POP It!

Having a clear purpose in a meeting is something you’ve heard from me before – whether it’s a 15-minute check in or a 2-day off-site, when the organizers and the participants are extremely clear on the purpose of why they’re being asked to be there, engagement and the ability to measure if the outcomes were successful follow.

And, thanks to this excellent blog from Drawing Change, I just learned about a super handy, straightforward tool to make the meeting planning even better. It’s called POP, which stands for: 

Purpose, Outcome, Process

Developed by the Rockwood Institute, beyond defining the Purpose, or your why for convening the meeting, you add two more simple ideas. Your Outcome “speaks to what – the vision of what success will look and feel like when you “arrive.” And finally, your Process outlines the “how – the specific steps involved in getting there.”

It’s easy to jump straight to the process design, but if you’re clear on why you’re there and what it will look and feel like to be successful, that enormous investment of time, energy, resources, thinking, good food, and space together will be easier to measure and follow through on. 

So, here’s a graphic facilitator style worksheet you can use to help your group work through your POP for your next meeting – I hope you enjoy it!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, 

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

River Investigators Action Guide is Out in the World! I’ve had the joy of collaborating with watershed researchers at Colorado State University to illustrate an activity guide for children to explore our local river, the Cache la Poudre. Here’s a snapshot, and you can see a video of me flipping through pages on Instagram.

ShapingEDU Mini-Summit: Emerging Credentials Standards: Convening educators, industry professionals, and folks in K-12 education to discuss the future, power, and challenges of badges and credentials in addition to or in place of a traditional 4-year college degree. 

Learner Perspectives on Career-Connected Education Symposium: In another event focused on students, this symposium centered learners as speakers and panelists to guide the conversation and offer suggestions to make it easier to navigate the higher education system for successful career paths.

Agreements, Ground Rules, Community Norms, Oh My!

Someone carrying on for multiple minutes, seemingly without taking a breath, about a topic unrelated to the task at hand.

A person keeps bringing up the same axe to grind…over, and over.

Two people are whispering the entire time.

80% of the group has a laptop out and a slightly glazed look in their eyes.

Any of this sound familiar?

Whether you call them ground rules, group agreements, or community norms, co-creating expectations for how a group will interact is one way to design a focused and purposeful meeting. 

Why do group agreements work?

• They define “rules of engagement” group agrees to

• People communicate in different ways, and norms help us agree how to work with each other

• Setting expectations for how the group will interact

• Creating mechanisms for resolving tensions or conflict 

Even taking just a minute to review previously established agreements is a powerful tool to ground participants and remind them that they’re not in just any meeting, they’re in this gathering space with an intentional environment that has been co-designed by the whole group. This is subtle yet important in shifting from “why do we need to be meeting?” to “I’m fully present and ready to contribute to this process.”

Here are some of the agreements commonly used in meetings I facilitate:

• Speak from your experience and welcome others to speak from theirs

• Step up when you have something to share, step back and make space for all voices to be heard

• Listen to understand (not just waiting for your turn to talk)

• It’s okay to disagree, but do so with curiosity not hostility (thanks to the Center for Public Deliberation for my personal favorite!)

• And of course…Support the facilitator – help me help you as we move through the process

What agreements have surprised you with their effectiveness in supporting open and constructive conversations? Drop me a note – I’d love to learn from you!

If you’d like to jump deeper on designing excellent experiences, you can check out this post on why a clear purpose for a meeting supports everyone, or this one about why to design for connection.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, 

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

Presenting at IFVP Online Learning Series: Email Marketing for the Win! 90 minutes of interactive goodness, happening on April 20th at 9am Mountain Time. Even thought it says 2021…it’s happening in a couple of weeks. You can find out more register here.

In the Studio: Storyboarding videos, illustrating research on seabirds and archaeology in Alaska and co-conspiring for effective engagement visioning for sustainable futures at a university. Here’s a snap of the research-turned-illustration!

In-Person, Remote, Hybrid…What to Center No Matter the Method for Meeting

Why do we create? Why do we meet? What drives much of our action as humans? Expressing our ideas and connecting with others in different ways is core to who we are. 

Stating the obvious here, this connection has been shaken up the past two years, and as we begin navigating in-person and hybrid situations professionally or personally, we’re rediscovering how to be with each other in meaningful ways. 

“Whether your team is in-person, remote, or hybrid, one thing is true in any form: Connection doesn't happen on its own. You need to design for it.”  – Priya Parker

As a graphic facilitator, I get to co-design for connection with clients. How do we do this, even…especially in the virtual environment?  A few of the seeds we can cultivate toward connection include:

• Building in time for participants to share experiences outside of the work goals of the meeting

• Creating opportunities for small and large group conversations

• Thoughtful questions that support vulnerability

• Creating visuals that highlight connections, shared ideas and values, or intentional visual metaphors deepen the opportunities to connect

If you’re curious to read more, here’s a post on why human connection is so important. 

