Whiteboard Success
Visuals are clearly a highly beneficial and effective aid to any presentation, session, or meeting, and flip charts are without a doubt a simple, cost-effective, and convenient form of visual aid you can use. If this is the case, why are flip charts often neglected and underused? In spite of all their benefits, there are many objections and barriers to using whiteboards and to overall whiteboard success.
One common objection that people use is that they don’t have time to use whiteboards or develop flip chart skills. These people find it “easier” to simply plan a prepared speech, write down the main points, and present it orally without any visual aids. These are also the people who say they can’t draw and don’t have the time to learn.
Another barrier to using whiteboards is assuming one’s material is far too technical and complicated, and just won’t “work” on a whiteboard. A final common objection to learning whiteboard skills is that it’s been tried before with perceived bad results. Perhaps a chart came out looking confusing, you’re concerned no one can read your writing, or you don’t think you can draw.
However, keep in mind that a presentation with visuals will be uninteresting, uninspiring, and unmotivational, and you will likely lose your audience, who will come away from the meeting without having retained much.
It first of all really is not that time-consuming to learn and practice visual language skills on a whiteboard. You simply need the desire and drive and take a little bit of effort, and even 15 minutes a week can help you incorporate visual aids into your presentations and drastically improve your sessions and meetings.
In addition, learning how to simplify and draw out your “complicated” or “too-technical” data on a flip chart can actually help your audience understand your content better than through other methods—especially oral-only presentations. Focus on showing them the big picture using simple phrases, symbols, and diagrams. Also, the key to avoiding confusing charts, unreadable writing, and “bad” drawing is to learn how to develop your flip chart skills.
But why not just use PowerPoint or a dry-erase whiteboard? PowerPoint, while convenient and useful, loses some effectiveness in that it’s not interactive. People learn better when they can watch the words being written and the diagrams being drawn (such as on a flip chart or whiteboard), which helps them to better absorb the information, and also gives them time to ask questions. While white boards do have this interactive feature, they don’t have the permanent feature; you have to erase to move on to the next point.
