Man, conflict management guides bored me stiff back in the day. Walls of text, jargon soup – no wonder everyone tuned out. Needed pictures, real quick. Started doodling stick figures during meetings. Looked like a kid drew ’em after too much candy.
First Attempt Was Pure Mess
Grabbed my laptop camera, snapped pics of coworkers acting stuff out. Terrible lighting, awkward poses. My buddy Dave looked constipated pretending to be “Calm.” Uploaded these “examples” to our team Slack. Crickets. One reply: “Is Dave okay?” Yeah, scratch that.
Digging Around for Options
Didn’t wanna spend cash. Played with free stuff online. Found clipart sites – cheesy handshakes, smiling faces that creeped me out. Looked fake, felt wrong for tough topics like arguments. Tried Canva, easy enough, but stock photos felt… plastic? Too perfect, zero real vibe. Needed gritty, simple stuff.
Breakthrough: Back to Basics
Cleaned my desk, found sticky notes. Colored ones, too. Grabbed a thick pen. Drew:
- Angry face: scribbled eyebrows down
- Question mark: big n’ wobbly
- “STOP” sign: all caps, red marker
- Ear: lumpy, but you got it
- Arrow: pointing between stick figures
Photographed ’em flat on my wooden table. Grainy texture showed up. Looked honest, rough. Didn’t care about perfect. Uploaded these raw shots to our intranet.
Making Sense of the Stickies
Threw those sticky note pics together in Google Slides, ’cause free. Simple labels:
“Fists Clenched = STOP, Tempers Flaring”
“Ear Drawing = Shut Up & Listen NOW”
“Question Mark = Ask Stuff, Don’t Assume”
Color-coded backgrounds: red for “Danger Zone,” green for “Do This.” Took less than an hour.
Showed it to my team lead, Jen. She squinted. “That it?” Yep. Printed copies? Stuck ’em near the coffee machine, meeting room doors. People actually chuckled. Started seeing folks point at the “Ear” pic mid-argument. Felt unreal.
My Point is? You don’t need pro tools or skills. Doodles on scrap paper, your crappy phone camera, free slides software? Works. Real beats pretty for conflict stuff. Show the rawness. People get it faster.