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, 

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

Invasive Species Video: Watch the fresh digitally hand-illustrated video here to learn about the difference between native, non-native, invasive species, and pests from the National Park Service!

In the Studio: I’m working on several projects from graphic facilitation design to more videos to a guide for children to explore our local river. Here’s a snapshot of what River Investigators might observe about their watershed! This booklet will be available this spring for visitors along the Cache La Poudre River.

YOU Can Prevent Your Coworkers from Becoming Zoom Zombies!

Alright folks, time for some real talk.

We’re likely all experiencing the mixed blessing that is remote video meeting platforms. I mean, according to the company, Zoom’s daily users grew to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum total of 10 million!

Here’s a personal example: One of my friends who happens to be a bosswoman told me she had 34 meetings scheduled last week. That’s pretty much 7 meetings a day for 5 days!

Let’s let that sink in.

On top of the other stresses each of us is figuring out how to navigate (I’m looking at you, Uncertainty!), all of a sudden, our days are filled with video calls which are exhausting. Tell me they’re less exhausting than a normal meeting. Go on.

Jocelyn K. Glei frames a solution in a simple mindset shift: If we think of the time in our calendar that is scheduled as the productive time, we find our calendars filled up with meetings and calls. HOWEVER, to do the creative, meaningful work we want to, we must preserve time outside of meetings. She calls this applying white space to the calendar. And here’s my take on how to practice inviting in white space in various ways.

White Space in Your Calendar to Get Stuff Done: Simple in concept, difficult in practice.

So, what tools do we have to create space and help us avoid Meeting Overload, and these days, Zoom Zombiedom? In classic facilitator fashion, have I got some questions for you!

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to help you decide if you REALLY do need a meeting:

• Is there a key person I can call to have this conversation/make a decision instead of holding a meeting?

• Does the meeting have clear goals? If not, create them or don’t have it! Clear goals allows for more action, and more time between follow-up meetings.

• Do your goals require real-time conversation to achieve? What other tools could you use to share or receive the same information?

And for those of you who have cancelled or rescheduled a larger event, here are some process questions(from So You Want to Host a Web Meeting to help your planning team make the best decision about whether to take your event online.

Larger Event (or smaller one too if you’

• The meeting is important to the work, life, and interests of the people interested. We know this because ______. (Give evidence. Is it important because it’s mission critical? Because someone in charge said so? Be specific and concrete! Take participants’ perspectives into account)

• By the end of the meeting we (conveners and participants) will have ______. (Describe what will have happened in as much detail as possible, using STRONG action verbs - “heard” is not one!)

• The reasons this meeting should be held online is ______. (Probably because of COVID-19. Be clear why it is a good or not so good option.)

• If we didn’t have this meeting, _______ will happen. (If there isn’t a good reason for the meeting, don’t have it!)

My final bonus recommendation for those meetings you DO decide are absolutely necessary: Take pauses regularly to breathe, even if it’s just for 30 seconds.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch? At home! I hope you are too :)

This digital real-time graphic is from Arizona State University’s Public Service Academy’s Virtual Design Conference last week. Leadership shared how the program prepares the next generation of public service professionals for real-world solution seeking.

I’m partnering with USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) on a series of virtual meetings leading up to an in-person event. This diverse team of researchers is co-creating a vision for agricultural water resources for the next 30 years.

I got to collaborate with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in February on their social science summit, and the folks I worked with liked my Work From Home tips so much, they asked to share them on their internal site! Can you spot the ConverSketches above?

If you’re also finding yourself on more video calls than ever before and need a way to keep participants focused and anchored to their shared story, let’s explore how to leverage digital graphic recording or remote facilitation for you!

The Art of Reimagining the Report Out

Workshops with breakouts mean unending report outs, right? Maybe not!

Here are three tips I learned this summer at IFVP from Anthony Weeks on ways to ensure stellar report-backs that can be visually captured for useful synthesis and follow-up:

-          ONE Big Idea: Each group can ONLY share one big idea (it’s okay to share the same thing as another group)

-          Once Upon A Time: Ask each group to create a story arc of their idea to engage the audience

-          The Pitch: Each group gets a short time – one minute or less -- to persuade the rest of the group their ideas are best. Bonus: Offer prizes!

Over the report back? Here are a few other ways to approach visual capture of group work:

-          Visual templates for every group to work through and share, or post for a gallery walk.

-          Experience Walls: Pre-built walls with visuals and key questions that participants can interact with on breaks or built into the agenda.

-          Ask the graphic recorder to focus on creating one illustration summarizing the full day.

