DevLearn08 - Day 2

Went to a breakfast session this morning that was supposed to be about collaborative e-learning. The conversation quickly turned to a discussion about review workflows and working with SMEs instead. Although it wasn't what I was interested in talking about this morning, I have to admit that the conversation got much more lively and interesting after we switched topics.

One interesting tidbit out of that session: it sounds like Adobe is coming out with an e-learning suite of their products. Yay!

I'm at the opening general session now. Judging by the turnout it seems that a lot of people stayed out rather late last night. There are an awful lot of bars and clubs within a 5-block radius of this motel.

The fire alarm just started going off. The speaker handled it in an entertaining way. The most impressive thing was the fact that the hotel staff determined it was a false alarm in about 30 seconds. I didn't even have to get out of my seat.

Something else I know you're concerned about: my ear still hasn't returned to normal. It's better than yesterday, at least.

Today's keynote speaker: Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin. Amazon rated it the #5 Business Book of the Year for 2008. Dan's premise is that we can solve all of our problems by drawing pictures. Color me skeptical.

His three "Visual thinking unwritten rules:"

1. Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.
2. The more "human" your picture, the more human the response.
3. Any problem is like a big layer cake.
   

The theory behind rule 1 is that the person who describes and draws the problem understands it the best, and is therefore most likely to be able to see how the possible solutions work.

The theory behind rule 2 is that people like to look at pictures of people. It helps them make a human connection to the visual.

The theory behind rule 3 is that there are usually more layers hidden inside than we are aware of when looking at the problem from the outside.

He just taught the entire audience something. Apparently PowerPoint has an on-screen drawing tool that allows you to draw on your presentation while you're in presentation mode. Dan was quick to point out that even the audiences he has presented to at Microsoft don't know about this tool.

He says that part of the value of drawing out our problems as we discuss them is that it prompts our brains into thinking about the problem. I'll take that one step further and say that it is going to make your brain think about the problem in terms of relationships, i.e. the relationship between where we are at now and where we need to be.