Graphic Recording, Visual Notes, Graphic Notes, these terms are used interchangeably and describe the process of being a listener who carefully uses words and images to illustrate the process unfolding in the room.
Change often starts with awareness and aspirations - seeing these is emerge provides a valuable reference for the group process. This public sector human resources department was deeply engaged in visualizing their path forward. Working in a room full of this kind of energy is one my favorite parts of being a Visual Practitioner. EXAMPLE 1 A full day Graphic Facilitation with faculty from an elementary school at a day of Professional Development. We created a 10 year timeline (Journey Map, or Heritage Wall) of their school. The educators worked in teams briefly in the morning to review their institutional history and post stickies of their content, which we then categorized - then I began drawing. The staff moved to other activities for the day, checking in on progress between other sessions. We came together to wrap up the day with a review and appreciation of their Heritage Wall. The review of milestones was powerful for both new and returning staff - there was an appreciation for the wisdom developed along the way, long-time staff felt honored and recognized, new staff felt included and honored to join the continuing journey. 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. |
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