Whiteboards That Work!

Are You Giving Good Whiteboard?

A common question I hear from my clients seeking to hire someone for their Enterprise Architecture team is, "What skills should I look for in my candidates?" One of the most often overlooked skills of being a good architect is the ability to create effective diagrams or visual representations. I have found that "Giving good whiteboard" is central to how great architects work. Using this skill they:

1. Make complex things simple
2. Bring order out of chaos
3. Build successful strategies and plans out of the fog of confusion

One of the outcomes of "Giving Good Whiteboard" is Increasing speed and efficiency of projects by decreasing TTUA (time to understanding and agreement). Isn't creating a shared understanding of the problem at hand and a shared vision and commitment to the project scope one of the most powerful determinants of project failure or success?

"Giving good whiteboard" is needed now more than ever as companies are under increasing pressure for greater speed and efficiency in an ever more complex and dynamic environment. In this blog we will be discussing things like:

• the three powerful questions to ask as you prepare your visuals
• tips of how to use color, shapes, size, and proximity to facilitate understanding, buy-in and momentum
• share real-life before and after visuals that are examples of all the above.

Do you know a great "whiteboarder" that you could tell us about? How about you, do you give good whiteboard?

Using the Situational Leadership (tm) Model in Job Interviews

I mentioned in my last post that a management job interview will likely include a question about how you might handle a given employee situation. An effective way to respond to this question is to draw a picture while providing an explanation.

PUTTING THE SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP (tm) MODEL TO WORK
The Situational Leadership (tm) Model by Dr. Hersey teaches us that the correct way to respond to any employee situation depends on the employee's level of competency in their task areas combined with their commitment to these tasks. These two factors determine the management style to take in any given situation. This is the what I like to append to my "it depends" answer.

I like to begin my response using the explanation above while drawing an X-Y graph on my notebook paper. I label the X axis commitment and the Y axis competency. I also like to label the corner of the graph 'low' and both ends of each axis 'high.'  (see image below)

I complete the graph by creating a 2 x 2 matrix since there are four possible combinations of competency and commitment in this model:

1. Low competency/low commitment
2. Low competency/high commitment
3. High competency/high commitment
4. High competency/low commitment

This leads to four possible management style responses depending on the assumed level of competency and commitment. This is where we answer the question of how to respond. Our response depends on the employee's level of competency and commitment. 

I like to name and draw each of the four management styles as I discuss them which results in the completed diagram below:

1. Low competency/low commitment = Coaching Style
2. Low competency/high commitment = Supporting
   
3. High competency/high commitment = Delegating
   
4. High competency/low commitment = Directing

GIVE SPECIFIC WORK EXAMPLES
I might also add that for each type of management style you explain it is important to include a very brief, real-life example from your career. This not only confirms your understanding of the management style but also demonstrates your use of it in a work situation.

In this post I focused on using a picture in a job interview illustrated by Dr. Hersey's Situational Leadership (tm) model. I purposely left out a lot of details of this model in favor of keeping the focus on how a picture helps increase the effectiveness and success of a job interview. If you are not familiar with this model and plan on using it in a job interview I suggest you might benefit from studying it in greater detail by exploring Dr. Hersey's website.  You'll find more information about the model as well as certification courses in using it at your place of business.

I also suggest you create your own examples of each style and where you used them in your career so that you are fully prepared to share them in your interview.

Recent posts on this topic:

Succeeding in Management Job Interviews Using Pictures

Job Interviews: Increasing Use of Diagrams and Whiteboards

Standing Out In Job Interviews Using Visual Communications

Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!

Succeeding in Management Job Interviews Using Pictures

You can be sure that a management interview will a include a question about how you might handle a hypothetical situation with an employee. Here's a wonderfully effective way to respond using a simple, well-known framework.

WHAT ALL MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS HAVE IN COMMON: THE EMPLOYEE
No matter what the management question is concerning a situation with an employee, don't forget that the common denominator is the employee. And as all employees come in different flavors, most answers can begin with "it depends." A great response will not only discuss what it depends on, but also what it does not depend.

You see most interviewees are trying to figure out your dominant management style and if there is a fit between your style and the team you may be hired to manage. But we all know that an effective manager is skilled in at least four styles and employs them depending on what is needed at the time. Therefore the appropriate answer does not depend on your dominant management style but knowing and using the style most needed considering the employee and the situation at hand.

