In my last post, I began to answer the question “What happens with all those charts after the meeting?” Some specific examples will help you visualize how the use of graphics has helped other organizations do their work better. (Names are fictitious and images edited to protect the privacy of my clients.) TIE ONE ON: […]
Tag Archives: Visual Problem-Solving
Comments Off on Graphic Facilitation: Mini-Case Study #1
I’ve been graphically recording sessions at the California Society of Association Executives’ annual conference. Attendees rush up afterwards to take photos and shower me with compliments, then rush off to their next session. I rarely get a chance to answer two important questions: What happens to these pictures afterwards? How might this work be useful […]
Comments Off on So, What Do You Do With All Those Charts?
No one reads a comic strip because it’s drawn well. They read it because it makes them laugh! When I give a presentation about visual thinking tools, I ask folks to “raise your hand if you can draw.” Very few hands go up. If I asked that question in a kindergarten class, EVERY hand would […]
Comments Off on No One Reads a Comic Strip Because It’s Drawn Well
A quick visual exercise can utterly transform how a group understands itself. I recently worked with a Board that perceived themselves as very divided. One camp was supposedly dedicated solely to the organization’s Program H and placed an extremely low value on Program C; the other camp reversed these values. They told this story over […]
Comments Off on The Value of a Pie
I once worked with a cohousing community on revising their decision-making policy, with which many members were frustrated. It was seven pages long and I found it difficult to understand despite multiple readings; each community member I asked described it differently. Some bemoaned the fact that they could never get anything done because the process […]
Comments Off on A Modular Approach to Creating Agreements
Meetings and presentations are a necessary part of doing business; too often they are dry, boring, unfocused, or simply unproductive. Gain a strategic edge by sharing your vision and creatively engaging your audience using visual facilitation tools. Why rely on words and text for so much of our group work and communication when 75 percent […]
Comments Off on The Power of Visuals
My CalSAE colleague Shelly Alcorn writes a great blog called Association Subculture. She recently posted a great “back of the napkin” story sketch about association membership. So I decided I needed to draw mine! (Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger image.) When I went to library school in the 90s I joined a […]
In this TedX talk, my colleague Brandy Agerbeck describes five steps to using visual & spatial tools for shaping your thinking. I love her combination of both flip charts and PowerPoint. I love the simplicity of her outfit. I love the way she uses the space onstage. I love her visual mnemonic, using the fingers […]
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>In a recent blog post, Harvard Business Review writer Peter Bregman calls PowerPoint the “#1 Killer of Meetings.” I’m not sure if I agree it’s number one – I’ve been to any number of sucky meetings that didn’t involve PowerPoint – but it is definitely in the top five. I personally am on a one-woman […]
Comments Off on Death to PowerPoint!
>As politicians and pundits discuss the proposed 2012 federal budget, they throw out numbers that are so mind-boggling huge as to be completely meaningless. Then I saw a graphic in the newspaper that really made it all a bit more clear. Accompanying Ezra Klein’s editorial on the federal budget was this cartoon by Nick Anderson. […]