OPENERS, PART 3: "Let me show you…"

OPENERS, PART 3: 

"Let me show you…"

"Let me show you" is what we say when words have stopped working. You've explained it twice, you've rephrased it, and the other person is still nodding politely while picturing something completely different. Some instructions just don't play nicely with words. They have a shape, and the fastest way to share a shape is to draw it. The good news is that you don't need to be an artist to do it. You just need to know when to stop talking and pick up the pen.

If it has a shape, it draws better than it describes.

Instructions that involve sequence, position, or change are where words struggle most. "Insert poles A and B into the crisscrossed sleeves, then insert pole B into the horizontal sleeve over the doorway…" is technically accurate and practically useless. A drawing doesn't have to be pretty to improve on the those instructions. 

Here's what that process actually looks like:

1. Ask what kind of shape it is. Is it a sequence (first this, then that), a structure (what connects to what), or a change (before and after)?
2. Break it into four frames or fewer. If you need more, you're probably drawing two things.
3. Use the simplest shapes you can. Circles, rectangles, lines, and arrows do most of the work.
4. Add words last, and only where the picture can't speak for itself.

The magic isn't in the drawing skill. It's in deciding what to show — and that's a skill anyone can build.

Here's a quick example.

How to draw a great horned owl

"Let me show you" works far beyond doodles.

Once you've drawn one set of instructions, you start noticing how many explanations are really a picture waiting to happen:

• Setting up a tent. Anyone who's tried to follow written tent instructions in the dark knows the feeling. A four-frame sketch — tent body and poles laid out, poles inserted or clipped and raised, rain fly attached, stakes in — replaces two confusing paragraphs with something you can refer to at a glance.
• Making a classic white (béchamel) sauce. Equal parts butter and flour, cooked into a paste, then milk whisked in until it thickens. The tricky part is knowing when the roux is "cooked enough," and that's a visual judgment, not a timed one. Showing the roux color, the whisking motion, and an example of the finished consistency turns an intimidating recipe into one beginners can gauge for themselves.
• Creating a budget. This is a stress-inducing example for most people, and one most people are likely to postpone, delegate or ignore. Try it anyway, at least on paper. Create visual buckets for these four key categories – 1. Essentials, 2. Periodic/Longer-term Items, 3. Personal/Entertainment and 4. Emergency Fund. Simplifying your budget into four categories quiets the overwhelm.

Same four steps, different subject. From playful to high-stakes, the picture does the heavy lifting.

Homework

Pick one process you currently explain in writing — directions to go somewhere, steps in a process, how-to instructions, a recipe, a workflow — and give yourself 15 minutes to redraw it.

1. Rough in the shape. Does it look like a step by step sequence, an overall structure, or before-and-after?
2. Sketch it in four frames or fewer. Four Boxes, some simple shapes, stick figures, and arrows are all you need.
3. Add only the words the picture can't carry. Think labels and bullets, and only the essentials.
4. Notice what becomes clear in the drawing. What might have been confusing using words alone? What could have been done incorrectly? Misinterpreted?

Showing instead of telling makes instructions faster to follow, easier to remember, and much harder to misread.