Sketchnotes from CIPD NAP Student Conference 2018

Rachel Burnham writes: It was lovely to have the chance to represent CIPD Manchester at the annual Northern Area Partnership (NAP) conference for CIPD students.  I got to meet lots of interesting students from across the whole of the North of England, from Liverpool to Humberside and from Sheffield to the NE. Why not check out the #CIPD18Student for tweets from the event? 

  

The speakers were excellent and the sessions covered a lot of ground from the ‘Future of Work and the People Profession’,  through to ‘personal resilience’ and ‘developing your networking skills and personal brand through the use of social media’.   Particular highlights for me were hearing the personal stories of Jennifer Hulme about heading up HR in a retail environment and Nicky Ingham sharing her story of developing personal resilience.   I thought the emphasis on the practical case studies in the event was very helpful.  It was good to hear from Mike Collins at River Island on how they have re- shaped Performance Management – which is a very topical issue and one that a lot of organisations are working on currently. 

But the stand-out session for me, was from Lisa Rigby and Helen Baggaley at Wigan Council, with how they approached transforming the culture at the council in the wake of the cuts from austerity measures.  I loved hearing how they decided not to use a ‘traditional training’ approach, but created an experience to engage employees instead.  This was a very unique ‘walk-through’ experience and involved colleagues acting as tour guides through a physical site showing the council ‘past, present and future’.  It included a film room showing videos with popcorn and everyone was encouraged to make pledges about what they would do differently as a result.  This wasn’t a stand-alone programme, but linked to many other supportive steps as well.   It was great to hear about the measurable impact this had.

This approach is very much what Nick Shackleton-Jones argues for - creating an ‘experience’ with an emotional impact and it was great to see this approach being developed as a practical response to addressing the particular concerns and needs within this council.

Here is my collection of Sketchnotes from the event: 

If you are a student studying CIPD courses and didn’t attend this year’s event, do look out for next year’s. 

Rachel Burnham

26/3/18

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.  

5 Tips for Getting Started with Sketchnoting

Rachel Burnham writes: I have recently started offering workshops in Sketchnoting and as a result have been contacted by a couple of people asking for help in getting started with Sketchnoting and making use of visuals in their work. 

Sketchnotes combine simple pictures, with words and graphics – they are often colourful and are a way of making notes that are memorable and aid reflection and sense-making.  I started Sketchnoting about 3 years ago and these are some of the things that have helped me.

Recent Sketchnote summarising a book chapter

1.  Getting beyond ‘I can’t draw’ and ‘I’m terrible at drawing’

If I am ever talking about Sketchnoting or drawing or using visuals at work, someone is bound to say ‘I can’t draw’ or ‘I’m terrible at drawing’.  So many of us hold this belief!    And of course, this belief makes it hard for us to get started at drawing or sketching, which in turn makes makes it harder for us to practise and get better and more confident at drawing.

As children we all draw.  Confidently, unworriedly, messily, happily.   And then most of us stop.  There are all sorts of factors in why we stop, but opportunities to practise and fear of looking foolish are probably two key ones. 

The latter is something I work with all the time – I can picture this rather disapproving looking person with her hands on her hips looking over her shoulder at my pictures and pursing her lips and saying ‘What makes you think you can draw!’ She is probably based on one of the art teachers I had at school.

I find what helps me to ignore this voice, is to recognise that there are all kinds of levels of ‘drawing’ and types of drawing.  There is beautiful art work, there are rigorous representations of the real world, there are lovely drawn illustrations in children’s books, there are cartoons – so many styles, so many purposes for drawing.   And what I draw  is ‘good enough’ for my purpose  - my Sketchnotes work for me – they help me to recall information, I refer back to them all the time,  they help me to make sense of disparate information, to summarise what I am listening to or reading and so on.  And I know from sharing them, that other people find them of interest and of use.  So, they work and that is ‘good enough’. 

This is my very, very first Sketchnote from June 2015 - we all have to start somewhere!  

And secondly, I can see that my pictures are getting better all the time.  

This was live-Sketchnoted in November 2017 - my Sketchnoting has definitely come on a bit! 

I think we can all draw.  But like any skill, if you don’t use it, you lose it.  And for many of us, we haven’t drawn for a long time, so we are rather rusty and a bit stiff and self-conscious.   We need to play and relax and have fun.

2.  Make it easy to acquire the drawing habit

If you want to draw, then you need to make it easy to practise.   And that means have things to draw with easily to hand. 

For Sketchnoting, I use A4 blank notepads that are spiral bound.  I prefer using Staedtler triplus fineliner pens – they are easily available for lots of shops and when the children are starting back at school, can usually be found at a better price.

I now always carry a pencil, black felt tip, rubber and pencil sharpener so that I can draw whether I am – I have them pre-loaded into my everyday handbag.  I recently read Gretchen Rubin’s book about habits ‘Better than Before’ and she says if you want to build a habit, one approach is to make it convenient.

3.  Practise – build your visual repertoire

Even if you think you can’t draw, there may be things that you already doodle.  Sunni Brown in ‘The Doodle Revolution’ suggests that there are different kinds of doodlers – some of us are drawn to doodling words, some to faces, some to abstract shapes and some to naturalistic shapes.   If I am ever in a meeting or long phone call, I will find that my notes are interspersed with doodles – mostly plants – sunflowers, roses, trees, tropical climbers and ferny dells.   So you may find that there are some things you can already draw – even if it is only arrows – and this in part will be because you are already practising them – they have become part of your repertoire.

The next step is to practise drawing simple outlines, to form simple images of things.   I would suggest objects – it is useful to build up a bank of simple images/icons that you are likely to use eg laptop, mobile phone, pens, car, sun, sea.  What images you are likely to use will vary depending on the field you are working in.

