Graphic Facilitation: Creating a Heritage Wall or Journey Map

by Angelique McAlpine

Planning is key to creating a Journey Map or Heritage Wall that includes input from across your organization. As a Graphic Facilitator we will work together to design a process that is inclusive and energizing for your organization.

EXAMPLE 1
A full day Graphic Facilitation with faculty from an elementary school during a day of Professional Development. We created a 10 year timeline (Journey Map, or Heritage Wall) of their school history. The educators worked in teams briefly in the morning to review their institutional history and post stickies of their content, which we then categorized. They dispersed to other workshops and we came together to wrap up the day with a review and appreciation of their Heritage Wall. A powerful experience for new and returning staff - there was an appreciation for the wisdom developed along the way, long-time staff felt recognized, new staff felt included and honored to join the continuing journey. 

Journey Map approximately 16 feet wide

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EXAMPLE 2
A group of health care professionals on a multi-day strategic planning retreat set aside an hour of their time to change modalities from presentation and discussion, to working with art supplies to tell the stories of their organization at 3, 5 and 10 years into the future. They worked together in small groups drawing out their ideas and placing them around the room in each time frame. They took me on a gallery walk and shared their visions with the entire group. I spent the remainder of the day synthesizing work into a single illustration. As the facilitation team revisited the graphic with them, it became apparent which areas were ripe for deeper discussion and where there was commonality of vision.

Journey Map 8 feet wide

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Example 3
This organization provided a printed summary of their 20 years of accomplishments. the process was an initial sketch, feedback, and a final sketch. 

20 Year Journey Map created in a graphic recording style from printed materials rather than a listening session.