If you’re not reporting back but want everyone to hear the main story of what’s evolving, it’s important to still build in time or a strategy for the entire group to hear what others are speaking about. You can invite your graphic recorder to walk the entire group through a quick summary of what they captured.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Middlebury, Vermont: With the Institute for Ecological Civilization partnering with citizens in Vermont to support them as they co-created a vision across urban and rural communities in the state.

Chautauqua at Boulder, Colorado: As a participant/recorder with a group of leaders in the systems thinking sharing tools, building relationships, and deepening a network of practitioners working for social good from carbon neutrality to housing to equity and justice.

In the Studio: Filming the latest Drawing Connections video for the National Park Service, and a video for a team of cross-boundary wildfire and social scientists at the Rocky Mountain Research Station!

Crush Your Next Big Project…It Will Only Take 15 Minutes

Sometimes a project feels so big you don’t know where to begin. Or maybe it’s not so huge, but it feels easier to check your phone than starting what needs to get done.

Here’s a trick to shake off that paralysis of getting started:

Set yourself a timer for 15 minutes.

Really? 15 minutes? Yes, really.

I’m doing it right now – I’m using my own advice to get this newsletter out to you fantastic people!

I’ve found that 15 minutes is just a small enough chunk of time I can convince myself to just say no to one more cute cat video, put my head down, and start chipping away at what I need to do.

And, 15 minutes is just long enough to get into the groove and want to keep jamming out on what I’m working on. Maybe set that timer for another round and see if I can finish something faster than I expected!

Bonus tip: Set the timer, then hide your phone. Temptation? What temptation?

What takes less than 15 minutes? Getting in touch to bring your upcoming event to the next level with visuals and creative process design to facilitate lasting action.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Dallas: Supporting a C-Level leadership retreat through reflective and challenging conversations around how to work together to be a better team.

Washington, DC: For Part 2 of the Future Earth Sustainability 2.0 workshops mapping the future of sustainability research.

Denver: Supporting a collaborative of emergency management partners as they tackled design thinking, priorities, and mapping their time line moving forward.

Northern Colorado: Capturing a leadership training on how to walk the talk to build and instill trust in teams at hospitals.

In the Studio: Working digitally and remotely for Visuality as their European-based team captured the Global Water Partnership Annual Meeting which “followed the sun” around the globe! Here’s a snipped from the discussion in China about the importance of working collectively.

The Other AI

You know when you’re having a conversation with someone you admire, and pretty much every other sentence they say blows your mind?

Last fall I had the joy of getting to sit down with one of those people in my life, Heather Martinez, and something she casually dropped has been bouncing around inside me for months as I figure out how to chew on it and what it means for my graphic facilitation practice.

We were talking about process design for facilitating meaningful conversations, and I was gushing about Design Thinking and how complementary visual thinking is to that process.

Then Heather says something to the effect of “Yeah, but you can’t prototype humanity or emotions. That’s why I love Appreciative Inquiry!”

That brought me up short. I’ve dabbled with Appreciative Inquiry (or AI– not artificial intelligence AI), but with that statement, I immediately felt like it was a tool I needed to learn more about.

And this past week, the amazing and talented Christine Whitney-Sanchez facilitated over 700 IT professionals from across Arizona State University using Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space to build community, understand what’s most important to these people, and where to prioritize resources for the next year.

I think Appreciative Inquiry is a rad tool because it focuses on positivity, storytelling, human connection, discovery, and designing a path toward action. Unlike a lot of process design, it doesn’t assume to know the answers.

Here are the 5 D’s of Appreciative Inquiry, and you can learn more at this link.

Interested in applying Appreciative Inquiry to a question in your organization?

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Provincetown, Massachusetts: Graphic recording for the second annual Broto Conference on Art and Climate Change where artists of all mediums and walks discussed how art could be used to scale climate action globally for good.

Photo: Michael & Suz Karchmer

Las Vegas, Nevada: With a group of engineers discussing the future of tech, trends, and big questions they’re thinking about. I can’t share much, but here’s one small illustration from my digital graphic recordings:

Tempe, Arizona: Back with the amazing Arizona State University Technology Office (UTO) who convened IT professionals from across the University to have conversations about what matters most to them and how the UTO can support a more cohesive IT network across the entire campus. This image was created from responses from an app in real-time during 21 simultaneous sessions!

Denver, Colorado: Supporting the work of Future Earth and H3Uni as they guided an esteemed group of individuals discussing the future of sustainability scholarship and how to address systems-level challenges to doing effective transdisciplinary sustainability research.

Yeah, it was a busy eight days!

Digital, Paper, or Foam Board, Oh My! How to Decide Which Medium is Right for Your Event

Hey folks!

Have you ever organized an event for your organization? If you have, you know there’s a LOT more that goes into planning and pulling off a successful gathering than meets the eye.

If you’ve put weeks into organizing an event, you want it to go as perfectly as possible. So, naturally, you’ve hired a graphic recorder to visually capture notes in real-time. High five, you have got this on lock. Then, the graphic recorder throws this curveball at you:

“So, would you like me to work on paper or digitally?”

