Blind Portrait
A 15-minute back-to-back drawing exercise for pairs
One describes, one draws — and nobody watches the pen. The two drawings are the evidence.
WorkshopSkill · Blind Portrait — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Of everything you explained at work this week —
how much actually arrived at the other person?
WorkshopSkill · Blind Portrait — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0How the two rounds run
- Round A: the describer talks, the drawer draws — no questions allowed.
- Round B: roles swap, new image — the drawer may ask exactly three questions.
- Same pair, two systems. The gap between the rounds is the lesson.
Rules, said out loud before you start
- The describer may not say what the image IS — only what it looks like.
- Nobody turns around. The drawer holds the marker, not the map.
- Thick marker, not pencil — mistakes should be visible.
- Pair daily colleagues for round A; randomize the pairs for round B.
What the exercise exposes
- Stories instead of shapes — “it’s like a farm…” tells the drawer nothing.
- The silent guess: drawing something plausible instead of asking.
- The cost of “I sent it, so they got it” — the reveal prices that belief.
Three ways it fails, three rescues
- Narrating the story, not the shapes → freeze ten seconds, repeat the rule: describe what you SEE.
- The drawer goes abstract to avoid being wrong → do not fix it live; the debrief is built for this.
- Pairs finish early and drift → hand them the judge card: score round A against round B.
Three questions at the reveal
1. Round A’s gap: how much came from the rule, how much from the description?
2. Of the three questions you could ask in round B — which helped most?
3. Where in your week do you send instructions into silence?
WorkshopSkill · Blind Portrait — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0The measure
- Before pairing up: six rows about your own last week — the usual, not the game.
- Right after the debrief: the same six rows, answered about this exercise.
- The number to watch is the delta, not the score.
Nobody can fix what they cannot see.
The two drawings are the evidence.
Keep them on the table — the debrief points at paper, not at people.
WorkshopSkill · Blind Portrait — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Take one habit out
- Ask one clarifying question before you start — the drawer’s three questions are a rehearsal.
- Fix the describing, not the drawer, when the gap surfaces.
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Print the cards · run two rounds · debrief with the drawings side by side
Explain less. Check more. That is the whole skill, rehearsed in fifteen minutes.
WorkshopSkill · Blind Portrait — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Take this folder with you
Scan for the digital edition — the printable kit, the live form and the agent file. Swap this href for your own QRCode-AI code or FormLM link.