Visual Blog Post on Using Visuals in Strategic Planning

Get Visual with Strategy

My colleagues at Olive Grove Consulting invited me to post on their blog. Rather than write 500-800 words, I decided to draw my post. Drawing this post allowed me to get more information out there than I ever could have done in words! This month's focus is strategy.  I share some quick, easy tips for anyone working with organizations and strategy to make their work more visual. More visual means more engagement, more creative thinking, more systemic views and more clarity.

Here is a link to my visual post.Getting Visual with Strategy

Video Quick Draws -- Where's the Value?

Finally took the leap into doing those video drawings that everyone is asking for. I was resistant to doing them for a long time, which is odd since I have a degree in Film/Video Production. It took one persistent client who, despite my generous offers to refer the work to highly recommended colleagues, insisted that they actually wanted my drawings. Mine.

My background and interests are more focused in group process design as a visual facilitator than they are in illustration and rendering. Many of my colleagues come from an arts or graphic design background. I do not. My pull to the work of visual facilitation was from a process perspective. My strengths are in  designing and integrating visual and creative methods into group process. So, when approached to do the videos, I thought that my skills as an illustrator were not worthy of video draw projects. But this client could not be convinced to look elsewhere, so I took on the project.

The short story: I loved it! Turns out my skills as a creative writer, facilitator and storyteller were 90% of the process. In the course of six weeks, I took my client through an iterative, collaborative and co-creative process that resulted in a three minute video quick draw that they recently shared with the public in this Triple Pundit article:

Refrigerant Revolution: A Cool Future Ahead for AC and a Warming Planet

The client was very happy with the end result. We are working on more videos and they have recommended me to their colleagues. That is all wonderful. They talk about how much they love the video and our process. However, I believe that the real value they got is not actually in that three minute video. That is what they wanted, that is what they paid for, but what they really got was: Clarity!

During our first storyboard meeting, I had a wall of index cards lined up sequentially to the second draft script they had. In that 45 minute meeting, we, together, realized the focus of the video, the key message, and the arc of the story. That clarity came from seeing the sequence of images, having the script drawn out for them. That clarity will last longer than the video's value. That clarity is what they really got for their money, though it looks like I sold them a video.

Picture More Effective Communication

My lovely collaborators at the Lightbox Collaborative invited me to blog. Fortunately I had editing goddess, Lauren Girardin from the collaborative help me to take my writing and give it some verve! You can read the Lightbox Collaborative blog here.

Below is my post:

Picture more effective internal communications

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April 12th, 2011 by Julie Gieseke

We are inherently visual creatures. We approach the world around us with eyes wide open, and speak about what we see in metaphors that paint a picture of our experiences. Visuals and language are interdependent ways of conveying information. So, what does our visual nature mean for effective communications?

Pictures can convey a lot of complex information, which is where we get that “worth a thousand words” adage. Pictures can also serve as a common reference point for a group, helping align everyone to the same process. This efficiency and unity can help the group move more quickly to deeper conversations and to the real work that needs to be done. In other words, pictures can be a powerful internal communications tool to align your team in preparation for external action.

Using visuals can be an effective way to brings groups together, to galvanize a team, and co-create big ideas. The power of communicating with pictures is at the core of visual facilitation – an approach that can breathe new life into your next team meeting.

But I’m no Van Gogh

People often assume that I’m an artist. But, I haven’t had any formal training. Why do they make that assumption?

As I work with groups, I track their conversations to create large-scale visual maps, drawn in real time, to facilitate a group toward their desired outcome. Besides the color and design of the shapes, they figure an artist must have been at work because the resulting images have meaning. Yet, the power of the images is actually due to the connections they themselves made with the images. The images represent their experience in that room that day, which is powerful, personal stuff. They made their own meaning. I just provided the pictures.

By watching something being drawn, the viewer’s memory becomes anchored in that moment. When they see the image again, they will recall that moment in a more visceral way.

Images engage

The most powerful quality about using visual tools is not the resulting picture your group creates together, but rather the enhanced engagement you gain from working together in a visual way. Working with ideas that can be touched, moved around, and seen together will result in more opportunities for individual insight, innovation, and involvement in the group process. The picture becomes an anchor for the content the group worked on, triggering sensory recall of the work that cannot be accessed in a Word document or bullet point summary of the session.

