Top 50 Business Icons

Hello! Welcome to Whiteboard Wednesday. We are so glad you are here. 

At the Whiteboard Academy, we're on a mission to help others unlock awesome through visual thinking! As Innovation Strategists, we partner with top organizations and leaders around the world to BRING IDEAS TO LIFE. 

We absolutely love working with teams and individuals like you to rethink better business processes, develop winning strategies and create new products, tools and apps to solve your clients' most pressing problems. We specialize in finding and bringing out the awesome in you and your team by harnessing the amazing super powers of visual thinking!

Are you ready to learn about the
Power of Visual Thinking?

Today we are launching a new feature called "Whiteboard Wednesdays." Each month, we will be bringing you bite-sized lessons that you can use to BE AWESOME @ WORK!

Today, we're going to show you how to begin to bring ideas to life by using simple icons. You can use this approach to capture your own ideas and "see" what you're thinking. Then, as you add simple icons to your to-do list, you will notice that you're having more focus and getting more done. Soon, you'll be using icons in your notes as you lean in and listen with a pen at meetings and conferences. Before long, you'll begin to stand out as a key "go to" person to help bring bigger and bigger ideas to life!

At this point you may be thinking, "BUT I CAN'T DRAW." That's okay! There is no art ability needed - this is about ideas. It doesn't have to be good. Just grab something to WRITE WITH and something to WRITE ON, and let's take a few baby steps together. We'll show you some of our favorite easy icons to start with to dip your toe into the world of visual thinking.

Visual learning is a powerful tool for critical thinking, problem solving and strategic planning. When you can see your ideas, strategies become clear and you will know what to do to succeed!  And it all starts with getting your ideas on paper. 

To help you get started with getting your ideas on paper, we created a list of the TOP 50 ICONS we find ourselves using over and over with our clients. We want to share these icons with you so you can start to build your creative thinking skills and unlock awesome at work.

Here is what you are going to do...

1. Review the TOP 50 BUSINESS ICONS below.
2. Grab a stack of sticky notes and practice drawing one icon per sticky note.
3. Draw 10, 20 or even 30 icons and post them on the wall at work.
4. Add a word to describe the idea for each icon. Some icons will bring more than one idea to mind, so just use a word that feels best to you.
5. Display the post-its so co-workers or others on your team to see. If someone asks what you're doing, tell them "I am building a visual vocabulary to capture ideas and make a better business model for our company. Wanna join me?"
6. Invite a peer or co-worker to look at the different icons. Which ones could be used to describe a process within your business or industry? For example, image you are planning an off-site event, could you use some of the icons to map out the process for preparing for the off-site meeting (see example below).

Once you start playing with simple icons to map out your work processes or think through business models in a fun and visual way, you will come up with so many more ways you can use simple icons to unlock awesome through visual thinking. 

So grab a pen, grab some sticky notes and let's get started!

Download a PDF of Top 50 Business Icons Here

You're doing great! Keep it up!

Remember, it doesn't have to be good. Sticky notes are disposable, so don't be afraid to try each icon a few times until you start to get the feel for it. You have unlimited do-overs. Keep practicing, because practice makes progress.  

UNLOCK AWESOME at WORK. You got this!

Cheers, Muddy and Diane 
Co-Founders, Whiteboard Academy