On the spur of the moment, invited by Bob Jansen, we (Timan and I ) decided to go to Barcelona. Barcelona LeanCamp that is. An unconference that encourages people to share their knowledge with one another on the theme ‘lean businesses’. Since I am all into ‘lean thinking’ especially after reading Eric Ries’ Lean Startup this felt like a great opportunity to explore the lean thinking part of my visual thinking mind as well as exploring Barcelona while Amsterdam was in the middle of a deep freeze.

The unconference started of a little shy, people where called on stage to introduce themselves and the proposed session and fill the board or schedule for the whole day. Luckily there where some awesome speakers invited that had prepared presentations and led the way, their enthusiasm worked on others and the schedule soon began to fill up. Bob decided to put a visual thinking workshop given by me on the board as well. I agreed, thinking that a couple of people, 10 at the most, would give me the intimacy to draw and talk together.

I actually learned a lot during that day in Barcelona. I have made a couple of sketchnotes I will share with you, but the mingling of people from all different trades on this subject and talking to them gave me new insights. One of the most important is the fact that Lean and visual thinking are best buddies, and the visual way of thinking can help lean teams. In communication, but also in solving problems and breaking them into smaller little bits.

Another quick learning process was my session visual thinking, instead of 10, more than 50 people decided to show up. No intimate drawing, a lecture!. After a rough first start it went a lot smoother when I decided to ask for someone with a problem and have him draw that on the board. Having prepared nothing at all, it turned out to be a lot of fun. I never realized that what is so very obvious for me, is not necessarily for some one else.

All in all a day of good fun and great insights, thanks Nicky Smith and Salim Virani for organizing. Hope Bob Jansen will bring a LeanCamp to Holland soon.

Of course we had some great walks exploring the street of Barcelona, check out my pic’s here

sketchnotes by @wilg

main picture by Bob Jansen