“Whiteboard Meeting“. I’ve heard the phrase before. Not 100% sure how this differs to other types of meetings. if it means ‘a meeting with one or more people writing things on a whiteboard‘, then I’m a pro at knowing what they are.

In fact just this afternoon I had a half-hour whiteboard meeting.

With myself.

Let me take you back 15 minutes before this meeting. I was sat at my desk with a  bunch of ideas whirling around my head. I sat there a bit puzzled and lost – as I wasn’t quite sure what my ideas looked like and if they’d even work as they swam around my brain. I felt a bit ‘stuck’. So, I went downstairs into a meeting room, stood there on my own with some thoughts for the upcoming season but needed a good space to write them down. Paper didn’t seem good enough – so I used a whiteboard instead. A few arrows, dotted lines, and some kind of messy chart later I was able to return to my desk a lot more aware of what I want to do.

More often than not, visualising something and getting it ‘down’ actually works. Ideas in your head may seem great but until they are said out loud, or written down, or drawn out you can’t tell whether they are any good or not. For me, this chart made sense to me, and now the idea looks a lot more realistic, a step in the right direction to seeing it become reality.

The problem is, many people have ideas in their head, but don’t seem to share them, get them down on paper. And until we do that, we can live in a place thinking this is the best idea ever, when to be honest, it might not be. But also, if ideas just stay in our heads not doing anything, we can end up feeling bitter, annoyed and frustrated at ourselves as we wonder what ‘could‘ happen.

My solo whiteboard meeting went well. All people in the room loved the idea. My next step is to actually tell real people. I encourage you to do the same with your idea.