Soji Learning & Change work with hundreds of business leaders across Australia every year by delivering unique learning and change programs. A while back they got a brief to help one of their clients refresh a safety learning program for leaders. The brief was to improve workshop engagement and creating a stronger connection to the importance of safety in the organisation. As part of the design they built an innovative exercise that combined visuals and storytelling.

The group activity used a eye-catching yet simple illustrated map of a country community typical to where the organisation operates. Each group was then asked to use the visual as a prompt for discussion and story sharing. They talked about the system impact of accidents and injuries and the negative effect injuries can have on a community over time. This in turn led the teams to have conversations during the workshop about their work, health & safety responsibilities and the positive actions they could take forward.

Who drew the map of the country town? Yes, you guessed it. It was a wonderful brief as I was allowed to imagine what this bustling, cosy country town would look like. Knowing that this simple illustration could help play a part in getting employees home safely every night certainly made the whole process even more meaningful. A small drawing with a big heart. Now that’s work I love. For more information on Soji Learning & Change, please visit: soji.com.au

Since early 2016 I have been incredibly lucky to provide business illustrations to two industry gurus. They are Greg Savage and Chris Savage. And every year when they hit the road on their ‘Savage Speaker Series’ in the main cities across Australia, New Zealand, UK and South Africa, it’s been my hand drawn illustrations that pop up on their presentation slides. I work hard to provide simple yet eye-catching, relevant and memorable little cartoons to support the blend of recruitment and professional services lessons, learnings and insights they provide on the big screen and from the stage.So far, thousands (and I mean thousands) of business leaders, managers and employees have packed out auditoriums to grab the ‘gold’ that Greg and Chris have been sharing across their first three speaker series. To date, the speaker series have been:

Savage Growth – Powering Profits in Disrupted Times: ‘New competition, client and candidate expectations, technology, delivery channels, financial models. Yet conditions are perfect to differentiate, pull ahead of the market and explode profit growth’.

Savage S.P.R.I.N.T – The Six Pillars of the Future Fit Recruiter: ‘100 proven tips, tools and tactics to drive billings’.

Savage SELL: ‘Machines will do hackwork, process and drudgery. You, the human, must be brilliant at what machines cannot do! And machines can’t sell. To drive sales success in this ‘new world’ of recruitment… you must learn to Savage SELL!’

Each speaker series format is a fast-paced 4-5 hour intensive yet fun workshop. Each workshop is made up of fresh content, providing a proven blueprint on every facet of leading-edge sales and business.

If you don’t know about Greg or Chris, start today, right now, this minute. I highly recommend you follow them across their extremely active social media platforms, websites and blogs. Tap into the timeless business craft and learnings that they so regularly, generously and openly share with their community.

In the meantime, if you can’t wait and you’re eager to read a bit more, here’s a quick overview with two short biographies. And yes, as you may have guessed already, Greg and Chris are brothers!

Greg Savage is a leader of the global recruitment industry, with a career spanning thirty-five years, and is a regular keynote speaker at staffing conferences around the world. After decades starting, running, building and improving great recruitment businesses, Greg now provides board advisory, consulting and keynote speaking services to organisations across the world, focusing on growth, expansion and profitability. Web site: gregsavage.com.au

Chris Savage is one of Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent public relations, digital, marketing and professional services industry leaders. What drives Chris is helping leaders and businesses accelerate growth. Over 25 years in roles ranging from Managing Director to CEO to COO to Chairman, Chris has built and grown successful businesses and global brands. As a leader, Chris thrives on helping others achieve their potential – to be the very best they can be. He is also an accomplished keynote speaker and speaks at major conferences across the world. Web site: thesavageco.com

Here’s what Chris and Greg said about my work:

“Guy’s drawings added huge power to the engagement with our audiences, and helped us tell our stories and messages with clarity and impact. Guy is quick to understand what’s required, and produces his work with professionalism and excellence. He’s a class act and I highly recommend him.”Chris Savage thesavageco.com

“The main job of a public speaker is to get the message across with powerful words, usually with stories and insights based on experience. But the audio-visual component plays a key, often under-rated role. The verbal message can be strongly reinforced, even brought to life, by a powerful image. This is why we engaged Guy to illustrate our last three international speaking events… and the feedback we got proved we made a wise decision. The illustrations are often quirky, but always on point… not that dissimilar to how Chris and I hope to make our presentations overall. Guy is a talent… but also a delight to work with, and one of our staunchest allies”.Greg Savage gregsavage.com.au

Discovery, curiosity, experimentation and storytelling are core to Soji Learning & Change – a nationwide consultancy based out of Adelaide that develops leaders, aligns strategy and shapes culture. So it was no surprise when they recently approached me with the brilliant idea of developing a set of coasters that tells a micro story as well as their approach to business. As the illustrator, my role was come up with a simple but rich metaphor that could bring the whole story to life as well as the individual sentence on each coaster. I centred my illustrations on people working to nurture and grow a beautiful garden.

