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.

Do the Work in the Meeting…But How?

Right click to download and use this friendly tool!

If you’ve ever found yourself marveling at the number of meetings in your calendar and wondering “when am I actually going to get my work done?”, this newsletter is for you. 

Here’s a checklist I created for myself while planning for graphic facilitation work, to make sure I was using my time lately, adapted for y’all. When convening a meeting, try 

• Have an agenda: What is the purpose of the meeting, and what are you hoping to have done by the end? This can be as simple as weekly check in to be on the same page, or more complex, running through a few different tasks.

• Share the agenda with participants ahead of time so they know what to expect – ask for any additional items

• Option - when sending the agenda, include a focusing question for folks to bring ideas. You might consider: 

  • What’s one thing you wish we had gotten to do last meeting we didn’t?

  • What are you hearing/what are we doing that’s resonating with you right now?

  • What is the one most important thing we need to do by X date?

• Establish roles: Such as a timekeeper, notetaker, and/or Accountabili-buddy. During the meeting, ask someone to keep time so you can stay on track. This is especially helpful if you designated a specific amount of time for each agenda item, and if not, to let the group know when you’re halfway through the time. Making sure things are documented, and someone who has the social license from the group to follow up on action items (accountabili-buddy) if needed can also be helpful. 

•  Include time for Closing: Leave 5-10 minutes at the end to review action items for each person. 

If you’d like more ideas for how to make the most of your meetings, check out this post from the Before Times, which is still chock full of useful tips!

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?

I’m Headed to the Grand Canyon Next Week! A friendly reminder I’ll be in the backcountry from October 28-November 24 without access to phone or internet. Thanks in advance for your patience, and if you’re looking for a graphic recorder during that time, I’m happy to connect you with someone in my network who rocks! Photo by Spencer Branson, on our last trip in spring 2019.

CO HIV/AIDS Strategic Planning: Beginning with listening sessions, CDPHE and DEPH are convening folks from all over the state to offer insights, experience, and ideas to co-create a strategic plan for ending the HIV epidemic in Colorado. 

K-12 Innovation: We’re in the midst of a series of Discussion calls with education leaders and innovators from across the country, this week discussing Accelerators of innovation in education they’re noticing. These discussions will feed into virtual summits and reports.

Explora STEM Stories: I’ve been working with the Explora Museum in New Mexico to illustrate stories of indigenous community leaders in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). They’re starting to post the time lapse drawings on their Instagram feed, including this one from Sam Woods. 

When is Good Enough...Good Enough?

So there you were. You just had a shockingly productive and energizing breakout conversation with a some of your team, and it was time to share back and make a decision. This wasn’t just an ordinary, run of the mill decision either – it was guiding the direction of your next several months of work. 

The ideas started rolling in. Connections sparking! The complexity and nuance energizing! You start to imagine where this is headed! 

But it’s not quite right. The ideas the facilitator is forcing you to capture in virtual sticky notes don’t quite encapsulate the depth and detail of the work you do. Before you know it, the idea is all of a sudden a cluster of sticky notes and you’re glazing over as the group picks apart the idea trying to get it exactly perfect…

How is it possible to maintain the momentum and move forward in a way that feels authentic to the process, yet doesn’t send you into a never-ending spiral of wordsmithing in a virtual meeting? 

As a facilitator, I bring in the 5 Fingers Consensus tool and ask:

Is this good enough?

Can we, as a group, agree this is the general direction we want to focus on?

Most of the time the group agrees with a tweak or two that the idea has the gist, and wordsmithing can happen offline or in a subcommittee. 

It can be easy to come up with and explore possibilities but getting a group to make a decision about where to focus and what to prioritize can be difficult.  Asking if the idea is good enough to move forward with can help you move through the quagmire of virtual meeting decisions and onward to doing the good work. 

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?

Wildfire Risk Social Science: Facilitating the first of three strategic planning workshops to help a diverse team of researchers as they seek to support communities as they build resilience to wildfire. From local partnerships to helping make good policy, this team is working to change the way fire is managed across boundaries for the better. Here’s a screenshot of the Miro board we used over the two day workshop.

Driving K-12 Innovation: What are our biggest hurdles to support K-12 learners? That was the question we addressed in the first of six K-12 Innovation discussions with leaders and educators from around the world. Stay tuned as an advisory board continues to meet to discuss and focus on solutions! Another project, another Miro!

A New Decision-Making Tool for Your Team

This week’s newsletter is a quick tool I learned of from the Civic Canopy and I’m curious to try – perhaps while graphic facilitating a retreat next week. 

It’s called The Decider App and uses a series of straightforward questions to help you and your team select a decision-making model that best suits your needs. 

Whether you need support from the entire group but don’t have a lot of time, or you’re not even sure you need to make a decision, this tool helps you weigh your options and offers a quick snapshot of how to go about the decision-making process. 

Try it here.

Here are a few other thoughts about good decision-making with groups:

• Be extremely clear about what’s being decided

• As a leader, cultivate an environment where people can disagree to invite different perspectives and avoid blind spots

• And a list of four useful decision-making processes 

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?

Friendly Reminder – On the Grand Canyon October 28-November 24: If you missed it, in August we won a follow-up permit to raft the Grand Canyon! I will be out of the office and completely disconnected during this time, so thanks for your patience! If you need a visual practitioner during that time, let me know and I’ll be happy to connect you with someone in my network.

Photo: Spencer Branson.

UC Davis Orientation: This session on cultivating an inclusive, just, and equitable learning environment at Davis was nourishing and inspiring. The student voices I heard were poised, thoughtful, and supportive, and the resources on campus are top-notch.

