Customer Reviews

Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don't Work

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those who have already read one or both of Dan Roam's previous books, The Back of the Napkin and Unfolding the Napkin, will be pleased to know that in his latest book, he develops some of his most valuable insights in much greater depth but also expands the scope of his analysis to include new issues and new challenges as well as new opportunities to communicate more effectively. Of even greater significance, at least to me, he explains with exceptional precision and clarity the interdependence of verbal and visual literacy.

In the first "Napkin" book, Roam suggests to his reader that one of the best ways to answer a question, solve a problem, persuade others, or to achieve another goal is to express its essence. What the French characterize as a precís. For example, formulate it as a simple drawing. You may claim that you have no skills for drawing. That's good news. Why? Roam asserts that less-sophisticated drawings have greater impact because those who see them can more easily identify with stick figures, for example, and focus more readily on the relationships suggested, such as between and among options to be considered, implications and consequences, and cause-and-effect relationships. Simple drawings accelerate both inductive and deductive reasoning.

Then in the second "Napkin" book, he reiterates three key points:

1. There is no more powerful way to discover a new idea than to draw a simple picture.
2. There is no faster way to develop and test an idea than to draw a simple picture.
3. There is no more effective way to share an idea with other people than to draw a simple picture.

In both "Napkin" books, Roam explains how to achieve these objectives by (you guessed it) drawing a series of simple pictures. "To complete the workshop, you'll need three things...This book is your primary tool; please expect to draw in it and generally muck it up - that's what it's for. [Also,] please bring your own magic wand with you to class. My own favorites are a plain no. 2 pencil, a Sharpie, or a Pilot pen." Although Roam encourages his reader to use the book as a workbook and add annotations throughout, he also suggests using something to draw on, everything from several pages of blank scratch paper provided at the back of the book to a small personal whiteboard (i.e. small "lap board"). My own preference is the "Original Marble Cover 50-Sheets" composition book that costs less than $2 each.

Whereas The Back of the Napkin introduces the core concepts of the visual problem-solving process, Unfolding the Napkin develops and extends the same concepts to wider, deeper, and more valuable applications. Yes, Roam really does take a "hands-on" approach...and the hands belong to his reader.

What we have in Blah Blah Blah is a shift in focus from using simple drawings to express complicated concepts to a rigorous explanation of how to avoid or eliminate boredom in communication. More specifically, how to think more effectively about complexities, how to increase one's understanding of them, how to increase others' understanding of them when we explain them, and how to make learning about them more engaging. To a much greater extent than in the previous two books, Roam includes a full complement of tools and techniques by which the reader can (a) select information, insights, and suggestions that are most relevant to her or his specific needs and interests, then (b) apply them most effectively where they will have the greatest impact.

They include:

o A map of the Land of Blah-Blah-Blah
o The Blah-Blahmeter
o The Three Rules of Vivid Thinking
o The Six Elemental Pictures of Vivid Grammar (and Their Relationship to Verbal Grammar)
o The Seven Essentials of a Vivid Idea

These and tools and techniques can help anyone to think clearly and explain convincingly in ways and to an extent most of us do not realize.

With regard to the subtitle of this book and its reference to words that "don't work," it important to keep in mind that in order to understand visual literacy and verbal literacy, it is necessary to understand the vocabulary of each as well as the "grammar" of both whenever they interact. Drawings on cave walls thousands of years ago did not have captions but were presumably recognizable to those who saw them as were tone of voice and gestures (i.e. body language). We need to recapture once again, Roam suggests, the ability to grasp the essence of a thought, to overcome the complexity of "clutter," then select words and images that express an idea so clearly and so compellingly that when sharing it with others, they care as much about it as we do.

I have been a fan of Dan Roam's work since I first saw his blog sometime in 2006. Dan has a fantastic way of simplifying things that seem difficult, or even impossible, to the point where they are easy to understand and achieve. In his first book, The Back of the Napkin, he demonstrated in a step-by-step fashion how anyone can use pictures to improve their thinking, solve problems and sell their ideas. In this book he takes it to the next level. He shows you how to not be boring. This may sound like something simple, and when you are talking about simple things maybe it is. But what about when you want to explain something that's complex or potentially confusing? If this is your challenge this book will be especially helpful.

Using a framework he calls Vivid thinking, he shows readers how to both explain and engage people around your ideas, whether they be simple or complex, subtle or sophisticated. The subtitle of the book "what to do when words won't work" belies a subtler truth: neither words nor pictures, by themselves, are enough. It's only by putting them together that we can fully engage audiences, make ourselves understood, and achieve our objectives in life.

Dan also practices what he preaches. The book is absolutely engaging from start to finish, with a cast of characters, pictures, stories and tools that all work together to deliver fresh thinking and real help for anyone who truly wants to improve their communication skills and get their ideas across in such a way that they have real impact in the world.

How we best think about things we care about is the rich and still largely uncharted territory for us getting better things done, more easily. Dan Roam presents keys to still-unimagined possibilities for how creatively and powerfully we can express and manifest in this world. I loved his Napkin books, and use the techniques regularly now. This one is more sublime, but equally right on. The elegance of Blah Blah Blah lies in how it makes clear and simple the insanely hard work of making things clear and simple.

