Draw Your School

A friend of mine shared a fascinating experience from a former parents’ evening at his lad’s junior school.

When the class reaches a certain stage, the teacher asks them to draw their school.

Regardless of any interrogative questions from the floor, no further instructions are given. Each is simply encouraged to draw their school.

And this, apparently, is key.

It’s an exercise in both perspective and different thinking.

The vast majority of children produce a similar view of the school from their viewpoint. Typically the front elevation.

But occasionally, you are rewarded with something seemingly left-field.

It could be a tiny corner of the campus. Perhaps a specific angle from a room somewhere deep inside. Maybe an iconic image is isolated, like a pencil case or books. You even get the odd (and rare) student that creates the kind of plan usually associated with an architect’s layout. And then there’s the miracle of drawing an emotion. A feeling rather than tangible object.

The results are evidently incredibly revealing.

In solution selling, the greatest focus tends to lay on managing perceptions surrounding the impact of the change you propose. This means there is often a process that can be mapped out. One onto which your solution may eventually be superimposed. Usually more problematic than trailblazing, there are likely several players who have a view on it.

Get them all to draw it out.

Provide a comfortable non-threatening environment, and let them doodle away.

You too may get to glimpse school-drawing magic.