Teachers often criticize a child who doodles in the classroom. Scribbling and doodling in the margins of your notebook were reprimanded earlier. To think about it, images have been processed by humans earlier than writing. Not any more though. The times are changing. It is now that we are realizing the value of doodling on a professional level. It is available in form of excellent logos, brand images and much more.
There is a growing trend of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through visualization. Indeed, the art of doodling has found new meaning. The changing technological scenario has ushered in a wave of newer means to communicate for business leaders. Doodling is not restricted to the using your artistic skills as an escape mechanism. It has been found that the graphic representation of any message leaves a long-lasting impression on an individual’s mind. The organizations are conveniently adapting and acclimatizing to visual communication. Be it content marketing doodles or human figurines for Biology classes, they perform better. It has become the latest widely accepted language for organizations.
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Using sketches relying on basic principles of design to explain a concept has overtaken the PowerPoint approach. Although doodling is not understood by many, the perception of its positive benefits has started coming out. Doodling has become popular considering the acclaimed cognitive benefits it accompanies. It helps in managing the emotional hygiene for entrepreneurs, which they usually take for granted. People often believe that representing data realistically through facts and figures is better. However, this is not true. Understanding heavy volumes of data which is presented visually is easier.
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For any business, choosing the best visualization technique is an important aspect. The next step is to understand how to successfully implement it for the company’s benefits. Visual communication also needs plenty of planning and the availability of skilled resources. Once done, the final stage for any business is to reap in the potential of an impressive communication channel with the stakeholders.
Below is a list of some of the unique ways in which doodling is important in business and entrepreneurship:
Enhance your creative side
Doodling is said to be immensely rewarding for the creative side of the brain. This means that when you are doodling, you put your creative side of the brain to work. As the human brain gets bored easily, this is where doodling comes into play. An individual who doodles uses kinesthetic, visual and auditory learning techniques simultaneously. This propels the brain to imbibe more information and retain it for later use. The stored information is more like a directory that you can refer to in future for solving problems. To avoid repetition, doodling encourages people to think and come up with innovative ideas and introduce newness. Thus, businesses which heavily rely on innovation can make use of doodling to a large extent in encouraging unique ideas.
Giving a new meaning to the Vision Statement
Businesses can render a new meaning to their Vision Statement through doodling. Adding a graphic touch to the already existing words can create a more impactful Vision Statement. A graphically represented vision statement will help employees to remember the company’s goals well. Symbols used into doodles will also showcase the real nature of values imbibed by the employees. The human brain uses images to think. A Vision Statement containing symbols will be remembered by the employees than lengthy wordy messages. It has been seen that this ignites creativity among employees and motivates them to perform better.
Effective assessment tool
As simple as it sounds, doodling depicts one’s thought process. By judging one’s doodles, one can develop an understanding of the complexity of their thoughts and perception of the world. Doodling is an interesting way of storytelling. If a group which doodles in a meeting is assessed, it can offer important insights into the organization’s culture. This can also enable stakeholders to understand their employees’ mindset. Employees might be able to express themselves better through drawings. Thus, it is easy to determine the employees’ mood or opinion about a certain issue through their doodles.
Know about Mind-Mapping
It is a well-taught rule of life to break bigger tasks into smaller ones to achieve success. Similarly, more complex tasks can be conveniently simplified into smaller ones through doodling. Mind-Mapping, an effective way of mapping out your ideas creatively, is done through words, symbols, colours, lines and images. The smaller chunk of tasks can be mapped in any order as and when the idea pops up. Arranging your ideas in a definite order is done at a later stage when everything has been laid out in a mind map. The graphic way of exhibiting your natural thinking is a great way to harness the maximum potential of the brain, crucial for businesses.
Fun at work
There is no denying that doodling is fun and brings out the child in you. Everyone has an affinity for drawing and colours. By exploring our passion for art, we allow our inner being to connect with the work we do. This further enhances the overall experience at a workplace. Doodling happily during a presentation has rewarding benefits for one’s state of mind. A meeting room full of doodlers is happy and contended one. These doodlers will be more interested in the agenda of the meeting than the non-doodlers. Studies have suggested that those who draw are happier souls than those who do not. A study concluded that doodling ignites positivity in an individual.
Better focus at work
If you have a low concentration span, you might want to practice doodling. To increase your efficiency to focus on one thing for a longer duration, doodling is very helpful. If you are judging your colleague for doodling in a meeting and for not paying attention, stop right there. Doodling requires a certain level of multitasking as the doodler listens and draws together. Therefore, one must have a practice of concentrating harder on a subject to be able to process and draw. A study revealed that doodlers are able to retain 30% more information than others. While doodling during a business meeting, an individual is actually more attentive. A person who doodles during a boring meeting is bound to capture all the major points because he or she will be hooked on to the speaker. Hence, it is better to doodle than be distracted.
Improved problem-solving skills
Through doodling, one gets to have out-of-the-box ideas to solve a problem. The process of doodling is not linear and thus, doodlers might have a better understanding of a problem than others in the room. The field of knowledge exploration also deepens with doodling. A person who doodles has a stronger abductive reasoning ability. This allows doodlers to infer things logically and arrive at a simpler and better explanation. If you see your colleague doodling, you must know that he or she is paying attention to every detail and not zoning out. Thus, in a board meeting, a doodler might have a better solution for a problem than others present.
Strategizing comes naturally
By doodling, one starts creating an impression of the big picture in their head. This means that a doodler is more aware of the larger picture and plans accordingly. Making strategies for such people comes off naturally. Doodlers think differently. A non-doodler will have a definite thinking pattern. A doodler’s thinking is not determined by a pattern. A human brain gets comfortable around routine thinking. There is a disadvantage to definitive thinking patterns. The brain gets so acclimatized that it fails to notice any slight variation. Thus, a person who doodles will be more observant while designing strategies for a certain project. Doodling, on the contrary, stirs certain neurological pathways in the brain that makes a person more informed. The point worth noting here is that a doodler tends to look at a certain situation from numerous different angles.
Doodling is an advanced business technique that increases the productivity of employees. Individuals can feel connected with the organization’s goals at a deeper level. Words might not have the same calming effect as doodles have on a person’s mind. Doodling has assisted businesses to overcome obstacles in ways unimaginable.
If someone has understood the magic of doodles, it is the entrepreneurs who run mammoth of organizations. Outsource your business work and have some time for yourself on your plate. This will allow you to perform better with time. The world-renowned entrepreneur Steve Jobs used to sketch on a whiteboard to find solutions. Judging this fact, it is safe to recommend the promotion of doodling in offices. Learn to doodle and break your creative block to succeed in life. Observe doodle experts and learn how to improve your ability to make the most out of an otherwise dull meeting. So, don’t refrain yourself from doodling at any future meeting.
Author Bio
Piyuesh Modi is Director and Co-founder of PagePotato, a digital marketing company based in The Netherlands, India, and Australia. He is also a visual thinking coach for Organisations, Entrepreneurs, B-schools, and Trainers empowering them with visual thinking and collaborative techniques. His articles and sketch notes have been published in business e-publications like Entrepreneur.com