This third book from Dan Roam lives up to and exceeds the high standards set by his earlier books. It is as enjoyable as it is informative. If you have ever been faced with explaining a concept that didn't seem to make sense at first, this book is for you.

One would think Dan Roam would have exhausted his visual thinking muscle on his last fantastic book, The Back of the Napkin - in itself a stellar example of how powerful simple visual thinking can be. But no, Roam's done it again. This time with Blah Blah Blah, an informative and delightful romp through the rich landscape of visual language as it relates to the complexities of today's world. Inside, Dan illuminates what many people ask expert visual practitioners as they embark on their own learning curves: How do you begin? How do you determine what content matters? How do you think intelligently about distilling content? How do you display it and share it with others? Why would you want to?

If you're considering establishing or amplifying your skill in simple but profound visualization, don't think twice about this book. Attempting to work and think without the support of visual language is akin to driving with your knees. You can do it, but why would you want to? Blah, Blah, Blah should be in your library next to other greats like Slide:ology, Visual Meetings, Rapid Problem-Solving with Post-It Notes and, (although I'm notably biased on this one), Gamestorming.

Great compliment to Dan's book The Back of the Napkin. Dan's passion to help in the area of effective communication is very important. His books are enlightening on how complicated it is to communicate clearly. But his books are a guide to make this road easier. Great job Dan - keep it up. I highly recommend this book leaders, speakers, presenters, Sunday School teachers, etc. If you teach or present, this book is a must.

I wish that all my high school and college teachers/professors had read "Blah Blah Blah" by Dan Roam! I'd be much more educated. This book is the antidote to boring meetings and boring classes! Dan engagingly explains how to communicate in a way that effectively reaches your listeners/viewers, in a simple clear manner. Having come to know about Dan's visual methods through his brilliant "back of the napkin" explanation of health care legislation reform, I am really happy to see his ideas evolving and growing with this new book. Should be required reading for anyone who seeks to lead & instruct.

I was introduced to the world of visual thinking through Alexander Osterwalder. Alex frequently mentions and recommends Dan Roam's work to people interested in visual thinking. And, to show for it, Alex demonstrates in his book, Business Model Generation, how vivid explanations create traction with audiences and make ideas stick. Now here's Dan Roam's seminal piece on visual thinking, Blah-Blah-Blah, explaining the principles of visual grammar. Blah-Blah-Blah shows me how Osterwalder mastered it, and how I can learn to do it myself!

In my line of work, international aid and development, we are entering a new era where my colleagues and I need to become more explicit about the way we organize and execute projects. One of the fundamentals we need to improve on is to explain the basic logic to our thinking: eg. how will this medicine program contribute to reducing child mortality, what can we do to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs and open businesses in Africa, how can we involve more farmers in adopting environmentally and socially responsible production practices? Until now, we have been fiddling about with ways of explaining these kind of logics. But, I think now that Dan Roam lays down this guideline for visual thinking grammar, I believe we have an opportunity to start experimenting and working on that breakthrough in development planning, which the world so much needs.

I have committed myself to visual grammar and I'm starting to experiment with drawing and sketching out ideas to convince colleagues and share them. I sometimes practice this on my blog, where I capture the inspirational thoughts, which I get from my work. And that brings me to one small point that I think is missing in the book as it is. It doesn't contain any practical exercises for readers, to come to grips with the do's and don'ts in visualizing your thinking. I will need to find that out my self. Nonetheless, Blah-Blah-Blah has definitely convinced me that it is worth the effort to just go out there and try, and reflect on the grammar.

I think that, like me, there are other people out there who are, or will be inspired to pick up their pens and markers and convince the people around them that visual thinking is the way forward in our current information age. As I'm writing this, I feel the rumbling of the march of the stick figure army that will be waging war in the land of Blah-Blah-Blah, and weeding out the trees which block the view on the forest. I look forward to commanding my own batallion one day!

This is a very interesting book and it has given me several ideas on how to communicate better. It showed me how too many words really clouds the message. If you want to improve your communication, run don't walk to get this book!

Dan Roam has done it again. In his last book, Back of the Napkin, Roam explained how pictures are a better way to solve problems creatively and communicate ideas. In this work, Roam takes his thinking to the next level and teaches the reader how to think vividly in pictures and still rely on words. Roam explains how humans first relied on pictures and then transitioned into words, leaving pictures behind. How we learn to read - first with picture books and then only words - is analogous to what happened to humankind. The problem is that our brain works holistically with both pictures and words so that leaving one component out is necessarily thinking with only half a brain. Roam teaches the reader some concepts and techniques. First, he shows how writing can be tested for clarity and intent with what he calls the Blah blahmeter, a tool used to determine how obtuse, boring or potentially deceiving writing is. He provides examples of each. He then shows how using vivid thinking can help to clarify murky writing, make interesting dull writing or expose deceptive writing by using pictures. For example, when you hear a noun he says draw a portrait, when you hear a relationship draw a map, etc. Engaging the mind fully in this way helps clarify the thought as well as make it more memorable. Roam also provides a tool for better communicating and selling ideas. As someone who works in government, I can attest to the fact of lots of blah blah blah in government writing. Using Roam's ideas will definitely help me communicate better and "translate" the work of other government staff.