In addition to my coaching practice as The SHIFT-IT Coach, I am also a teacher of Graphic Facilitation and Graphic Recording (skills that I picked up during my consulting career down in the States).
One of the pleasures of being a teacher is seeing your students really integrate and run with the skills you teach them. Like this note just in from Pattie Porter, down in San Antonio, Texas. Pattie attended one my Graphics Bootcamp trainings last year, here in Victoria B.C. And she’s just written me a nice note explaining how she is using her new skills in her specialty area of Conflict Resolution.
Interactive-graphics is a natural for the Conflict Resolution / Mediation world. Its gets all the thinking and feeling up on large displays … instead of directed at the people involved. A natural collector and dissolver of tension, anger, upset feelings, etc.
Also, Pattie is a great example of a seasoned, skilled facilitator stretching out of their comfort zone in order to experiment with a new skill and develop her chops in it. When you use graphics in graphic facilitation (as opposed to graphic recording) the visuals are more primal, basic and quick. You also tend to go in with pre-prepared charts and templates … with the drawings already sketched out to some extent so you are free to focus on the content of the group and add that in. While it is visual, it isn’t about ‘art’ as some folks get hung up on. It’s a way of ‘doing a meeting’ that focuses people’s attention and thinking … literally gets everyone on the same page.
Sooooo, as a facilitator, it is not necessary to be a great artist in order to use or do graphic facilitation. So it really is available as a tool for a large range of facilitators, consultants and other kinds of leaders. People who appreciate the power of Visual Thinking and want to use it.
Way to go Pattie! I’m thrilled to hear of the breakthroughs you are having and how people are responding to the methodology. Good on you!
And yes, working in a visual way is definitely more work than just being an normal, verbal facilitator (lots of prep involved) … but I’m glad you are finding out how worth it the extra effort is. All the best in your continued graphic adventures!
Hi Christina!
I hope you are doing well. It certainly sounds like you are from the newsletters I receive. I wanted to share with you some sample charts I did for a recent conference for the Department of Interior. I pre-made these charts (I did a total of seven 8′ charts) and used many of them in facilitated discussions.
I wanted to show you how your Advanced Graphics Bootcamp really took me to another level of my drawing and template design. I can only improve from here. It was an AMAZING experience to have participants from this conference be “awed” by the graphics. The conference was a kick-off for the Department of Interior’s conflict management program and its services. I had the opportunity to be highlighted as one of the service providers. We focused on my graphic facilitation and conflict coaching. People kept telling me how I was a wonderful “artist.” WOW! It was very validating. I also couldn’t believe how much time it took to design, draw out and then layer the charts with color and chalk…very time consuming indeed.
I will be doing something similar again for a day-long conference in Biloxi, MS in early March. This is a stakeholder conference to revitalize the communities in the Gulf Coast region as a result of Hurricane Katrina. I am really putting myself out there to offer graphic facilitation services. I can only keep growing. I hope to attend my first IFVP conference in Chicago this year.
Okay, take care of yourself.
[tags] graphic recording, graphic facilitation, graphic facilitation training workshops, pattie porter, patricia porter, conflict connections, Christina merkley [/tags]
