How to Make the Most of a Whiteboard (Demo Included) | Christine vs. Work

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1:00Christine:So we're going to talk about whiteboards. They are like the office cliche, right? You got staplers and copiers and whiteboards, and it's just like productivity and brainstorming and like exciting stuff. I think we can all agree that whiteboards, whether it's real or virtual, like they're helpful, right? You can jot down notes. You can like sketch little things. You can put up sticky notes. But the more I thought about them, the more I had like questions, like, oh, maybe they have this like secret power. there's a reason why they're everywhere. Like, am I missing something? Are we all missing something?

1:33Christine:Turns out there is more to it. Stick around if you want to see these tips in action. Let's learn how to really use a whiteboard.

1:48Christine:Before we start, a brief word from our sponsor. We all want better ways to work. Confluence, the leading team collaboration software, keeps your whole company in sync. Confluence is one place where you can create, collaborate, and share work. So you can spend less time meeting and more time doing. Get it free today at Atlassian.com slash meet less. Finally, finally somebody wants to talk about whiteboards. That's Jake Knapp. He invented the design sprint and he's written sprint and make time. As a designer, he's thought a lot about tools and processes, tools like whiteboards. In your book, Sprint, you write that whiteboards make you smarter.

2:32Christine:Can you unpack that? You know, the whiteboard is extra memory for us. And it means that we don't have to just hold in our head what the person said in the last sentence or two. And we don't have to constantly try to convince our colleagues or try to talk each other down or try to construct, oh God, like what's, you know, we don't have to necessarily be quite so subject to recency bias and all these things. we can sort of see, we can put things up there and extend our memory. And that way it does absolutely make us smarter. Jake is a big, big fan of whiteboards. What drives you bananas about how you see some people use whiteboards?

3:09I mean, the main thing is that when people don't use them, that's number one. And it's so common that the whiteboard is either garbage, like it's small or it's, you know, It's too fancy or the canvas is weird and you can still see what people wrote before because it doesn't erase properly. Like it's a weird material or there's no whiteboard at all. That's like saying, well, we're going to write software and we don't have computers. Like it's just, it's, it's insane.

3:35Christine:You know, there's a, there's a blank canvas and you can do whatever you want. Right. But I think that freedom is a little like anxiety inducing. Am I doing this right? Am I putting stuff in the right places? Like I need help. I'm looking at this blank white screen and I'm just trying to figure out what's the best way to start filling it out in a structured way. Imagine yourself like at Ikea and you're looking at like a shelving unit. There are all these different components and you can kind of like figure out what shelves you want and how many do I want. Well, the whiteboard is sort of like that shelving unit and I'm going to build myself the shelves that I need.

4:12And then I'll have a place to stick things when they come up in the conversation. I like to start off a bigger project meeting by figuring out what the long-term goal is. So I might be writing, you know, long-term goal. Then I know that what's in this area here, I'm going to draw this like rectangle here. And I want us to fill in what the long-term goal is. This is what we're all about. This is what grounds us. Similarly, I could kind of copy this, move it down here. And I could say, how are we going to measure that goal? Like, what are, if we go out into the future and we've achieved that goal, what will it look like?

4:47What are things that we could tangibly measure? What about, you know, what about the risks? You know, I don't want to just talk about the things that could go well. What are all the potential problems? We've got now this new shelf for pessimism. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast.

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5:59The thing I really like to do is to make a map of, like, how does this work? Like, you might think of it as, like, how does our system work?

6:08Christine:Jake also uses this technique, which I love, called note and vote. Basically, if you're in a meeting and people are just trying to talk over each other or like, you know, here's my idea, here's my idea. Just pause, put on a timer, everyone quietly and independently write down their ideas on sticky notes. And then we can use the whiteboard to capture all of those things. At this point, hopefully you already have someone you've designated as a decision maker. They take all of these votes into consideration and make the final call. Done. Decision made. Move on. You might be tempted to use, like, so many fancy things on your whiteboard.

6:49Christine:No. Fight the urge. You want to keep it super simple, like, boring. The ideas are not boring. The ideas are amazing and rich. But everything else should be just supporting them. Another thing that drives me nuts is multicolored sticky notes. But they're so fun! Well, they do look fun! Your brain starts to try to figure out why is this green and why is this orange and you stop looking so much at the information. So it's adding extra hurdles to jump over.

7:21Christine:Stick to one color of sticky note. Jake really loves yellow. And then everything else is literally just words, boxes, and arrows. Nothing else. Keep it simple. So another question is, does it really matter what type of whiteboard you use? Well, sort of. Let's talk about digital whiteboards. What you're looking for is something that's robust and reliable and responsive, yet you want it to be easy enough to use so anyone joining the meeting can figure out things pretty fast. And if you're going old school whiteboard, go big or go home. Like, you really want as much surface area as possible. If you're working with people in real life, like something like this sucks.

8:05Like if it's like shaped like this, because you can only write like a list of texts. You can only make like a PowerPoint slide.

8:09Christine:Yeah. Jake has opinions. There's more. Then they should be a landscape, right? Like it's plain yellow sticky notes. And actually the adhesive on the Post-it brand ones is too strong. Yeah. And then you use Expo markers. We learned how to use a whiteboard in better ways, which is great. But I think the bigger takeaway here is why care about whiteboards? And I think I got it. It's because whiteboards are the tool to use to prevent bad meetings. Everybody's ideas are heard, not just the loudest people. You have clarity. Everyone's looking at a shared space, so there's less room for miscommunication or error.

8:48Christine:And then, wow, you have an action plan. You're making decisions. It's moving along. You are getting things done, and I love that. The core purpose of doing better work together, It's actually quite noble. I mean, in a way, like we're joking. I'm joking about it. Like it's geeky and it's like nerdy. And I know I'm like way too into it, but what could be more important? We can't do amazing things without the help of other people. And we waste so much of our time just spinning our wheels in meetings that are pointless, you know, having pointless conversations. These things are like solvable and it's a great, simple place to start.

9:26Christine:If you're still watching, one, thank you. but two I'm really curious like what do you want me to explore like what problems do you have at work I'd love to solve them please leave a comment I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you have any other ideas throw them my way all right peace out close your eyes exhale feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today well I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order.

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