Category Archives: Graphic Facilitation

Graphic Facilitation & Graphic Recording supporting the 5 Core Skills of innovation

We are increasingly finding many uses for Graphic Facilitation and Graphic Recording in supporting people and organisations to problem-solve, innovate, create and find solutions. The following article sheds some gems of insight around key components/characteristics that foster these mindsets and was found through the website link below;

http://stanfordbusiness.tumblr.com/post/51889767187/5-core-skills-of-disruptive-visual-thinking-innovators

“Visual thinking is the foundation for being creative and solving some of the most complex problems,” explained author and founder of Innovation Studio Lisa Kay Solomon. Solomon and Emily Shepard of The Graphic Distillery discussed the key role of visual thinking in innovation at a recent Stanford GSB Mastery in Communication Initiative talk. Below, they share five visual-thinking based skills that disruptive innovators must master:

1) Observe Set your phone down and actually pay attention to what’s going on around you. You can’t come up with new ideas unless you observe the world with fresh, empathetic eyes. Keep a design journal and document what you observe at least once a week.

2) Question Once you have a look around, review your design journal and ask: “What’s going on here?” Questions allow for space in the brain. If you’re not curious about something, then there’s nowhere for your observations to go. As an innovator, you should ask questions to nail down the problem you’re trying to solve.

3) Associate Combining ideas lead to new insights. In the book Where Good Ideas Come From, author Steven Johnson proposes that innovation comes from places where half-baked ideas can bump up against other half-baked ideas and together create something even better. Doodling is a way to cultivate these seeds of ideas.

4) Experiment Visualization makes your ideas tangible and concrete. “If you can’t draw your ideas in stick figures, you don’t know what you’re saying,” says Solomon. Drawing by hand is a method of prototyping that allows you to test out the core essence of your idea in a low-res way before you spend more time on it.

5) Network Get access to people in diverse universes to expand your opportunities and areas of expertise. What are some big areas missing from your knowledge bank? We often end up just having a deep network of people like us instead of a diverse network.

For more insights on visual thinking, follow #GSBVT on Twitter: http://stnfd.biz/liMyC

Lambeth New Dawn for Mental Health Discussion

NSUN and Mind ran a series of events to bring communities and authorities together to discuss the changes happening locally and to support people to get involved, informed and influence locally. These are the ‘sketch notes’ by Debbie Roberts from the Lambeth event,

The Value of Graphic Facilitation

“The value of graphic facilitation – or doodling, or graphic recording, or even organizing thoughts on sticky notes – is not necessarily in the perceived quality or beauty of the visual artifact. Rather, the value comes from the process behind the product: the graphic facilitator’s ability to listen to the conversation, see the bigger picture and how the group feels about that bigger picture, distill all that information down into its core content, and mirror that back to the group in real time while the conversation continues to unfold.

It provides clarity and insight in-the-moment during difficult conversations. It keeps teams on track and moving toward their desired outcomes. It allows ideas to be shared in memorable and effective ways. And it allows team members to see themselves as part of that bigger picture…which means they feel more vested in the outcome. Ultimately, that allows teams to achieve massive results in less time. Results like completing over 90% of the organization’s annual plan in just seven months. Or moving up the timetable for corporate expansion by four years. Or being able to simply draw out your business idea on the back of a napkin for a prospective investor and land those much-needed startup funds.

There is power behind these seemingly simple processes.”
Jeannel King, April 2012
President, International Forum of Visual Practitioners www.ifvp.org
Graphic Facilitator and Stick Figure Strategist, Big Picture Solutions www.jeannelking.com

New website

Welcome to Engage Visually’s new website where we will discuss all things graphic facilitation and graphic recording. We will bring you latest news and creative comings and goings. We are also very much interested in the science behind the drawings and the evidence about graphic facilitation and graphic recording as effective and powerful tools for your work.