Other than a great spot to park your tea or coffee, the coasters will be used as client gifts and as an alternative to PowerPoint credentials in business development meetings to help spark dialogue and questioning. Imagine ditching the laptop or iPad and simply spreading six coasters on a table alongside the person you are meeting? For me that’s fresh, bold thinking and a great way to share a story and foster a meaningful conversation.

After 12 months of learning and growing as part of The Growth Project, the charity and business leaders involved in the program produced a collection of their thoughts, learnings and advice. These stories were pulled together to create an illustrated book called ‘Ripples’. As the book’s illustrator, my role was to bring to life a key message from each story with a simple B&W cartoon. As you can see, each illustration was given a full page, which really let each cartoon have a big impact. The first photo shows me at the book launch next to a banner with all the illustrations.

Filled with contributions from charities you might never have heard of and the business leaders who have travelled beside them in the journey, ‘Ripples’ shares great lessons and learnings that will inspire, move or spark you into action.

The Growth Project is a non-profit organisation that supports small, successful charities to maximise their impact on the world. You can see my previous work for The Growth Project here: http://www.guydownes.com/2015/10/helping-those-who-help-2/

Working closely with Soji Learning & Change, we’ve been exploring a new, micro visual storytelling format, which we’re calling SNAP videos (Short Narrative And Picture). These 30 second bursts of sketched storytelling get to the point, but also have a twist in the tail.

This video example for Soji is a prototype. The idea is to create a structure that unfolds in two parts. Initially we hear the voiceover together with my hand sketching out a picture. Then the shot zooms out to reveal the key image positioned within a different or unexpected setting that amplifies the message or gives a twist to the story (helping people to get curious and thinking differently). The story and picture is then reinforced with wording, which appears on the screen at the very end.

Whether you are looking for a way to support a change or development initiative, highlight values and behaviours or reinforce elements of a new strategy, we think these short blasts will be a great way of keeping messages top of mind and could be used in face-to-face settings (large or small), online or across social media. To see more of my visualisation work with Soji Learning & Change, please visit: http://sketchspeak.com.au/#welcome

In NSW, there are approximately 2.4 million children and young people. Engaging with, listening to and letting this important group in society have their voices heard was recently a key focus at “#ItsuptoYOUth Youth Health Policy Consultation” workshop for young people of Greater Western Sydney aged between 14-24 years old. As the graphic recorder at the event, held in the beautiful old Parramatta Town Hall, my role was to capture and draw out the content from a series of fast paced and wide ranging group conversations on key issues across the youth health and services spectrum. The energy in the room was great and it was a privilege to take the visual notes on some of the ideas, insights and issues that matter to children and young people today.

I was recently invited to graphic record the ‘CSIRO SMiSposium 2016: Partnering for the Future’ conference in Sydney at Doltone House. This CSIRO Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools program (SMiS) event was aimed at sparking important conversation about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Australia. As the event’s graphic recorder, my role was to draw creative and relevant visual notes of the key presentations given by a range of experts from education, STEM, government, industry and academia backgrounds. The presentations, conversations, insights and ideas were fantastic content for graphic recording and live scribing. Here are some posters of my work as well as a great shot of the bustling conference room with my graphic recording boards in the background.

Working closely with the Department of Education NSW Futures Learning team, we recently created a video scribe animation to raise awareness and understanding how space and technology can support future focused pedagogies and deeply engage students in developing critical 21st century skills. The video scribe animation was brought to life using a compelling story of two teachers in different schools and how they went about navigating the opportunities and realities of a Futures Learning approach as well as the positive results that it delivered.

Podcasts are a great way to be entertained and learn about new things, anywhere and anytime. I recently had a conversation with the crew at The Mojo Radio Show who were keen to get my view on how drawing and using visuals can enhance learning, recall and knowledge transfer in a business setting. Check it out by clicking here.

Straight after the interview, I used the audio file from The Mojo Radio Show crew to go through the same process I take when graphic recording to create visual notes of the show (see the image above). The visual notes capture the key ideas, themes and interesting parts of the conversation and taking this same approach (either ‘live’ in the room or retrospectively) can be a great way to create an engaging communication and memory tool in a business setting. I also created a unique cartoon about podcasts in business which you can see right here on my dedicated cartoon site www.officeguycartoons.com

The Mojo Radio Show is a regular podcast designed to bring listeners useable, practical and up to date insights, techniques and tools to get their ‘mojo working’ in and out of work. To listen to more of their interviews, go to: www.themojoradioshow.com
Thanks to Gary and Robbo for inviting me on the show.

Working closely with my production team, we’ve recently developed a new style of product in our video scribe animation service line. The new slant is the ability for speakers/spokespeople to be integrated within the video scribe animation and next to my drawings using green screen technology and some clever post production techniques. This video scribe animation was created to profile the amazing story of Peter Baines and how he helps organisations around the world. For more information on Peter’s personal career journey and the difference he makes, visit here.