Several years ago I read The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam and found the book quite helpful for communicating ideas.   I recently read his follow-up book Unfolding the Napkin which is appropriately subtitled:  the hands-on method for solving complex problems with simple pictures.

Unfolding the Napkin  is designed as a four day seminar teaching the reader many of the concepts that were introduced in The Back of the Napkin.  Roam has a well thought through approach that is extremely effective in communicating ideas.  The essence of his approach is summarized in the visual thinking codex:

Some of you may be thinking “I can’t draw well.”  Roam emphasizes throughout the book that the more human your picture looks then the more human response it engenders.  He writes,

When we polish our pictures to make them look “finished” – when we clean up the corners, straighten out the lines, round out the circles; in other words, when we create them on a machine – we’re decreasing the likelihood that other people are going to “get” them.  (p. 256)

As someone who is not especially proficient at drawing that was an encouraging principle to me.  Roam continues,

People whose real interest is in solving the problem will always react better to a rough picture that shows the truth than a polished picture that makes no sense.  (p. 258)

This is a great book for anyone involved with communicating ideas to others:  teachers, business people, consultants, life coaches, moms and dads, anyone!  The author has made a number of his resources available at the http://www.napkinacademy.com/.   Check it out and let me know what you think!