Hello all,
Mime-translates into something called "static animation" when applied to a
drawing. In my corporate cartoonist role, I use static animation all the
time in order to put my audience "in the picture" with the content.
Static Animation is the cartoonist trick of simulating motion on a flat
(and otherwise not-moving) page or screen. You see it all the time in the
Marvel Comix (Wham!, Whoosh and Kaplooee!)
I concure with Barry Mallis's effort to describe "the groove". I've been
in a state of minimal production all week because I lost my groove after
the labor day week-end (and I have no idea why, I rested, and ate
well????) and have been extremely frustrated watching my work load back
up. People need to see what is going on, and in the business of business
re-engineering (yes I know it's an outdated term-but it is what we are
doing) getting everyone to see and understand what is going on, what the
issues are, how the assorted components interact, and what it does to the
people caught in the middle in as visceral way as can be portrayed.
I draw a lot of pictures of people running around, hands in the air,
screaming! We don't have to write pages of text to explain why people
feel this way, one simple picture addresses the facts that everyone has to
face, and assures everyone that yes, even management understand the pain.
Imagine yourself as a chunk of data floating around in the electronic
maze. Picture youself in a bubble of activity or struggling under
impossible deadlines, without the right tools or resources. (you don't
have to imagine too hard for that do you). The twist is, that drawing "in
motion" is another example of the spontenaety (sorry about the spelling)
needed to focus-as Barry described. I can teach people the graphical
short hand that shows motion, but there is something else that happens
that actually brings it to life for real, and it has something to do with
putting myself into the situation I'm portraying - in my head.
My point is that a lot of life is experiential, and even the imaginary
experience helps understanding. Barry does it in person with Mimery, I do
it on paper and help people I will never meet in person understand what
ever hard thing is under discussion today.
You can't communicate it if you can't experience it in some form. Thanks
Barry for your post... Now I have a few more words to express what I've
been doing intuitivley.
later...
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com
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--Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>