This approach is clearly the case of not directly answering the question asked, but answering the question that should have been asked and gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the theory and the wisdom of your experience in a way that will make you stand out from the pack. 

NEXT UP: USING THE BLANCHARD HERSEY SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

Recent posts on this topic:

Job Interviews: Increasing Use of Diagrams and Whiteboards

Standing Out In Job Interviews Using Visual Communications

Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!

Using the Situational Leadership Model in Job Interviews

Job Interviews: Increasing Use of Diagrams and Whiteboards

There are many professions where drawing a picture or diagram in the job interview is very common, if not expected. Software Architecture, Business Process Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture are only a few examples where it is quite natural for the interviewee to pull out a piece of paper and supplement their responses with visual communications.

It is becoming even more common place for the interview to consist of time spent at the whiteboard solving a problem or doing a quick “chalk talk.” “Giving good whiteboard” is one of the top ten skills an Enterprise Architect candidate should possess according to Larry DeBoever, renowned technologist and managing director at EAdirections.

Jeffrey Kay, in his article entitled “Greet your next job candidate with a whiteboard and marker,” advocates the use of the whiteboard as a means to more effective job interviews. Niniane Wang includes this same theme in her advice on how to prepare for a software engineer job interview in a brief but excellent paper entitled “Preparing for a Software Engineering Interview.”

So we can see that becoming skilled at drawing simple and effective diagrams or pictures can help you in your job interview and it may even be a matter of survival depending on the job and the industry in which you are interviewing.

In light of this, why not consider honing your skills in this ever-increasing area?

Recent posts on this topic:

Standing Out In Job Interviews Using Visual Communications

Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!

Succeeding in Management Job Interviews Using Pictures

Using the Situational Leadership Model in Job Interviews

Standing Out In Job Interviews Using Visual Communications

We've been talking about using visual communications to increase our success in job interviews (See Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!). Perhaps you initially dismissed this idea as non-traditional or risky. Let's think about it a little more ...

Imagine you are interviewing a candidate for a position in your company. It is late in the afternoon and this is your 6th and last interview of the day. You work your way through the initial chit-chat and normal set of questions.
Suddenly in response to one of your questions this candidate pulls out a piece of paper from her notebook and begins to draw a simple diagram. She isn’t much of an artist; the figures are crude and simple. But somehow in a few seconds she’s conveyed the essence of your operation on a single page using just a few simple characters and symbols.

From this vantage point she demonstrated a fundamental understanding of the business you are in, what you produce, and how you transform raw materials to finished products. She demonstrated her grasp of the critical elements that all work together to produce the product you market and sell to your customers.

Who do you think stood out from all the other candidates? Who do you think got the job?

Recent posts on this topic:

Job Interviews: Increasing Use of Diagrams and Whiteboards

Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!

Succeeding in Management Job Interviews Using Pictures

Using the Situational Leadership Model in Job Interviews

Job Interview Success: Draw A Picture!

Many job interviews fail to realize their highest potential due to a lack of communication and connection. The goal of all job interviews is for the interviewer to be connected to the potential employee and be thinking, "This person gets it! I must find a way to hire them." One of the most successful ways to accomplish this is also the most underutilized: Drawing pictures.

SEEING IS BELIEVING
With 65% of the population as visual learners why don’t we use pictures and other forms of visual communications more frequently, especially for something as important as a job interview?
Pictures offer many advantages for effectively communicating:

• Pictures are language independent
• Pictures can simplify and cut right to the point
• Pictures are memorable

What better way to communicate independent of language, keep it simple and to the point, and leave a memorable experience in the eyes of those who have hiring authority than by using a few simple pictures in a job interview?

PUT PICTURES TO WORK IN YOUR INTERVIEWS
If you are one of many that are out there looking to improve your employment situation, and especially if you are currently out of work, why not put some time and effort into honing your visual communications skills by learning a few basic VC principles and adding them to your interview toolkit? It’s easier than you think!

In subsequent posts we will be concentrating on this important skill so stay tuned. In the meantime, what has been your experience with using pictures in interviews? Please take a few moments and leave your comments below.

RELATED POSTS:

Standing Out In Job Interviews Using Visual Communications

Job Interviews: Increasing Use of Diagrams and Whiteboards

Succeeding in Management Job Interviews Using Pictures

Using the Situational Leadership Model in Job Interviews

What All Effective Project Scope Statements Have in Common

Perhaps one of the most challenging activities in managing projects is crafting a good project scope statement. In this post we'll discuss the three elements of a great project scope statement you can use to get the words out of your project team and on paper.

