Recently, I was graphic recording at the annual Healthy Schools Leadership Symposium, the signature event hosted by DASH BC and Healthy Schools BC. This conference is a chance to really connect the education and health sectors, because healthy students are better learners, and better learners are healthier. What does that mean? If a child knows just two … Read more Healthy Schools Symposium and graphic recording
Graphic recording helped with knowledge transfer at a recent women’s heart health event with the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. The VCHRI interviewed the presenters and me and wrote up a great blog post. Thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed and feature graphic recording as a knowledge transfer tool in health care. Graphic recording in health care connects researchers … Read more Interview: Health Empowerment from Knowledge Transfer
Graphic recording supported a new community-based research project in Surrey BC about refugee settlement and integration needs, called Our Community, Our Voice. The project is part of the City of Surrey’s Local Immigration Partnership initiative and is and funded by Citizenship & Immigration Canada. It was an eye- (and heart-) opening day. I heard more refugees settle in Surrey than … Read more Graphic recording at refugee community consultation
The Mental Health Commission of Canada asked me to illustrate their new report, “A Mental Health Strategy for Canada: a youth perspective.” National strategies research what’s not working, what’s needed, and sets out strategies for what’s next. Everyone should be able to understand a national strategy, and making it visual is one way to do it. Two … Read more Illustrated Mental Health Strategy- knowledge translation
Graphic recording captured a powerful conversation about climate justice recently. A power of illustration is you can draw the future. It taps into hope, especially about climate justice. So if you have a sensitive facilitation process to lead, here are some visual facilitation elements that worked in this room. The Climate Justice Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy … Read more Visual Facilitation and a Climate Justice Conversation
Recently, I was graphic recording at a leadership conference for a large private sector company. Fantastic event, and maybe because this company had never experienced graphic recording before, I saw an unexpected benefit of graphic recording. It is your secret speechwriting weapon. I hadn’t seen this before, so I thought I’d share. By the end of day 1, I … Read more Graphic recording is your speechwriting secret weapon
One of the top questions I get asked about graphic recording is “how did you get into this?” The team at Wacom was curious, too. They wanted to know more about my passion for helping groups solve problems with drawing. It’s so awesome to be interviewed by the people who make my favourite tablet! Hop … Read more Feature interview about visual thinking on Wacom blog
The visual facilitation challenge: a 5 day planning session, 25 elected leaders, a room with no windows. The task: engage meaningfully about the organization’s 5 strategic areas, and use visuals. It was the exact opportunity to design a new visual tool: a paired photo walk for strategic planning. Here’s why. I’m passionate about better meetings. Whatever the type of meeting, there’s probably … Read more A visual facilitation tool – try a paired photo walk
During graphic facilitation, I’m often asked, “but how do you leave enough space?” People say to me that it’s “magic” watching the page fill up when everything fits just right. I can tell you that the balance of white space isn’t quite magic, although it can feel that way: there’s a plan behind what’s happening. It reminded … Read more How Graphic facilitation is Agile – Vancity
Busy people in leadership positions need meetings that work. Visual templates help groups get focussed, fast. This week, Kevin Millsip (from Next Up) and I co-facilitated a 2.5 day meeting for the BC Federation of Labour. Kevin and I used Visual Facilitation with templates to structure the strategic planning. At the end of the session, someone said … Read more Visual Facilitation with Templates
Last year, visual thinking led me a lot of firsts. Which is interesting, because every graphic facilitation event can be the first time for something. I listen with fresh ears. Anything can happen. But the uncertainty doesn’t make me nervous – like a singer onstage, I embrace the zone of being in the moment. No … Read more My year of visual thinking in 10 seconds
The community at Elsie Roy Elementary school is on a journey together. And part of charting that course is being able to share it with others. So, let’s use graphic facilitation to make their vision visible! This was drawn live during the session. Working with the leadership of Principal Jenny Chin and BFO Consulting, we facilitated a … Read more Visioning and Graphic Recording with Elsie Roy Elementary School
In my most recent public project, I used graphic recording to transform a full day of workshops about vicarious trauma, moral distress, family attachment and mental health into visuals that participants can return to again and again. Graphic recording works because it makes dense information clearer. People see connections, gain clarity into dense information, and can review … Read more Graphic Recording at Vulnerable Immigrant Populations Training Day
In 2008 when I launched my illustration business, if you had told me that in 2014 I would illustrate for Google, I would said that Google already has a full time doodler, thank you very much. But today – as a full-time, self-employed creative, I know that kind of short-sighted, fearful thinking doesn’t serve creativity. Creativity needs abundance, and abundance … Read more Working for Google – the power of networks
I planned a short visioning session for a university department and used facilitation photo cards and graphic facilitation recently. Before the meeting they said we could have fun, but not too much fun. I was told ‘”if we’re doing trust falls on this retreat, expect a lot of concussions.” (Right there with you.) But I wanted the group to … Read more How to use facilitation photo cards