As digital scribing has become more reliable and attainable, deciding whether to use paper, foam board, or projecting a tablet screen can feel complicated.

With all the other variables you’re managing, I’m here to help this decision to be an easy and fun one!

I often get the same question from clients: What are the pros and cons of each option? So, I’ve decided to pull inspiration from some other graphic facilitators, and create a tool to help you swiftly make a decision based on your needs.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Phoenix, Arizona: Back at Arizona State University for the second ShapingEDU Unconference where Dreamers, Doers and Drivers got together to share ideas and strategies to better leverage technology for learning in higher education.



Houston, Texas: With Houston Methodist Center for Neuroregeneration capturing presentations and discussions from a global group of neuroscientists and spinal researchers. We even witnessed Mutton Bustin’ at the Houston Rodeo! Needless to say, my mind is blown after working with them (heh heh).

Out of the Studio: This new digitally illustrated video for local Northern Colorado business Streamside Solutions explains how their HVAC system software can save you energy, time and money…fast!

Washington, DC: This week I’m back in DC working with the Environmental Defense Fund on the last in a series of systems thinking workshops on sustainable agriculture and pollinator habitat.

And Nearly…In the Grand Canyon! As a reminder, my next big adventure has been in the books for the past year – from March 24-April 15 I will be rafting the Grand Canyon! Fortunately, I’ll be completely disconnected from phone and email during that time rolling on a river. Unfortunately, I won’t be available to partner with any clients during that time, but will look forward to opportunities to collaborate when I return. If you do have an event during this window, I can connect you with some highly qualified colleagues who can take care of you and your group!

Want to Elevate Engagement in Your Virtual Meetings? Try Adding Graphic Recording!

Hello!

Have you ever been on a video conference call or webinar and noticed people look like they’re doing something else, rather than paying attention to the call? Maybe you’ve been there yourself…there’s an important email you wanted to start drafting…

Whether you’re in a virtual meeting, or one face-to-face, getting distracted by technology can be far too easy.

But what if technology could be leveraged to increase engagement instead?

One of the most powerful benefits of graphic recording is that participants see their ideas unfolding visually as they watch, allowing them to see patterns and systems, and feel like their ideas are being heard by the group.

With video conference platforms that allow screen sharing and a tablet, all of a sudden graphic recording has become more attainable, even if you have people calling in from all over the world!

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of capturing the ongoing series of discussions for ShapingEDU: “A community of dreamers, doers, and drivers shaping the future of learning in the digital age.” The live capture has been used by a global audience as they’re discussing or listening to panelists in an expertly-facilitated discussion and are shared, tweeted, and used to boost engagement around the webinars during and after each one.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Psst….Have a video call in the calendar?

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

IMPORTANT NOTE: You all know me by now, and know that I like a good adventure. The next one has been in the books for the past year – please keep in mind that from March 24-April 15 I will be rafting the Grand Canyon! Fortunately, I’ll be completely disconnected from phone and email during that time rolling on a river. Unfortunately, I won’t be available to partner with any clients during that time, but will look forward to opportunities to collaborate when I return.

On my way to Houston: I’m headed to a Neuroregeneration Symposium for a few days to capture cutting edge research on spinal repair.

In the Studio: Wrapping up a digitally illustrated video for a local business, and a strategic illustration on Early Childhood Education career paths for a local non-profit.

Who Can Help Your Team Surface Shared Values?

I love getting to collaborate with a lot of different groups of people working toward many different goals. Most of these groups contain people who have different worldviews, perspectives, ways of thinking.

Sometimes it's challenging to do meaningful work together if you think differently. That’s what leads to the most powerful teams and solutions.

But it can also be beyond frustrating. What if you can’t come to consensus? What if consensus isn’t actually a tool that will serve this group and their goals? What if your team stays surface-level because they don’t feel comfortable disagreeing? (Hint: I wrote a post about the benefits of disagreement here).

This is why groups choose to work with a graphic facilitator.

I can help you design processes to build on your team’s differences to use them as a strength, then draw out the conversation to surface shared ideas or values, then co-create and illustrate a plan that everyone can see themselves in. Get ready for action and riding the wave of momentum!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers, Karina

Have the seed of an idea? Let’s design something to help your team surface shared values.

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Vail: At the annual DigiDay Publishing Summit where I captured trends and solutions for the ever-changing world of publishers like the Daily Beast, HuffPost and Gizmodo.

Fort Collins: Working with the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences as they create a Research Strategy for the next five years.

Rafting: As those of you who have subscribed for a while know, I enjoy playing outside and floating on rivers. This week I’m out of the office on a spring float down the Ruby/Horsethief/Westwater stretch of the Colorado River. This photo was taken by the incredibly talented Spencer Branson.