with Paper
At dinner [the other night], a colleague asked me what the power of design thinking could really do. I responded by engaging him in a conversation about a challenge he has at school. He has to roll out a special year-long program for faculty development, that will help the school identify teacher strengths and weaknesses, and help build faculty capacity over the long haul.
This is the final drawing of ten or so sketches which I made to help him understand that the 100+ page manual for his program is a waste of time. If he can’t lay out the year-long calendar, and a graphic explaining how the program will work, on an 11×17″ piece of paper, it’s a waste of time, money and resources. Nobody will view the manual; but they will understand and read a poster.
He said, “What if the poster isn’t clear enough? What if they reject the poster?”
All I can (jokingly) say in response is what Mike Monteiro told me: “F*$k you — pay me.” But really, it’s the case that if he can’t get buy-in for his program from a poster, they’re not going to go for a 100+ page manual. And if he makes the poster, and gets buy-out… that’s important information too. And making a poster will take him less time than writing 100+ pages.