So bust out those markers and crayons to picture your way to greater team engagement and more effective internal communications. If your team had a shared picture of your common goals, what would it look like?

Julie Gieseke is a LightBox collaborator with a knack for responding creatively in the moment. She urges you to create your own pictures for impact.

Mapping for Me vs for the Collective

I recently attended an exceptional workshop through the Institute of Noetic Sciences. I was first introduced to IONS when I mapped their 2008 conference in Tucson. It is a great community of people that blends the science minded and the spiritually minded. They have their fingers in everything that is fascinating to me. They are on the edges of the gap between science and spirituality. That gap is the same one we often leap across when we bring "art" (visual facilitation and other creative engagement methods) into business environments.

The workshop last week was called "Engaging Fielding of Consciousness in a Living Universe | For Group Leaders." I could not resist. As a Visual Facilitator and having spoken to many people who do this kind of work, the visual reflections we create for groups are often the result of tapping into some content other than just what is being said. I won't go into more of that now, but save that for a future post. This workshop was lead by Duane Elgin and Christopher Bache. They were a perfect combination. Christopher provided specific practices to support and engage fields within group and Duane provided the visionary context and importance for this way of working at this time in our universe.

I was inspired by the leaders and the possibilities for working in this way with groups. I am attaching my notes from the weekend. I don't imagine they will do more than spark interest and curiosity for you. For me, they trigger memories of not only the content but the experience and field that was created by the fourteen people who were in that room at the Earth Rise Retreat Center last weekend. The notes are also a window into how I take notes for myself, rather than when I am being paid to produce a visual record for a broader audience. I enjoy being solely responsible for what I want to capture and how. I shared these notes with other workshop participants and they resonated to some extent for them, because the content is familiar. If I had been "working" this event, I am sure my notes would be very different. In part because I would have been working on a wall. I would have been listening to the collective and for the collective, rather than for me and my interests. I would have been sensing and hearing in a different way just by standing to the side, rather than sitting in the circle. I would have been more diligent to capture details that were not as pertinent for me alone.

I am curious to see other visual practitioner's personal sketchbook notes and the differences between what they capture for themselves and what they capture for everyone else...

Visual Facilitation: An OD tool, a systems tool, and support on the doctoral path

Below is a short article I wrote for a Fielding Graduate University newsletter for doctoral students in the Human Organization Development Phd program.

Visual Facilitation: An OD tool, a systems tool, and support on the doctoral path

Visual Facilitation is a tool that is used in many ways by OD practitioners, coaches, facilitators, trainers, educators and individuals to support big picture thinking, engage different ways of knowing and enhance creativity and innovation. Fielding has been a leader in OD and continues to push the edges of our practice. One of these is the inclusion of Visual Facilitation in their continuing education graduate courses. Fielding is the first academic institution to offer a full credit course in Visual Facilitation and it is entirely virtual. The course engages the learner in visual methods as well as integrating the tools of Visual Facilitation into one’s practice.

Whether you have the time to take the course or not, there are many ways you can begin using some Visual Facilitation techniques to support your doctoral work and your journey along the Fielding path. I have worked with a few doctoral candidates, using visual maps to explore the research questions, build visual models of the findings, define a timeline and order for the learning journey and as one way of data collection.

One misconception with the use of tools like Visual Facilitation is that one needs to have artistic skills. This is mistaking the product for the process. The most powerful quality about using these visual tools is not the map or document that is created by you or by the group, but rather the enhanced engagement that happened as a result of working this way. With a simple mind map structure, you could explore the connections between your literature as part of building the Literature Review. Using a wall to plot out your topics, will allow you to see the connections between content that may be more challenging at first, in a linear, written format.

Using post-its to identify the bigger topics within each KA and see all of the KAs together will provide an opportunity to see patterns and connections. Making a large mind map of the whole dissertation structure, with an arm for each chapter, and branching out the needs and requirements for each section can offer a view of the whole project that may be difficult to see in traditional formats.

