That is the gamestorm and the Sunni Brown. (See what I did there with the visual communication.) This week, Deke and I welcome one of my newly fledged authors whose book,  Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, hit the shelves this with a big splash very week (As you can imagine, Deke and I identify with the rulebreakers in that list.) Sunni and her co-authors (poor boys who weren’t able to join us for Buddy’s tequila), have crafted a collection of games you can play to work through your creative obstacles, communication roadblocks, and quest for innovative problem solving. Gamestorming, you see, it’s like brainstorming with games. And Sunni tells a great story this week about how we can use graphics (which you, dekeSters are vaguely familiar) to open up collaboration and creativity. Sunni’s a visual thinker extraordinaire, but she’s also awesome with words.

I think Martini Hour might be a game itself (pour drinks, queue the band, and explore something creative.) What do you think, dekeStormers?

Here are some key moments of our discussion with Sunni:

When you draw, your visual cortex is being triggered, thus allowing you to bring new brain-resources to reflect on your challenges. (It’s undoubtedly why Deke is so smart and savvy.)

Playing a game can wake up people’s thinking, get them more engaged, and generally energize a group that may have hit a wall.

By way of example, a game like “Welcome to my World” forces you to think about how other groups with different tasks in your process live their work lives. (Think Deke and the Production department!)

Sunni’s graphics are so effective, I found myself wishing she could visually record my life so I could make sense of it. As it is, I once took an ad-hoc time lapse of her recording the SXSW keynote. (No tripod, so I aligned the random photos I took of her in Photoshop.)

(By the way, for a much less tequila-infused but very apt discussion of Gamestorming, check out this interview with Sunni’s co-author, Dave Gray.)

There’s something to be said for playing at work (which is not a surprise to me and Deke, inventors of Martini Hour.) So check out this weeks show! Here’s the regular-quality (128kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. The high-res will be along shortly (if it’s Thursday, it must be Portland, I live such a glamorous bandwidth-challenged life.)

Until next week, love, graphics and sunshine to you all. Salut!