Research to Action: What Any Sector Can Learn from GCSE+Drawdown

Why, yes, you CAN have an interactive and participatory virtual conference with over 3,000 participants from all over the world!

Earlier this month, the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE), and Project Drawdown brought together researchers, leaders, and community members to learn, share, and create solutions for people and planet.  

Some of the most powerful insights can be translated to any sector, so no matter who you are, here are a few snapshots from graphics showing what resonated most with the participants over the course of the week: 

Effective communication is more important than ever. To do so, we need to meet people where they are. 

Listening to and elevating diverse voices we haven’t in the past. At GCSE+Drawdown, there were several Indigenous presenters who openly shared their research and perspectives.

Networks and partnerships are needed do the incredible things we are called to do. Working together we can fill in one another’s gaps, offer new perspectives, and share resources.

Complex challenges require creative solutions, which means looking for systems and across disciplines.

GCSE always does an excellent job leveraging the graphics I create with them. Last year they created a stunning Global Sights and Sounds page to share the graphics and highlights from the conference. This year we collaborated to create visuals for social media posts before, during, and after the conference. I also made a massive Conference Synthesis map created over the course of the five-day conference. Scroll to the right and zoom out to see the entire thing! 

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?

Middle School: Facilitating a series of professional development sessions on using Adobe Fresco with their students as a creative thinking tool. 

US Fish and Wildlife Service:  Graphically facilitating a session with regional leaders to analyze how to create an internship system that is inclusive and supports hiring a more diverse and representative workforce. The outcomes will be refined into a strategic illustration which can be used in tandem with the Hiring Barriers and Biases illustration I created last year. 

Strategic Planning:  With a non-profit focused on supporting our democratic process through data-driven approaches. I can’t share the whole graphic, but here’s a snapshot of the title of a session that really elevated the energy levels during a remote retreat. Remember to celebrate accomplishments and share kudos for your team! 

Standing for Love

I was all ready to share some insights from last week with you, as I spent five days with thousands of people from all over the world graphic recording their discussions on climate solutions. 

In the midst of this hopeful and action-oriented virtual conference, the violent insurrectionist* attack on the US Capitol unfolded. It feels heavy, and also disingenuous not to acknowledge what is happening and denounce it in no uncertain terms.

I stand for equity. 

I stand with the Earth. 

I am learning to be anti-racist. 

I am for accessibility.

I stand with science. 

I stand with Love. 

*Originally, I used the language “domestic terrorist attack” here. I’m learning about how the word “terrorist” has been used in the past referring to violence committed by White people (the Oklahoma City bombing), and the resulting policy has been used largely against marginalized communities instead. I’m still forming an opinion, but my takeaway is this: moving toward anti-racism means critical thinking about language I use.

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

NCSE + Drawdown 2021: The Global Council for Science and the Environment and Project Drawdown co-hosted a beautiful and powerful virtual conference to connect research with action for global climate solutions. Here is a snapshot of the Miro Board visual synthesis I created over the course of the five-day event distilling key ideas and actions from participants. Click here to explore the board in more detail.

Accessibility Widget on the Website: I’m excited to have discovered the User Way Accessibility Widget thanks to Drawing Change. This widget supports front and back-end accessibility for people with differing abilities to ensure any website is ADA compliant. Check it out here!

Technical Content? Here’s How to Turn Any Idea into a Story

If you’re a scientist, researcher, or someone who works with technical ideas, this one’s for you. 

My wheelhouse is working with scientific and technical teams working with complex ideas and systems.  And almost every single amazing, brilliant, technical client I’ve ever worked with have all struggled with the same thing: 

How to tell their story. 

And why would we expect someone who excels in their technical field to ALSO excel at communicating it to non-experts? I have faith that anyone can become a good storyteller, it just takes practice. And most researchers I’ve met want to work on their research, not figuring out how to tell a compelling story. 

However, the point of much of this research IS to help people make decisions, and those folks often aren’t experts in the technical stuff.

So what’s a scientist to do? 

In July, I had the honor of presenting a workshop to other visual practitioners at our annual (virtual) conference. The title? Talk Nerdy to Me. And it was all about how to best support and work with scientific and technical clients.  

Although we covered all sorts of things, and the participants also shared their experiences generously, I wanted to share one clear, simple strategy to help anyone practice telling their story. 

