I ran across this new book from my friends over at 800ceoread.com: The Back of the Napkin. Being a visual learner*, I was inspired to see examples of great stories contained within. This book is ideal for those involved with strategy and project planning as people are wired with an innate ability to "look, see, imagine, and show."

A bold new way to tackle tough business problems even if you draw like a second grader. When Herb Kelleher was brainstorming about how to beat the traditional hub-and-spoke airlines, he grabbed a bar napkin and a pen. Three dots to represent Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Three arrows to show direct flights. Problem solved, and the picture made it easy to sell Southwest Airlines to investors and customers. Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply get. In this book Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they can't draw.

Here's a sample excerpt from The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam.

If you're interested in learning more about visual thinking, download the PDF of The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking: The "Lost Chapter" from The Back of the Napkin" from ChangeThis.com.

* Everybody is a visual learner as Dan Roam insists: "you [are] able to walk in [a] room without falling down..."

Comments

Video of Napkin Business Book

The Viz Think blog has a video of the book. The author starts drawing about a minute into the video.

Seems like it could be an interesting book.

discuss your project

{ latest blog posts }