Drumroll, please.

We’ve got a brand-new video feature here on the PinkBlog. Think of it as the baby sibling of Pink’s Travel Tips.

The first episode — 173 seconds of pure viewing pleasure — is below.

33 Responses to “My Favorite Tools: Ginormous Stickies”

  1. As if I didn’t already have a mad crush on your mind — now you’ve made me swoon with “Big Ass Stickies.”

    You might consider a hyphen in there, though, just to avoid confusion with the other way to interpret that catchy name — although that version would make the product vastly more popular with my nine-year old kiddo and his bathroom-humor buddies. 🙂

    Your fan,
    Marsha

  2. I see how great they are but you’re adding an expense. Now you gotta keep buying those where before your whiteboard was already paid off. On my teacher salary I don’t want to add another expense and forget buying with our school budget. On the other hand you are helping the recycling industry (unless you keep them forever locked in some cabinet).

  3. Daniel McDougall says:

    Hi Dan

    Can you give us a link for the company or where we can buy them?

    They look very useful but they are hard to find online. I did a google search for “big ass stickies” and there were a lot of unfavourable links.

  4. LisaB says:

    Try “tabletop easel pad”. It’s a bit more of a work-friendly search! Looks like the one he’s actually using is this one from Staples.
    http://www.staples.com/Staples-Stickies-23-x-20-Faint-Grid-Repositionable-Tabletop-Easel-Pad/product_609013

  5. abbie says:

    Does this mean the new book will be in “Big Ass Stickie” format?

  6. Avatar photo Dan Pink says:

    @marsha — yes, er, a hyphen would have been somewhat helpful there.

    @alfonso — yes, fair point. i wonder if there’s a cheaper way to accomplish the same result?

    @daniel — see the link in comment 4.

    @lisab — thanks for the link.

    @abbie — great idea!!

  7. Mike Brice says:

    Love the sound effects on the video.

    A couple of questions – how do they stick to textured walls?

    I like the ability to look at the history/legacy, but the cost and waste of big ass stickies seems a bit much for me.

    Can I have your old whiteboards that you have discarded?

    Still a fan of whiteboards.

  8. Avatar photo Dan Pink says:

    @mike — they seem to stick fine to just about everything. but, no, you can’t have my old ones. another problem with whiteboards if that, over time, they often leave a shadow of previous writings — which can make them hard to read. mine are smudgy and not that useful any more — unlike that glorious sheet of blank easel paper.

  9. Great blog, Dan. I’ve used 3M’s version of the BAS in feedback meetings where there was only one very small, postage-stamp sized whiteboard. It was out of necessity, more than anything.

    This said, I really hate how small the sheets are when you’re trying to doodle a big idea – sometimes you need the real-estate of a whiteboard. Even worse when you use a notation form like IBIS to capture disparate thoughts and ideas to disentangle wicked problems.

    By-the-by, judging by your book notes on BASs, you might want to consider using IBIS to get those percolating ideas nailed down.

    Cheers,

    Chris.

  10. One additional tip (works with whiteboards as well): They can be cumbersome if/when the reason for using them ends. What I do is take pictures of them and convert the photos to a PDF file. Then I can keep them forever. It’s a great way to go back and look through your work.

    That said, I have preferred BAS over Whiteboards for the ability to use them anywhere.

    Great post, Dan.

  11. This is an approach some facilitators use:

    http://simonkoolwijk.blogspot.com/2011/01/sticky-wall-helpfull-tool-for.html

    I, too, like the pads but hate the expense and the paper waste. There has to be a better way.

  12. Greg Syferd says:

    Couldnt agree more. We started using these awhile back and having that archive of where you’ve come from on an idea, even it was several weeks or months ago, has proven invaluable!

    Yeah, their expensive, but it’s one of those values you can’t put into dollars until you actually use them.

  13. Greg Jonuk says:

    Great “tool time” video Dan. A cost effective alternative for those concerned about the cost of Big Ass Stickies is s to use regular flipchart paper and a roll of green painter’s tape.

    Also, a group of Learning Organization Practitioners in the British Columbia Public Service recently put together some tool time videos of our own to be used in a learning event. Here’s mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0dUm5IGlxM&list=PL745E801FD998675A&index=4&feature=plpp_video

  14. eric stephens says:

    You had me at “Big Ass Sticky”

  15. Bruce Black says:

    When I was a kid (back in the 60’s) my dad would by cheap stump rolls of newsprint from the newspapers for my sister and I to draw and write on. It felt like an unlimited supply. I don’t know if those are still available in that form BUT but you can get paper cheap on a roll. Optionally, use a butcher paper or wrapping paper dispenser. Pull out any length (use sideways to create long murals), and clip to a sketch board or the wall. Costco sells 1000′ rolls for less than $20 (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11126131&whse=BD_115&Ne=5000001%204000000&eCat=BD_115%7C6224%7C6399&N=4028034%204294913065&Mo=0&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BD_115&Ns=P_Price%7C1%7C%7CP_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&topnav=bd). How much paper does a BAS pad have?

  16. Andreas Triesch says:

    How many copies of “Drive” do you have on that shelf, and have you read them all?

  17. Joseph says:

    LOVE IT. I think we’ll get some of these for the office.

    I can see a real benefit in these since you can sketch something out in one room, say a conference room, then stick them up in the dev area for reference while working on a project.

