Cartoons of the Boss

This is a ground-breaking exercise that I've used in classroom and newsroom training. It was inspired by something I read in a teaching article (now long discarded, and I don't remember who wrote it). It talked about making use of drawings and art to let people to connect with your topic.

My topic was newsroom leadership. I teach a course in that and I've done some seminars in newspaper newsrooms. I begin by passing out markers and sheets of paper. Everyone has to draw a boss they particularly liked or hated. Lest anyone suffers from artist's block, I explain that everyone can draw, just like everone can write. Some are merely more practiced at it than others. So let 'er rip.

It always produces the most wonderful drawings. Most are stick figures, but all have expressive faces, some have dialogue, and so on. We then pin the drawings up on a wall in best-to-worst order and I have people talk about their drawing. By the end of this exercise, we've covered the spectrum of good and bad qualities of a newsroom leader -- or any leader, since some of the examples are non-journalistic. Everyone's had a boss at some time, and the relationship is seldom neutral. I sum up these qualities in a hand-out at the end. Occasionally, I haul out one of the cartoons for use in a later class.