Editor’s note: Editor’s note: Sunni Brown owns an information design firm and is a speaker and co-author of “GameStorming: A Playbook for Rule-breakers, Innovators and Changemakers.” She was recently named on Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business List and on the 10 Most Creative People on Twitter list. She spoke at the TED 2011 conference in Long Beach, California.

(CNN) – Humans have been doodling in snow, in sand and on cave walls for more than 30,000 years.

George Washington, Thomas Edison, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan and Vladimir Nabokov were doodlers. Bill Gates and Frank Gehry are among today’s active doodlers.

Yet most of us haven’t reflected on why we feel compelled to draw.

In fact, many parts of our society — including businesses, schools and colleges — frown on doodling and consider it a waste of time. While we can’t overcome cultural biases overnight, we can certainly ask a relevant question: Why is doodling so universal? What is doodling doing for us?

Virginia Scofield, an immunologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, knows from personal and professional experience what doodling does. After struggling with organic chemistry in college, she decided to try doodling the complexities of the subject rather than memorizing them from the textbook. Scofield happened upon what native doodlers have known for a long time: Doodling can improve cognitive performance. Because of her success in transforming her own learning process, Scofield incorporated doodling and visual note-taking into her university classroom for more than two decades, and she told me it notably improved the success rate of her students.

Scofield is not the only one who’s learned to be impressed by the Doodle. Jackie Andrade, a professor at the University of Plymouth,published a study finding a 29 percent increase in information retention gained by doodlers. She noted that, contrary to popular belief, doodling seems to prevent people from losing focus on boring or complex subject matter. It gives learners who may otherwise mentally check out an opportunity to check back in.

Other researchers exploring the impact of doodling and drawing have come to equally significant conclusions about this deceptively simple act. A recent article in Science argued that drawing in science education caters to individual learning preferences and motivates students to engage and explore content in a more meaningful way. And classroom research shows that not only do learners better understand concepts through simple drawing, but it sets the stage for innovative and divergent ways of thinking. For a nation with an ego wounded by our decreased scores on the Torrance Creativity Test, this unfettered access to creative thinking shouldn’t be underestimated.

Just ask Google, the only company on record with an official Chief Doodler on the payroll. Google’s culture is well known for its 80/20 “innovation time off” rule. And for many employees, that time is spent using simple visual language to doodle, sketch and prototype new business opportunities. Indeed, many companies seeking an edge are looking to applications of hand-drawn visual language as a prospective lifeboat. In a hyper-competitive marketplace, thinkers need all the mojo they can muster.

To the throngs of doodlers around the world, this evidence is likely just the beginning of our gentle “I told you so” moments. Learning that accommodates more than text-based or verbal information amplifies the effects of cognition and creativity. And when the Science article suggested that drawing should be recognized along with reading, writing and speaking as a key element in education, it was a hallelujah moment for doodlers around the world.

I’m one of them. I use doodling for a variety of reasons: I use it to get clarity around a concept, I use it to relax, I use it to communicate ideas with others and get their refinement of them, I use it to map complex systems for companies, I use it to run innovation games for business, I use it to get insight on something puzzling me.

See some examples of how doodles are used

So how do you get better at doodling? It’s a delightfully easy task. Learners can start with the Visual Alphabet, a series of six flows—the point, line, arc, angle, spiral and loop, and the six forms—the oval, eye, triangle, rectangle, house and cloud. With these 12 “letters,” prospective doodlers can articulate any visual representation of any concept they can imagine. All it takes is a commitment to learning this language, native to our brain’s visual cortex, and applying it to challenges either at work or at school. Rather than talking in circles about a complex subject, try doodling it using words and pictures. Show your teachers and colleagues another way to see information. The insights and aha moments will arrive naturally in the process.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sunni Brown.

To my pleasant (and slightly confused) surprise, Fast Company chose me as one of the folks on their 100 Most Creative People in Business List for 2011. (I came in at #56, so take that, Ryan Seacrest!)

In seriousness, I was pleased to be acknowledged as a “Creative,” since it’s a title I haven’t embraced throughout my life. And from the lives of Frank Lloyd Wright and Marie Antoinette, I’ve learned that public appreciation comes and goes. So I’ll enjoy the glory while I can and thank you, friends and clients, for being supportive of my work.

The Millbrook guys have an excellent solution to a common and painful problem in the insurance industry – migrating massive amounts of data from one system to another without disrupting business. However, their elegant software and combined experience of over 40 years couldn’t help them solve a challenge of their own: explaining their solution to customers. And what’s more painful than having an elixir that people don’t know about? (Let’s not even consider it.) They chose to partner with BrightSpot to produce a less-than-2-minute-long video that shows in a simple, visual way WHAT their value is and WHY it matters. Minus the jargon, minus the complexity, but plus a great script and the use of visual metaphors. The video will live on their landing page as teaser content to engage in a deeper conversation with a prospective client. So, insurance companies, you can thank us later.

We all saw (or at least heard of) the film Waiting for Superman. And yes, it was a powerful story, no doubt. But one major stakeholder voice was absent from the film – that of teachers, the dedicated, front-line men and women who work with our children everyday. My client, the Center for Teaching Quality, is well aware of the teacher’s voice, having dedicated years to creating and promoting a community that empowers teachers to spread transformative learning practices. CTQ leveraged this community and curated knowledge from its teacher-leaders to publish a book that outlines the new ecology of teaching and describes what needs to be done to move it into the 21st century. The book is called Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools. And to celebrate its arrival, CTQ asked me to produce an illustrated video that summarizes the book’s key points and invites people to participate in the future of teaching. So I partnered with Erik Kuntz of Square Bear Studio and produced the short video you see above. After countless hours, I’m happy to say: Teachers, this one is for you.

Gamestorming from XPLANE on Vimeo.

XPLANE is and will always be among my favorite companies, and my co-author Dave Gray is and will always be among my favorite people. The above video is one more reason why I joined forces with his genius. It explains the essence of our work described in the book Gamestorming. The visual meeting techniques within are about doing what comes naturally to all of us: exploring, discovering, and reorganizing knowledge so we can make something better, at work and in the world. Take three minutes to watch it and then do yourself a favor and re-learn how to solve problems at work. I rarely swear to God, but you’ll be glad you did. Swear to God. And tell us your experiences at gogamestorm.com.

In my infinitely wise old age, I am rarely surprised by things life throws at us, but this project threw even me for a loop, in a wonderful, Willy-Wonka way. I got an opportunity to partner with a company that sells a product and a brand that is a match made in heaven for my oddball skill set: Sharpie! Get OUT! Out of the blue, a PR firm working with Sharpie called and asked me to be the Resident Doodle Expert for the sharpieuncapped.com doodle campaign. Get OUT! (Did I already say that?) My responsibilities on this project are three-fold: (1) to analyze a “Daily Doodle” from the doodles submitted by folks around the globe and post my analysis for the doodler and the community to see; (2) to shoot a weekly webisode with fun facts and figures about doodling and visualizing information; and (3) to go on a satellite media tour discussing the merits of the Doodle — all of which I was born to do! (Thankfully, because it will be my first experience as a public spokesperson, they’ll be training me on how to avoid cursing and picking my nose on camera. You can’t just send a girl out without media training unless you like a little mayhem in your life, apparently.) Needless to say, I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to spread my Doodle Revolution. And, dear reader, if you yourself are doodliciously-inclined, don’t hesitate to submit a doodle for possible analysis. I promise I’ll go easy on you. Click on the video above for an introduction to the Sharpie Uncapped campaign (and to see me being super nerdy). And, you know I have to say it, long live the Doodle Revolution!