The acclaimed bestseller about visual problem solving-now bigger and better "There is no more powerful way to prove that we know something well than to draw a simple picture of it. And there is no more powerful way to see hidden solutions than to pick up a pen and draw out the pieces of our problem." So writes Dan Roam in The Back of the Napkin, the international bestseller that proves that a simple drawing on a humble napkin can be more powerful than the slickest PowerPoint presentation. Drawing on twenty years of experience and the latest discoveries in vision science, Roam teaches readers how to clarify any problem or sell any idea using a simple set of tools. He reveals that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they can't draw. And he shows how thinking with pictures can help you discover and develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve your ability to share your insights. Take Herb Kelleher and Rollin King, who figured out how to beat the traditional hub-and-spoke airlines with 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. Now with more color, bigger pictures, and additional content, this new edition does an even better job of helping you literally see the world in a new way. Join the teachers, project managers, doctors, engineers, assembly-line workers, pilots, football coaches, marine drill instructors, financial analysts, students, parents, and lawyers who have discovered the power of solving problems with pictures.

Come journey with shen brevard-from winter of '98 to summer of '05. Seven years 13 essays One ever present desire Saunter and weave through significant musings inspired by: east Asia's techno mega-city: Tokyo, the Atlantic seaboard's (brash with class) NYC-specifically-Brooklyn-n-Queens, northern Pacific's famed sophisticated 'City by the Bay' (San Francisco) and the Golden State's venerable yet sprawling hiptropolis: Los Angeles. From a native Californian's wanderlust to a fellow American's lament and disgust over their nation's chaotic reflection of magnificence mixed with devastating self-inflicted conflict. Same person. Different angles. Grounded in an ever shifting upward perspective. Political? Not really. Poignant? Yes. More importantly, this 'writer-to-be' invites you to look within-in order-to understand the world without. One-part neutral. Two-parts fresh-n-fun. Half part melancholy. Half part Cosmopolitan. Heed the call. Embark upon a most glorious, verbally artistic, Americana experience.

Roam's "The Back of the Napkin," a "Business Week" bestseller, teaches readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. This expanded edition presents more exciting ways for solving all kinds of business problems.

An original workbook companion to the acclaimed business bestseller The Back of the Napkin Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin, a BusinessWeek bestseller, taught readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. It presented a new and exciting way to solve all kinds of problems-from the boardroom to the sales floor to the cubicle jungle. The companion workbook, Unfolding the Napkin, helps readers put Roam's principles into practice with step-by-step guidelines. It's filled with detailed case studies, guided do-it-yourself exercises, and plenty of blank space for drawing. Roam structured the book as a complete four-day visual-thinking seminar, taking readers step-by-step from "I can't draw" to "Here is the picture I drew that I think will save the world." The workbook teaches readers how to: •Improve their three "built-in" visual problem solving tools. •Apply the four-step visual thinking process (look-see-imagine-show) in any business situation. •Instantly improve their visual imaginations. •Learn how to recognize the type of problem to choose the best visual solution. If The Back of the Napkin was a guide to fine dining, Unfolding the Napkin is the cookbook that will soon be heavily marked up and dogeared.

Get ready for the ultimate crash course in communicating and solving problems through simple pictures. Thirty-two thousand years ago, your many-times-great-grandparents Oog and Aag drew pictures on the wall of a cave. They had an innate need to communicate, but no written language. So they found an easy and natural way to share their thoughts and stories. Today, after so many years when speaking and writing dominated, we're back in another highly visual age. About 90 percent of everything shared online is now visual—selfies, GIFs, smartphone videos, and more. This explosion of communication through pictures isn't a millenial-driven fad; it's as natural as those lines first drawn by Oog and Aag. Just turbo-charged by the latest technology. And yet over the past twenty years, as I've taught people from Fortune 500 CE0s to White House staffers how to harness the power of imagery, the biggest objection I've always heard is, "But I can't draw!" Trust me, you can. You don't need to be da Vinci to be an outstanding visual thinker and communicator. The most effective drawings are the simplest, and you can get good at those in three minutes. In this little book, I'll teach you how to use seven basic shapes to explain just about anything to just about anyone. If you've read my previous books, you'll see one or two familiar tools here, along with a bunch of new tools you can start using right away. If you're new to my approach—welcome! Get ready to work smarter, communicate more clearly, and get better at whatever you do, just by picking up a pen. Get ready to draw to win.

