I’m one of those people who feel naked without a dry-erase marker in my hand. (Although I’m also a fan of wet-erase markers, as well.) Using a whiteboard isn’t an artistic endeavor. It’s just retrieving some skills you lost in about the fifth or sixth grade when you decided you couldn’t draw.)

Just draw it.

The art of using a whiteboard to support the flow of a collaborative meeting has nothing to do with being a graphic artist or illustrator. Or, at least, that’s what I keep telling myself as I’m neither a graphic artist nor illustrator.

When it comes to the kind of work-oriented whiteboard use this series is about, the drawing part is so easy, any 6-year-old can do it. And I’m not saying that figuratively. In this series, starting with this introduction, you’ll see that the style of drawing I’ll be showing you is straight out of kindergarten and first grade. Even if you are one of those people who say, “I can’t draw anything,” let me assure you of the following: When you were 5 years old, you thought you could draw everything–and you could.

In this series, you’ll learn:

1. How to use a few words and easy-to-draw line shapes and objects on a whiteboard to move a collaborative session to a successful conclusion.

You can draw a recognizable version of the image above. Many billions of dollars have gone into the pockets of people who have drawn this shape on a whiteboard. It wasn’t their drawing skills that made that happen, but how they used this shape on a white board to develop or explain a billion-dollar concept. That’s what this series is about–except the part about a billion dollars.

2. How to print letters and draw pictures like you could before you developed that unreadable cursive scrawl you have.

3. How to draw the only two types of illustrations you need for a whiteboard session: “nouns” and “metaphors.”

4. How to create an alphabet of noun drawings and a gallery of metaphor drawings that work for your business or special topic.

5. How to organize the contents of a whiteboard to help transition the ideas to the next phase of the project.

6. How to apply physical whiteboard techniques and methods to online or interactive whiteboards.