"What Diagrams" for Educators

Just a quick post to expand the idea of "what diagrams" for those that teach. In writing the post on visual architecture I reflected back on my experience teaching night classes on computer networking at the university. I have a few ideas to share but hope this will not only give you some ideas but motivate you to share what you do with all of us as well.

THE "BRANSON 5 TIME RULE"
Throughout my teaching I liked to refer to the "Branson 5 Time Rule." This rule states that it takes about 5 exposures to a term to begin to be comfortable with it. I would mention that frequently in my networking classes because they were loaded with jargon and acronyms that would intimidate the students and block their learning. I think this helped them to relax and let themselves gradually learn, knowing that we would talk about it again at least five more times in the class and each time they would gain greater familiarity with it, how it is used, what it connects to, and so forth.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO HOOK ON TO
So what does this have to do with "what diagrams," you ask? Good question. "What diagrams" can provide a place for students to hook terms and concepts. A good visual can act as a mnemonic or "memory aiding"  tool. A good visual is even more effective if it combines words with the picture.

For example, in networking classes I used the International Standards Organization's Open Systems Interconnect reference model. It is a tall rectangle with seven layers starting at the bottom. Each layer has a name and a set of functions it performs. I found that by teaching the model well and having the students commit the model to memory I could relate almost everything we discussed to a layer or layers on the model. Understanding the model also provided the basis for understanding how networks function. I would come back to the model many times in each class. By the end of the semester these students were pros with the model. I found later that they continued to use the model to isolate and repair some of the most complex and vexing network problems they later encountered in their jobs. 

THE PRINCIPLE
So the principle here is to find a "what" diagram or visual aid that can form the basis for a topic and can carry you and your students through the class as I did with the ISO OSI model. 

I'm very innterested to hear about your experiences. Do you have a picture you use personally in your life? How about one that you have found valuable in your teaching? Please take a few moments and share with us. I'd love to get a good discussion going on this important topic.  

Good Visual Architecture Defined - Part 1

Visual architecture is the overall design or structure of a visual tool such as a diagram or a visual aid. In this post and throughout this series we explore a few fundamentals you can use to ensure that the diagrams, project artifacts and teaching aids you create are effective.

Adding a visual element to your work has proven to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your efforts whether it be in the boardroom, at project team meetings or in the classroom. Good visual aids have been known to unify teams, give clarity to complex and vexing challenges, and illuminate and inspire the minds and lives of students, and those they infuence, for a lifetime.

One-Page Diagrams: 2 Considerations That Make for Success!

The secret of creating effective one-page diagrams really comes down to 2 considerations. I've tested these considerations in all my client work and found them helpful in all cases. You can test them too. In this post we'll briefly explore these considerations so that you can begin to dramatically increase the effectness of your diagrams or the diagrams of those you supervise, mentor or teach.

Here's the secret:

Creating effective one-page diagrams requires us to consider the diagram's purpose and the diagram's audience.

This sounds simple doesn't it? It is. But in spite of the simplicity we still see more ineffective diagrams out there than effective ones. Why? Because knowing is not doing.

My goal for this post is to provide a few simple guidelines that will help you create the right diagram for the right audience every time.   

Raising the Bar on Bad Diagrams

Bad diagrams are like long articles with no headlines, no formatting, and no punctuation! This is the first in a series intended to raise the quality of diagrams across the board. It was inspired by a post by Alan Inglis back in June on his Chief Architect blog entitled: Complex diagrams = bad architecture. As I read his post I found my head nodding in agreement, then cheering him on, and finally said to myself, "Somebody ought to do something about this!" At that moment I recalled something a colleague once said to me, "If not me, who? If not now, when?"

In this post we'll name a few things all bad diagrams have in common. We'll also explore their far-reaching effect. I'll conclude with a call to action intended for three influential groups of people that have the power to put a stop to bad diagrams and help me in my mission to Raise the Bar on Bad Diagrams.

In future posts I'll share the main themes of a paper I am currently writing entitled: Making Sense Out of Chaos: The Anatomy of an Effective Diagram. Won't you join me by adding your comments and thoughts on this vitally important subject?