Drawing as a way of learning
The real costs of anti-DEI cuts + metaphors in code (Issue #393)
What if drawing isn’t just a form of self-expression, but a way of learning?
Leadership coach remembers how overwhelming her first management role felt: time slipping away, tasks piling up, impostor syndrome whispering she didn’t deserve the job. She writes that what she needed then was a way to make vague problems visible. That’s the aim of Coaching by Drawing, a method where managers and employees sketch together during coaching sessions so that challenges can be seen and discussed in concrete form. The drawings are simple — stick figures and shapes are enough — but they turn hazy talk into something you can look at and analyze side by side. Some of the drawings she uses include:
- Stairway: a career sketched as steps already climbed and those still ahead, showing progress, obstacles, and pace of growth
- Shining Star: strengths marked as points of a star, including abilities that may be hidden or overlooked in the current role
- Satisfaction Curve: a line tracking satisfaction or performance over time, making highs, lows, and turning points visible at a glance
- Personal Solar System: the manager at the center, with stakeholders drawn as orbiting planets, their distance and size showing closeness and influence
- Be a Champ: five interlocking rings for qualities, efforts, supporters, opportunities, and “what else,” a reminder of what fuels confidence before high-stakes moments
As Nara puts it, “Drawing enables a different way of thinking, which is nonlinear, and the various dimensions… can carry a lot of additional information.” In these sketches, a curve that dips, a planet that looms large, or a step that looks steep can spark sharper questions and clearer insights than words alone.
Illustrator ’s experience of methodically drawing every bird in North America shows another side of the power of drawing: It forces us to slow down and appreciate the tiniest details. The idea began when she was struck by a poster cataloguing every North American bird. She realized she didn’t want to buy it; she wanted to create her own version as a graduate school project. The work stretched beyond 200 hours and became a meditative practice. Over time, she began noticing differences she had never seen before. Sparrows she once thought were all the same became the white-crowned, fox, and Lincoln’s, each distinct. Then one afternoon at her feeder, she noticed an ovenbird among the finches and felt a jolt of wonder at a detail she might have once missed. “We share the earth with incredible, strange, impossible creatures,” she writes. “I shrink in the light of this great mystery; and my smallness sets me free.”
—
Recommended reading:
- What started as a college obsession with karaoke and LaserDiscs eventually pushed to build his own software for hosting karaoke parties. Frustrated by messy queues and clunky setups, he cracked open PiKaraoke’s code, then rolled out his own system, Yokey, designed around fairness and flow. It manages queues algorithmically, cleans up YouTube titles with AI, and even adds a sardonic lip-synced co-host to banter between songs.
- In the world of UX, leadership is often seen as a matter of toughness and efficiency. But UX strategist argues that tenderness can be just as powerful. She shows how small acts of care — like protecting teammates from burnout, giving them space to grow, and treating differences as strengths — build a culture of trust and resilience.
- Over a quarter of a million Black women lost jobs after anti-DEI cuts in both government and corporate workplaces. traces how public-sector layoffs and corporate rollbacks converged to hit them hardest, and she points to the backlash facing leaders like Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as proof that even the most qualified aren’t spared.
- Head of Corporate Digital at BBC looks at the metaphors we use for coding and why they matter. Saying we “write” code makes it sound like prose, while calling it “built” suggests rigid structures like houses. He argues “gardening” is a better fit, since it captures the care, maintenance, and ongoing growth the work really involves. The metaphors matter because they shape how we think about the job.
- As a kid, filled sketchbooks with NBA logos. After drifting away from drawing in his teens, he eventually returned to it and built a career as an illustrator. Today his work centers on “basketball art,” from portraits of players to a tongue-in-cheek series that inserts basketballs into classic works of art.
📆 Register for Medium Day: September 19, 2025
Medium Day is a free, live, online conference where we’re bringing our amazing community together to celebrate the power of writing. We’ll be making room for fresh starts, blank pages, and new beginnings — and all you need to bring is an open mind.
Deepen your understanding every day with the Medium Newsletter. Sign up here.
Edited and produced by &
Like what you see in this newsletter but not already a Medium member? Read without limits or ads, fund great writers, and join a community that believes in human storytelling.