It’s called the Feynman Technique, and it goes a little something like this: 

1. Identify a subject

2. Teach it to a child

   1. Speak in plain terms

   2. Be brief (Quick like a bunny)

3. Identify your knowledge gaps (yes, yes, more research is needed…)

4. Organize + simplify + tell a story

   1. Practice reading your story out loud. Pretend to tell the story to a classroom of students. That way, you’ll hear where language stops being simple. Stumbles could indicate incomplete thoughts, or cumbersome language.

   2. Use analogies and simple sentences to strengthen your understanding of the story, like this example from F-diggity himself:

“All things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.”

How do YOU tell good stories? Share your strategies and ideas!

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?

CSU Vet Medicine Research: Capturing the first framing class for the renowned researcher Sue VandeWoude for her Vet Med Research course. What a way to launch the semester!

Children with Medical Complexity: Continuing in the 7th virtual site visit reflecting on accomplishments, challenges, and where teams want to take their work serving these children and their families.

Strategic Planning: With a consortium of financial folks as they began planning for the future and how to better work together - but I can’t share any of the drawings.

These Global Fellows Use their Differences to Protect Biodiversity Around the World

There are a lot of groups out there that are full of diverse people working toward the same goal. This diversity and breadth of perspective is sought-after, however in practice can make for difficulty when collaborating. After all, different perspectives mean different approaches, priorities, communication styles, and potentially values.

Last week I was in Medellín, Colombia for the United Nations IPBES conference on science and policy on biodiversity and ecosystem services. I had the pleasure to graphic facilitate visioning sessions with the IPBES Fellows, a group of 49 next generation researchers from 37 countries seeking to use their scientific training to influence policy to protect biodiversity.

What blew me away the most was how well this group functioned as a team while working together. Here’s what I noticed them doing during the sessions that contributed to a successful global team that was able to go above and beyond with the impact they are making because of their strength in differences.

• It was clear they had been cultivating an environment where it was okay to disagree, change your mind, or question an idea.
• They listened to each other seeking to understand.
• They valued each other’s rich and diverse background informed by culture and field of study.

Next time you’re working with a group of people with different perspectives, think about how you could support and benefit from these differences to make your strategy, product, or paper that much stronger.

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

Ready to build a collaborative strategy? Let’s make it the best it can be with all the perspectives on your team.

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Medellín: While it’s history has been fraught with violence, today Medellín is a vibrant city full of the most welcoming and generous people, known as Paisas. While riding a cable car to an eco-park just outside the city, I met Marleni and her family, who were born and raised on small farms inside the park. They invited me to come see their home and treated me to some farm-fresh meals! I made a small painting of their farmhouse, Finca Juliana as a thank you. It never ceases to amaze me how good people are, and what can happen when you say “yes”!

An artist, a scientist and an entrepreneur walk into a bar…

Hello!

Thanks to everyone who shared feedback on my last email. Based on what I heard, this week I’ll return to your regularly scheduled insights & drawing tips. My goal with these emails is to equip you with tools to spark ideas and creativity, so as always, if there are things you’d like to hear about or have been yearning to draw, please let me know!

When was the last time you laughed? Almost certainly it was with other people, and likely not even at a joke. It turns out that laughter is something we as humans use to bond with each other, rather than something we learn. This means it’s actually an instinct, and one that makes us feel closer with one another. Plus, it helps relieve stress and often improves your mood.

So, laughter can help us build great teams. But let’s be real here. Laughter isn’t something you can manufacture or fake, we know when it’s not genuine.

How can you create a space that inspires more laughs, and therefore more synergy between you and your team?

Try adopting a playful mentality. One way to cultivate this is with doodles and drawings. Approaching things from a place of playful curiosity tends to lead to a more optimistic and laughter-prone conversation.  The next time you find yourself tensing up and getting ready to defend something, see if you can take a moment, relax your shoulders, and ask yourself if you could take a more playful approach.

“Smile. It makes people wonder what you’re up to.” - Anonymous
 

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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



You've got the team, I've got the markers. Click to get in touch about your next meeting or event that could use a touch of visual storytelling humor & magic.
 

Where in the World is ConverSketch

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Research in Action! Last week I got to graphic record stories and insights from researchers at CU Anschutz Medical Campus who had spent a week immersed in two communities around Denver. They built relationships and heard needs and perspectives from people in historically underprivileged groups about how medical research could be better done and shared in their neighborhoods.