  18. Nanette says:

    Yes, I love the giant sticky, too. I’ve been using them for a long time and they are perfect for facilitating in groups. My favorite reason for using them is also that there’s no erasing. I love to see the evolution of an idea or ideas, and I love that the order of the scribbled notes can get rearranged, too. That being said, I agree, with other commentors, that the paper usage and cost does push me to search for another solution. Lately I’ve been drawn to the idea of putting corkboard (or maybe layers of cardboard) all over one entire wall in my office…so I can use push pins to put up re-purposed paper. Maybe now I’ll be pushed to complete that project 🙂

  19. Elle says:

    An alternative is cheapo chart paper and masking tape. I don’t advise making a sticky wall. The adhesive spray is not kind to your lungs…

  20. Warren says:

    I also love giant stickies. One thing I do after a meeting is take photos of each one with my iPhone, then put all those photos into Evernote. That way, they’re searchable afterwards (as long as you have decent handwriting, which I don’t) or taggable. But also, if you eventually do recycle them, or cover them over with another layer of big stickies, you still have a date-stamped record of your thoughts at that time. (I also love keeping my old bad ideas on record!)

  21. Russ Powell says:

    Thanks, Dan! I’m a big whiteboard user; and thx to your vid am already considering using more big-ass stickies. =)

    My biggest concern re the BASs I suppose is archiving them and producing waste that I’d prefer not too generate. I suppose there’s a time and place for each.

    An alternative: I often take photos of my whiteboard for historical purposes. I’d like to echo Warren’s pointer to Evernote. I’m using that more and more for digital record keeping, note-taking, those kinds of things. I hope all is well.

  22. Belinda says:

    I used these for math teacher professional development. The teachers generated several solution strategies for a math problem, and we were able to arrange and rearrange them during a lesson planning session. I’ve also used them in classrooms with students in the same way. Love them!
    It would be great to have a less expensive and less wasteful way to display and organize this type of work. Maybe some type of app combined with projection? The most important aspects for me are the possibility for multiple arrangements and the ability to add notes or pictures or whatever.

  23. Jeanne Bennett says:

    The Giant Stickies also come lined and as graph paper. Also, you can spray material like that found in wind jackets with spray adhesive, fasten them to the wall and all paper sticks to them like post-its. All paper can be “stuck” to them without actually having adhesive and can be moved and removed just like post-its.

  24. Jean Chalupsky says:

    OK…now I can send you a picture of my classroom walls. The whiteboard…Promethean Board…the hallway walls…the windows…

    All covered with chart paper. Most charts made by kids.

    Big Ass Sticky Notes? Thank you, baby Jesus! Blue tape be gone!

    I LOVE YOU!!

  25. d – Glad you finally caught up. We’ve been using these in education for years! 🙂

  26. Mark says:

    Thanks for sharing Dan. These are great, especially for brainstorming sessions with a group of people. They are very handy to facilitate the discussion as well as transcribing and summarizing soon after the session. I find them less useful though not long afterwards without further context – my memory fades.

    However, some of the advantages you mention are why I have grown to love Curio by Zengobi:

    http://www.zengobi.com/

    It’s like an endless supply of whiteboards and I can easily add all sorts of context and organization around my projects – and make them searchable. Try that with the stickies!

    It’d still be very hard for me to give up my whiteboards though for any other tool!

  27. Ana says:

    Love the new video series!

    Great tool! One can’t plan BIG ideas in small size paper and I still prefer to ‘think’ with paper and pen than with anything eletronic.

  28. Great tip. Extra points for hilarious delivery! Surprised “Big Ass” is not a branded product name by now. I would register it! Bill Donius

  29. Janice Smith says:

    Try using baby wipes to clean your old white boards. They erase better and dry faster that the usual spray. This is for the ghost images, not regular erasing.

  30. Thanks Dan. I like and use them too, although, maybe not enough to make a video about them. Have you thought of launching your own line? Maybe the name “Big Ass Stickies” is available? …on second thought, it may not be the best name. No, wait! …“The Big Pink Sticky”. Hmmm, maybe not.

    Cheers. I enjoy your books.

  31. Catie says:

    I’ve used the giant post its for years as a teacher, principal, and professional development facilitator.

    Try the 3M version and you won’t have to deal with the peel off piece of paper on the back of every giant post it.

    As a teacher/professional developer, I’ve used the giant post its as graffiti boards. For example, I would pose a question and as we worked through text, students could scribble notes on group graffiti boards – either tabletop or somewhere in the room.

    I’ve captured mini-lessons on the giant post-its and then I would post them around the room. I love the idea of moving the post-its based on the evolution of the thinking.

    I love them for carousels and round robins and for chronicling evolving thinking and understanding in and across groups.

    I could go on and on about my favorite school supply – the giant post-it – but I will simply share my favorite way of using the giant post-it…at the end of each week when I was teaching, we would ask the question “So What?” as a vehicle to reflect on what we learned that week and what we accomplished. We kept those post-its by class section and added the latest each week. Then, we could flip back and make connections as we considered our week. The giant post-its served as a record of our learning as well.

    I am borrowing the idea that someone posted about taking pictures of the giant post-its and creating pdfs…great!

  32. Jackie Huba says:

    Love this Dan! I just put in a white board in my new office. But now I’m going to add Big Ass Stickies for mapping out projects and my next book too. Great idea!

  33. Pierre says:

    Dammmm Smart Idea! Thank you!