The underrated super power of writing things out and drawing pictures
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I spent less than 60 minutes preparing my detailed technology pack for a big quarterly board meeting yesterday. Why so little time? Was it because I just don’t care? Au contraire. It’s precisely because I care a great deal. Allow me to explain.
Every day we deal with some aspect of governance and compliance. Most weeks we face some or other incident or outage. And any given month is bound to produce at least one notable change in structure or staff.
It’s precisely because I care that I’m constantly translating and distilling what’s happening and writing it down. Often I include diagrams. It helps me make sense of it all and let’s me easily share ideas with my colleagues.
So when it’s time for a risk committee, Manco or Govco I naturally draw on my existing knowledge base to help me prepare. And the preparation effort of those weekly and monthly forums naturally fuel the preparation for the quarterly board meeting.
Steve Jobs famously said the computer is like a bicycle for the mind. Writing and drawing pictures is just as powerful because it gives you a second brain. I would struggle to be effective in my role without it.
It’s also more efficient. Jack Butcher recently said: “Content is a tool that eliminates the need for you to repeat yourself.”
It’s precisely because I care that I’m constantly translating and distilling what’s happening and writing it down. Often I include diagrams. It helps me make sense of it all and let’s me easily share ideas with my colleagues.
So when it’s time for a risk committee, Manco or Govco I naturally draw on my existing knowledge base to help me prepare. And the preparation effort of those weekly and monthly forums naturally fuel the preparation for the quarterly board meeting.
Steve Jobs famously said the computer is like a bicycle for the mind. Writing and drawing pictures is just as powerful because it gives you a second brain. I would struggle to be effective in my role without it.
It’s also more efficient. Jack Butcher recently said: “Content is a tool that eliminates the need for you to repeat yourself.”