More stuff…

OK, the last post was all words; here are a couple of pictures. These are from the Spirit of BC regional roundtables that are taking place around the province. The roundtables are intended to help the communities involved come up with concrete objectives or legacies they'd like to accomplish for their region by 2010, and to brainstorm ideas for celebrations to mark BC's 150th anniversary in 2008.

This picture is from last week's session in Victoria (click on the image for a larger view – it looks blurry here but it 'cleans up real good' in the larger size!)

And this one is the chart from the BC2008 session in the Okanagan the week before.










As you can see, the quality of the photographed images is still uneven. So much depends on the available light in the room and how steady my hand was that day (note to self: buy a tripod!), to say nothing of my rather uneven approach to Photoshop at the other end.

What I like about these two is that I feel I'm getting a better handle on organizing the material. The lower one is very simple graphically – not much imagery at all. But I think it hangs together quite well and moves the eye along around the edges and toward the objectives in the centre, which is what I wanted it to do. The upper one is more elaborate and not quite as clean graphically, but it represents an advance for me, viz: I remembered to leave space around each idea so that when someone called out a related idea, there was room to put it next to the one it fit with instead of simply trying to find an empty spot on the page. That is, I managed to create visual clusters this time, which I then framed in red to bring them out.

I was also glad that participants felt free to add their own comments here and there (e.g. the V.I.R.C. column at left, which I framed). I really like it when people 'claim' the work by writing or drawing on it themselves. It makes me feel like they're really engaging with it – and entering a real conversation with the artwork. Yay!

Value statement

Never a dull moment around here. As I said in my last post, June is chock-a-block with work, and I'm starting to get calls for July and beyond. Who'da thunk it?

When I was preparing for my demo for the BC Centre for Quality last month, I was asked to put together a one-pager describing how my work contributes to the quality of a process. It was a good exercise, because it forced me to think about the real value of this work. Of course other practitioners have written about this work (Christina Merkley's website is particularly rich in that regard) – but I need to articulate it in my own words to make it real to me. Here's what I came up with:

MEETINGS CAN BE FUN!
In fact, I’d go so far as to say they should be. If the quality of a product is at least partly dependent on the quality of the process, then it stands to reason that meetings – which are an integral part of any process – should harness the best energy and ideas of the people in attendance. And that’s most likely to happen when those people are engaged, excited and energized – in short, when they’re having FUN!

That’s where graphic facilitation comes in.

As a graphic facilitator, I create a visual map of the conversation at meetings, workshops, dialogues and other group processes, using words and images to literally draw out people’s thinking and surface the “big picture.” Listening carefully for meaning as well as words, I create a graphic depiction of the conversation as it unfolds, drawing out patterns, themes and connections to weave the parts into an integrated whole.

And how does this contribute to the quality of the process? Simply put, graphic facilitation helps make meetings more productive. Here are some reasons why:

• People process information in different ways. By adding a visual element, you’re more likely to engage visual learners (who make up over 80% of the population, according to researchers).
• Graphic recording literally gets everyone “on the same page” and enables people to build on each other’s ideas.
• Thoughts become visible and explicit, which increases clarity and reduces misunderstanding.
• People feel acknowledged and heard when they see their ideas take concrete shape. This, in turn, increases trust and reduces conflict.
• Creative listening begets creative thinking, creative thinking begets better ideas, and better ideas beget more effective processes and products.
• Participants get a unique and attractive “takeaway” that they can refer back to, share with others who weren’t present, and incorporate into reports to show (not just tell) what went on.
• And last but not least, graphically facilitated meetings are energizing, engaging, enjoyable…and FUN!