Draw First, Define Later

If students can’t sketch it, they don’t get it. Drawing isn’t decoration—it’s diagnosis.

Strategy. Innovation. Entrepreneurship.

Ask any business student to define those and you’ll get a PowerPoint in return. Something they Googled, sliced up, and presented in corporate font. But ask them to draw it? Silence. Panic. Then, slowly, meaning.

That’s exactly the point.

I’ve started asking my students to draw their understanding of complex concepts. Not write. Not list. Not debate. Draw.

Because when you force someone to put pen to paper, abstraction meets friction. They can’t hide behind buzzwords. They can’t coast on memorization. They have to reveal what they actually grasp—and what they don’t. The squiggles, symbols, metaphors… they tell me more than any polished pitch deck ever could.

Turns out, drawing isn’t just for design thinking workshops. It’s a diagnostic tool. A pattern disruptor. A window into how students see systems and complexity—and where the blind spots are.

What am I doing about it? Running "Draw & Share" labs in class: students sketch first, then compare interpretations with peers. Trios form. Debates spark. Assumptions collapse. Understanding deepens.

So here’s the proposal: business schools need less talking at students, and more drawing out of them. If they can’t diagram it, they probably don’t understand it.

And if we want sharper thinkers, maybe it’s time we hand them a marker.