Graphic facilitation
We are visual creatures. When you doodle an image that captures the essence of an idea, you not only remember it, but you also help other people understand and act on it - which is generally the point of meetings in the first place.
Tom Wujec
Years ago I was taking part to a 2 days course called ”Power of the Pen” where I was learning to give more power to my doodles in trainings / meetings. I loved that workshop because was all practice - tones of practice. And ever since those 2 days I had the courage to use more and more my doodles in my facilitation. I doodled a lot as a kid - and a lot of my notes had scribbles on them, or were just plain doodles. As an adult I learn to embrace the visual part of me (away from the public) - after that workshop I was finally showing my drawings to the world. Nick - the facilitator - supported me into gaining the trust in my abilities and drawing powers.
As a visual learner it is always easy fo me to use graphic facilitation in the learning process. What is graphic facilitation? It is the use of a combination of graphics such as diagrams, pictures, symbols, and writing to lead people toward a goal in meetings, seminars, workshops. Some people do this as a profession (graphic facilitators), others (like me) use it in their day to day life.
During my coaching school most of my notes were visuals so it was quite difficult to offer them to the group when they were asking about something. It was kind of cute to explain them that all I have are doodles or schematics. When the lockdown place us all indoors, I grabbed my iPad and started looking for ways to bring the drawings into the online sessions. Kids loved it - and they were looking forward to join the sessions. The adults liked it, creating a great space for sharing, creation and asking questions about visual representation of concepts.
Now I invite my clients to doodle or visual represent their journey while we are in sessions - those pictograms represent their own paths and processes and if it makes sense for them - that is all that matters!
If you are a visual learner - you retain easy if you write down or draw or color information. Here are some tips and tricks that you can use to create your own visual vocabulary that will support you to have clarity in your path, agenda or goals.
have a note book with you at all times;
replace some words with drawings;
highlight useful information;
write down things that you find important;
create pictures of the things you go through.
Why would you do that? Because writing it down or drawing it might allow you to bring things from subconscious to
conscious - visualizing details that you could need for solutions.
Here are 5 steps that you can do for start if you feel that this a journey you want to join, instead of writing words when you take notes:
Start thinking in pictures - hear the word ”idea” think of a lightbulb - a general representation for ideas :) across the world;
Create your own color code;
Create a visual dictionary with categories (people, places, things, processes) to use at all time;
Doodle pictures or schematics;
Draw maps with connections, directions and processes.
Begin small, visual representing things that you read or you listen. Or doodle one element per day that represents something significant for in the past 24h. You can use Pinterest or Instagram as a place for inspiration - where you can find a lot of pictograms to use. This process takes time, practice and patience. Do it daily and you will see that it is going to become easier to visual represent informations and it will give you clarity on the long run.
If you start to create graphic facilitation/visual notes/doodles that represent your journey please fill free to share it with me.