Secondly, think of metaphors for more abstract ideas and again practise drawing them eg heart, rainbow, mountain top, ladder, measuring tape.

It is also good to practise lettering and symbols such as exclamation marks, question marks, plus signs, speech or thinking bubbles.

Gradually, build up the range of things you feel comfortable drawing.   This takes time.  I am still working on this.   

4.  Practise – listening and sketchnoting

The next step if you want to Sketchnote is to put it altogether and create sketchnotes.   Again, it is useful to practise.

A useful place to start is to create a Sketchnote to summarise something you have read or to listen to a podcast and summarise key points in a Sketchnote.  

When Sketchnoting from a podcast or to a ‘live’ session, listening is key.   You can’t capture everything, so deciding what to include and what to skip is essential.

5.  Let go of perfection

I want to return to the mindset needed for Sketchnoting as I think this is the crucial thing.   When you are Sketchnoting, you don’t need to aim for perfection in your drawing – actually I don’t think this is possible or even desirable. 

I think the drawings I do are a bit like home grown vegetables from my allotment – they may not have the glossy perfection you would find on a supermarket shelf, but they taste good!   Like a home-made cake, that is sometimes a bit wonky, hand drawn images may not be perfect, but they are personal and memorable.

Marmalade Cake - with a terrible crack in it, but it tasted lovely! 

So, don’t worry if your Sketchnote isn’t perfect – if a line is a bit wobbly or a drawing a bit hard for anyone else to recognise.   If I make a mistake, I draw a flower over it!

Have fun and have a go!

Rachel Burnham

16/3/18

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and work more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.  

The Launch of PrintCity, MMU

Rachel Burnham writes: I had the opportunity last week to participate in the launch event for PrintCity, which is a part of Manchester Metropolitan University.  PrintCity is a new digital training centre for 3D printing and additive manufacturing, which is based within the university and builds on their previous work in this field. PrintCity can be contacted on Twitter @PrintCityMMU and the team is led by Professor Craig Banks.

3D Printing enables the creation of individual objects from a wide range of differing materials which can be used in prototyping or to create one off pieces such as individualised prosthetics or art-pieces.   It was explained to me, that ‘additive’ manufacturing is so called because it differs from traditional manufacturing processes which have been based on essentially removing materials (the words chipping, grinding and engraving spring to mind), whereas ‘additive’ manufacturing is based on gradually building up materials into the shape required.  There are a number of different ways of doing this.  Additive manufacturing allows for much greater precision allowing finer pieces to be created; makes it possible to produce unique pieces for a smaller initial outlay; and reduces waste.   An example of the latter, is that this process is being used to create the extremely heavy duty connectors required for vehicles in the American military.  These were previously  made from huge blocks of specialised metal, which then had to be whittled down to create the links, involving a massive amount of waste, whereas this way they can be built up from scratch and  then polished off, leading to much less waste.

The event involved a good combination of talks explaining what PrintCity does and setting out the potential for the use of 3D printing, input from Siemans and other partners on how this sort of change is transforming engineering and manufacturing processes, plus opportunity to look around the facilities at PrintCity and see many examples of 3D printing.  These examples included lots of different engineering parts made from various materials, but also fashion items, prosthetics, furniture and sculpture. 

It was great to hear about the many uses of this technology.  It is already being used in fields such as dentistry and medicine to create models to prepare surgeons for surgery, enabling them to ‘see’ in advance and prepare more fully for difficult surgical procedures and also to create individual prosthetics and other items.  We were told how the team at PrintCity were approached by the father of a young girl who was missing part of one of her arms and how a multi-disciplinary team worked together to create a prosthetic just for her, but this learning has then been applied for the benefit of other children.  

This technology can enable businesses to create prototypes of new equipment and products far faster and more cheaply than was previously possible, supporting innovation.   One particular advantage of this is that it makes it possible for smaller companies to engage in R&D and test things out.  One of the other participants in the event told me about how advantageous this is by comparison with the previous situation where a small company might easily spend a substantial sum (£40,000 was the amount mentioned) on the development of a prototype only for it not to work and in his experience this had led to the closure of companies. Whereas using 3D printing you could prototype for much smaller amounts and therefore adjust and try again if the first attempt was unsuccessful.   PrintCity are keen to collaborate with local businesses in this sort of way.

I was fascinated by the very wide range of skills that Alan Norbury of Siemans identified engineers as needing today.  This included use of big data, cyber security, AR and VR, robotics, cloud, gamification, design of apps and many, many others. 

One of the things that most excited me, was hearing about the very wide range of professional disciplines that are making use of this technology at PrintCity and are taking part in their new MSc in Industrial Digitalisation.  As you would expect the engineers are using it, but so are people from medicine, dentistry, fashion, art and so on.   There are a very wide range of applications from these different sources from custom-made buttons, through to lampshades created from sounds!  Apparently the fashion students are particularly good at coming up with new uses.

Some familiar themes to those of us in L&D were mentioned too, but in relation to manufacturing – in particular the use of agile design and manufacturing processes and the increasing importance of personalisation of manufacturing products as a way to add value.   Alan Norbury from Siemans talked about how adding value to products through the increasing customisation of products, coupled with agile manufacturing meant that increased productivity was attainable, without job losses.  

I would love a visit to PrintCity to be included in the fringe activities available around this year’s CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition – I think we in HR and L&D would have much to learn and be inspired by from this kind of collaboration.

Rachel Burnham

13/3/18

Burnham L & D works with individuals and organisations to help them learn and perform more effectively.  As part of this I help L&D professionals to be even more effective through updating their skills and know-how.  I have a particular interest in curation and the use of digital technologies in learning.  I frequently Sketchnote at events and offer workshops in Sketchnoting.