Ever been to so many meetings that you couldn't get your work done? Ever fallen asleep during a bulletpoint presentation? Ever watched the news and ended up knowing less? Welcome to the land of Blah Blah Blah. The Problem: We talk so much that we don't think very well. Powerful as words are, we fool ourselves when we think our words alone can detect, describe, and defuse the multifaceted problems of today. They can't-and that's bad, because words have become our default thinking tool. The Solution: This book offers a way out of blah-blah-blah. It's called "Vivid Thinking." In Dan Roam's first acclaimed book, The Back of the Napkin, he taught readers how to solve problems and sell ideas by drawing simple pictures. Now he proves that Vivid Thinking is even more powerful. This technique combines our verbal and visual minds so that we can think and learn more quickly, teach and inspire our colleagues, and enjoy and share ideas in a whole new way. The Destination: No more blah-blah-blah. Through Vivid Thinking, we can make the most complicated subjects suddenly crystal clear. Whether trying to understand a Harvard Business School class, or what went down in the Conan versus Leno battle for late-night TV, or what Einstein thought about relativity, Vivid Thinking provides a way to clarify anything. Through dozens of guided examples, Roam proves that anyone can apply this systematic approach, from leftbrain types who hate to draw to right-brainers who hate to write. This isn't just a book about improving communications, presentations, and ideation; it's about removing the blah-blah- blah from your life for good.

FOREWORD BY GUY KAWASAKI Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the Net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.

In his internationally acclaimed, best-selling book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, presentation master Garr Reynolds gave readers the framework for planning, putting together, and delivering successful presentations. Now, he takes us further into the design realm and shows how we can apply time-honored design principles to presentation layouts. Throughout Presentation Zen Design, Garr shares his lessons on designing effective presentations that contain text, graphs, color, images, and video. After establishing guidelines for each of the various elements, he explains how to achieve an overall harmony and balance using the tenets of Zen simplicity. Not only will you discover how to design your slides for more professional-looking presentations, you’ll learn to communicate more clearly and will accomplish the goal of making a stronger, more lasting connection with your audience.

"A visual guide to making extraordinary presentations by the acclaimed author of The Back of the Napkin. We are all natural born presenters. We have ideas to share, voices to share them, and people to share them with. So why do most of us find public speaking so hard? In this pithy but powerful guide, communication expert Dan Roam provides a simple five-step path to take us from jitters and complexity to confidence and clarity. He explains his tried-and-true visual techniques and the wisdom he has gained from giving award-winning presentations. Roam shows us how to: - Clearly present any idea with simple visuals - Know our audience before we step in front of them - Channel fear into fun"--

PICTURE THIS: A BOLD NEW BUSINESS STRATEGY DRAWN FROM TODAY'S HOTTEST VISUAL TRENDS Scientific studies have shown that looking at pictures, drawings, and other graphics engage both sides of the brain--opening the "mind's eye" and business systems to new possibilities we might not otherwise see. Frustrated by lackluster approaches to strategy, companies are combining illustrations and color with business strategy with phenomenal success. If you want to go beyond drawing on the back of a napkin, this book shows you how. Picture Your Business Strategy will help you master the principles of "strategic illustration," a proven system for visualizing ideas. Pictures and strategy come to life in the board, conference, or meeting room quickly, easily, and brilliantly. With just a few markers and paper, you can: Use pictures to restructure, reorganize, and rethink your business plan Draw lines between people, processes, and productivity Create new business possibilities through pictures and idea sharing Chart your progress with benchmarks and goal lines Create a project activity map that allows you and your team to see the big picture--and make it succeed Packed with clever drawing tips and simple templates to help you unlock your creativity, this inspiring book gives you everything you need to start bringing your big ideas to life. Developed by Christine Chopyak at Alchemy: The Art of Transforming Business, the book provides a fresh new business model for developing specific "seeable" actions that can be measured, tracked, and cascaded into other priority areas. There are so many practical, purposeful ways to use drawings in your everyday work environment, you'll wonder why you never did it before. Most important, you and your team will learn how to turn strategic illustrations into real-world results. Whether you're a boardroom doodler, corporate cartoonist, or Picasso for fun and profit, Picture Your Business Strategy will help you draw your way to success. "With this approach, organizations can create a cohesive and authentic understanding among teams that ultimately leads to increased motivation and bottom-line results. Chris shows us that drawing isn't just for kids, it's for leaders looking for a competitive advantage." --Tamara Kleinberg, serial entrepreneur and founder of TheShuuk.com "A brilliant piece of work that brings together the finite world of words with the infinite possibilities of pictures, taking strategic thinking and collective wisdom to a whole new level and presenting a more colorful way of imagining/imaging the future." -- Sabina Spencer, business strategist and author of The Heart of Leadership