Besides the dissertation and research itself, there is a tremendous amount of information from different areas about navigating the path through Fielding to complete your PhD. These multiple streams of requirements and deadlines can be complex. Creating a visual timeline, plotting these dates and deadlines, including your own goals and objectives, and your personal and family timelines can allow you to see opportunities and prepare for challenges with greater foresight.

Though the Fielding course, “Leading Change that Matters with Visual Facilitation” may not be on your learning path, you could also consider the resources of fellow Fielding students who are interested in using Visual Facilitation and looking for opportunities to expand their skill and knowledge. Perhaps partnering with one of these students for some part of your work could be mutually beneficial. In addition, Regina Rowland and I are co-facilitating the course and are resources if you want to consider engaging Visual Facilitation in some part of your work or learning journey.

The twelve week course begins September 26. Registration opens in July!

Below is a link for more information about the course:

http://www.fielding.edu/programs/ProfessionalDevelopment/development

Feel free to contact me with questions:

Jgieseke@fielding.edu

Visual Facilitation will be required by law.

Visual Facilitation will be required by law.

I have had this idea for two years now. It came about through the work I currently do as a Visual Facilitator and as a result of the work I have done as an Audio Describer.

First, let's define Visual Facilitation. My description is that is the process of capturing in real-time, a conversation or dialogue with a group or individual, using images, words and symbols to create a mural sized map. These maps are used to facilitate whatever process of engagement that these people are in, by literally reflecting back to the group or individual what has been said, in a visual way.

This field has been developed into a profession for the last thirty years. It still remains a novelty for many people, though it is used extensively and internationally in business and education contexts. It is but one of many ways in which we humans can be intentional about how we gather and commune. My friend Ken refers to a wonderful description of the roots of the word conversation: Turning together. Visual Facilitation would be a picture of what that dance looks like.

Often Visual Facilitation is perceived as 'eye candy' and can be relegated to meeting that have the budget for 'art.' Sadly it's full potential is often not utilized, even when a Visual Facilitator has been hired. So how is it that this practice may in the near future, be required by law?

Let me first go back to my work as an Audio Describer. This is the process of providing audio descriptions of what is happening visually, so that the visually impaired may enjoy the same experiences as the sighted in media, theater and art. An Audio Describer will view a performance for example, multiple times, creating a descriptive script that will give a visually impaired person more information from which to experience the presentation. During the live performance, the describer broadcasts in real time, their descriptions, so as not to step on lines etc. to members of the audience who have one earphone tuned into their broadcast. Many times, in theater for example, there is much information that is conveyed visually that moves the plot line forward. Someone enters a scene, in a certain way, postures, gags, surprises etc. often involve many visual cues that non-sighted members of the audience would not have the opportunity to 'see.'

Did you even know this was a service? It is, and most of the work I did in San Francisco was for the major theater houses that showed the 'Best of Broadway' productions. These big houses were required to offer one performance per run that had audio description for the visually impaired. The reason was not out of goodwill, but rather compliance. The American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that this service be offered, much like an interpreter for the deaf. The reason you don't see this offered in EVERY theater in town is basically that someone needs to ask for it. Just like the wheelchair ramps, that took a huge movement to get compliance from public meeting places to offer accessible ramps.

So how does Visual Facilitation come to be required by law? The ADA in January of this year, 2009, expanded their definition of diabled to include challlenges with thinking and concentrating. There is already included in the definition, certain learning disabilities. What this says to me is that there is an expanding awareness for different ways of knowing, different ways of learning. Visual Facilitation is an interpretive service on multiple levels, but certainly for those people in the room who are inclined to be more visual and kinesthetic learners. The presence of Visual Facilitation can be incredibly helpful to an individual's ability to track the conversation, focus on the content, and understand what is being said. In other words, Visual Facilitation increases accessibility, just like a ramp in a doorway increases the accessibility for individuals to enter that space.

When people's accessibility needs are taken into consideration, accomodations are made, usually via compliance to some larger system. This is why it seems that in the not too distant future, Visual Facilitation will be required by law, in schools and business meetings, to serve the needs of those people who benefit or even need this process as a way to access information that many people take for granted.