Is it time to draw outside the lines?
Since 1998 I have helped people think together by putting pen to paper. I co-founded Bigger Picture in 2003, co-wrote Visual Collaboration with Loa Baastrup in 2018, and we built Visual Collaboration Academy in 2020.
I think we are at a time that calls for drawing outside the lines. On this site I share my work, projects, ideas, thoughts and unfinished sketches.
Sketching clarifies thinking and communication.
I live in Copenhagen and work all over the world. I trained as a Kaospilot and hold a Master in Organizational Learning and Adult Learning from Roskilde University. I have been in the field since 1998.
What I do is hard to put in words. From early on I got hold of a pen and some paper, and made quick sketches to explain an idea, a concept, or a process. Then I shared them. This usually resulted in smiles, engaging questions, and a fruitful dialogue. It has become what I do for a living, as a facilitator, strategist, thinker, and educator. I help people and teams see what they mean, more clearly.
Purpose
To show the world that it is at least as important to learn to sketch as it is to learn to read, write, and count.
I believe in the value of seeking, developing and seeing the bigger picture. With a bigger picture mindset you listen differently, you engage differently and you create differently. You automatically create solutions that benefit the larger whole.
What I value
Pen, paper, and curiosity. Planet, people, and passion. Imagination and kindness.
Two signature talks.
Both can be shaped for kids, for youth and young adults, or for professionals and leaders. I meet people where they are, and together we build capacity and explore what any idea, concept, or vision might look like.
Draw More Together
Why a pen is still the fastest tool we have for thinking with other people. I show how a simple drawing on a wall can bring a group from confusion to a shared picture in minutes, and why it matters more in an increasingly complex world running on digital screens. We sketch a little, look at a few real examples from twenty-five years of practice, and leave with a set of bite-sized actions anyone can take the next day.
“Drawing was a powerful way to create alignment, and the workshop has given us direction.”Zahed Kamathia, VP Head of Talent, LEGOInvite me
AI for Dummies
Everyone is talking about AI. Few have a picture of it. This talk gives a direct, to the point, and calm map of the territory, in plain language, with drawings. What AI is good at right now, what it is not, and where it fits next to humans in real work. I use AI every day to strengthen visual collaboration. That is the lens I bring.
“Ole’s contribution helped bring together the many strands of conversations in a clear and thoughtful way.”Katell Le Goulven, Senior Advisor, InTent at DavosInvite me
Five workshops I am passionate about.
Each one is a half day or a day with a small group, designed and facilitated with Loa or one of our Bigger Picture associates.
Visual Collaboration Crash Course
The fastest way to learn the method. The five building blocks, in action, with your own work as the case. You leave able to design, facilitate, and visualise a meeting that actually moves a group forward.
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Asking Powerful Questions Crash Course
The single highest-leverage skill in facilitation. We work through structure, assumptions, and scope, run our questions through the eight-point question test, and end with a sharper set than the one you arrived with.
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AI Readiness
A shared overview, a shared language. Your team leaves with one map of where AI sits today, a vocabulary of the terms that matter, and a shortlist of the areas worth working on first.
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AI Roadmap
Where AI goes first. A coherent plan with named owners and a concrete ninety-day step for each move, built and tested against your organisation’s values and constraints, in the room.
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AI Compass
Values and humane AI. We build an AI Compass for your team, design a test of five to seven questions every AI choice must pass, and write a short Commitment your team can stand behind.
“That was exactly the workshop I had wished for.”Workshop participant, Halsnæs KommuneInvite me
What I work on.
Bigger Picture
I co-founded Bigger Picture in 2003 and run it today with my partner in crime Loa Baastrup. We help global organisations handle complexity and create clarity using visual collaboration. Clients include LEGO, IKEA, Novo Nordisk, SAP, undervisnings-ministeriet, the UN, the Gates Foundation, and InTent at Davos.
Book
A bite-sized recipe for anyone wanting to master the magic of visual collaboration. Co-authored with Loa Baastrup. Illustrated by Sofie Lind Mesterton. Out in 9 languages with Wiley in 2019: English, French, Italian, Korean, Dutch, Ukrainian, Mandarin, German, and Danish.
Visual Collaboration Academy
The school we built. The Masterclass, live courses, on-demand programmes. Five thousand learners, from Novo Nordisk to the UN. The lighthouse, where you can learn the foundation for an old, very humane, way of working.
Bookmaps
I read a lot, and I have started creating visual maps of my favourite books. Done: The Fifth Discipline (Peter Senge), Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems (Adam Kahane). In the making: The Coming Wave (Mustafa Suleyman), The Green Super Power (Christina Boutrup), Nexus (Yuval Noah Harari), Moral Ambition (Rutger Bregman). More to come.
Investments
I try to pay it forward. This by supporting and investing my passion, time, and the symbolic pocket money accumulated in OQS Holding.
- Kufunda Village, Zimbabwe. Funds to support educational activities. kufunda.org
- Floating Power Plant, Denmark. Early micro-investor in a clean-tech company designing and providing unique floating platforms for wind energy. floatingpowerplant.com
- Giving What We Can. After 30 years of scattered donations, I have joined the 10% pledge movement, a commitment to give 10% of my income to organisations I believe can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others. givingwhatwecan.org/pledge
Work I am proud of.
InTent at Davos
Two years supporting InTent at Davos, creating visual system maps for five high-level workshops across a four-day programme. The visual language we built across the InTent ecosystem now anchors strategic maps, workshops, and a book.
Innovation Roundtable
Three consecutive years teaching innovation leads how to visualise their innovation strategies, and dare to show more clearly what they mean.
Halsnæs Kommune. Lederdag.
Seventy leaders from a newly merged unit. One half-day. The first full Building Blocks 1 to 5 method run in a single delivery. The output is a strategic picture the leadership group still refers to.
LIFE Strategy
When the pandemic hit and 65 people gathered online to draft and sketch their 2030 strategy. We co-designed and facilitated three half-day gatherings.
Coloring outside the lines
Making beautiful illustrations, drawn in detail, colored so everything stands out is important. But it is equally important to also do quick sketches, mockups, small experiments, breaking rules, and sharing the un-finished with others.
Scrap board
I have an evolving scrapboard where I add material I find interesting, relevant, funny, important and probably irrelevant too. You are welcome to look around, and with the QR code add any comment or question.
Wish list
I believe sharing your wishes and dreams brings them closer to becoming real. You orient your mind towards them, and the people around you put them on their radar too. If you don’t voice it, nobody knows. Maybe not even yourself. The top of my list:
- Re-visit China. Reconnect with old friends from my end-of-century visits. Understand and feel the greentech and AI revolution. [Cultural learning journey]
- Off the grid. Borrow a remote place to set up a simple, self-sustaining camp and live off the grid for one to three months. Family and friends welcome at the campfire. [Resilience]
- Emergency response and rescue. Learn from someone super skilled to be useful when accidents happen. In cities, at sea, in wildfires, floods, famine, and war. [Learning]
- Design and facilitate a high-stakes international summit. Join a gathering, or longer term project, where the shared and co-owned results are to speed up and catalyze positive change for people and planet. [Practice]
If you know people, organisations, or paths that could move me closer to any of these wishes, please make the introduction both ways. Tell them about me, and tell me about them.
I have books, teaching, facilitation, speaking, a spare room, an old sailboat, a caravan, good friends, and a wide network to bring into the mix.
Want to talk, just send me a note.
Ole