North Texas Local Food Summit: In preparation for the UN Global Food Summit, local community leaders from across public and private sectors came together to discuss and brainstorm how to create a more robust and healthy network of local food for those who are often underserved. 

Attention Spans for Online Meetings are Getting Shorter. Here are the Questions I’m Asking to Make Sure Groups are Engaged

How do you hold the space for groups to do deep, meaningful work while tolerance for long virtual meetings wanes? Taking time before the meeting to craft the questions that are imperative for the group to explore together means they will feel deeply that this couldn’t have just been an email. 

I’ve been doing quite a bit of virtual graphic facilitation lately – from microbiologists to educators to socio-agro ecosystem researchers.

Inspired by my friend and colleague Janine at idea-360, who asks the best questions, here are some questions you can use to facilitate intentional time together, whether it’s 20 minutes or four hours. 

Before the meeting:

• What does success look like walking out of this meeting?

• Knowing this, what do we need to design/plan to do? 

During – This varies depending on your purpose – here are a few to spark your creativity:

• What is the unique value we provide? To whom?

• What is our grand challenge? 

• What demands our attention?

• How might we…in order to…

After:

• Plus - What did we like?

• Delta - What would we do differently next time?

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?

Head’s Up! I’ll be out of the office October 28 through November 22 without phone or email. With a 1 in 2,500 chance, we got a follow-up lottery permit to raft the Grand Canyon! Sound familiar? This will be our third time rafting the canyon - here’s a shot of me rowing Upset Rapid in 2019. Thanks for your patience, and if you want to explore the Grand, you can click through Google’s “street view” down the river. 

Aspen Colorado: For the Tech Policy Institute’s annual Forum. It was amazing to get to work on paper with people in the room, and I applaud the TPI for their intentional and rigorous safety measures for an in-person gathering. 

Upcoming Announcement: I have some very exciting news to share, but not quite ready yet! Stay tuned – I’ll be announcing this mystery in the newsletter on September 8th!

4 Steps to Great Stories (Even if You’re Not Good at Storytelling)

Have you ever nailed a pitch? I mean, really crushed it? You saw that person you were talking to light up? 

Chances are, you told a great story, quickly, in a way that resonated with your audience.

I get to work with incredible clients with important stories to tell. And…it can be hard. When you’re working with complex stuff, it takes skill to tell a great story in a minute or less (stoichiometry and microbial symbioses, anyone?). 

Almost without fail, “communicating to the public!” is an outcome I hear regularly at workshops I’m facilitating.  Those groups have spent a lot of time getting really, exceptionally good at what they do, which isn’t communicating to the public. Why do those same people expect to suddenly be great at something they’ve never practiced? 

If you’re not partnering with a professional storyteller or communications firm, and you’re ready to level up your storytelling, here’s a technique I taught last year at IFVP’s online conference to help my peers simplify and get confident with their science communication skills. 

The Feynman Technique

Richard Feynman was a physicist and voracious learner. He also seems pretty humble and down to earth. Gotta love those folks. He developed this strategy to improve his own learning, and it’s a killer way to outline your story. 

• Choose your topic. What’s your story about? I suggest making a mind map of everything you know about it, then…

• Teach it to a kid.  Three hot tips to help them understand:  

  • Use plain terms, no jargon.

  • Be quick about it, you (probably) aren’t working with a long attention span.

  • Before you start teaching, clarify and write down exactly what you want them to learn. If that’s hard for you to do, you know you can improve. According to the medium article I linked above, “This is also where the power of creativity can help you reach new heights in learning.” Boom.

• Fill in the gaps and keep learning. Not knowing everything doesn’t mean you’re dumb, it means you’re human. 

• Organize, simplify, and use analogies. Try teaching that kid again and get their feedback. Make a new mind map. Draw a picture. And keep iterating until it feels simple, clear, and your audience gets that sparkle in their eye that means they GET 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?

Adobe Creative Campus Collaboration - Summer 2021: Where campuses from around the continent reflect on what’s working, where they want to focus, and how to support creativity in learning for all!

Facilitating Microbiologists: Working on a grant proposal for microbial symbioses in the environment. Here’s a snapshot of the Miro board we worked in over two days to brainstorm, make decisions, and outline a writing plan.

In the Studio: Working on several videos. Here’s a sneak peek of one I just filmed as a trailer for a virtual field trip for the Park Service in Alaska. It’s about climate change, brown bears, and what they eat!

Arizona HIV Leadership Academy: Supporting the closing of a program reflecting on what they’ve learned and want to carry with them as leaders in the community.

Creating a Proactive Roadmap, Especially into Uncertainty

You know when you hear a word once, then all of a sudden keep hearing it a few more times in the next few days? And it feels like a sign you maybe want to pay attention to that idea? 

I’ve been hearing the word “proactive” quite a bit lately. As we begin to see the light at the end of the covid tunnel, the way our future will unfold continues to feel uncertain. Will we fall back into comfortable patterns of the Before Times? Will we use this time of disruption as a window of opportunity to evolve and innovate? What will the After Times look and feel like? 

As clients I partner with are shifting their eyes to the horizon of the future, approaching in a proactive way sounds good. Doesn’t it? But what does that mean? How can we be proactive if we have no idea how things will look?

I don’t have the answer, but I do have a suggestion: Imagine different scenarios.

Working through a Scenario Planning session doesn’t give us 100% certainty — it DOES provide space to:

• Think about our deepest fears for the future and get them down on paper to then let go

• Imagine different potential futures and brainstorm how we might move forward in each

• Create a foundation from which to adapt with agility as the actual future emerges

Sounds good, yes? But how do you actually DO scenario planning? 

Working with a professional facilitator to design the process, hold space, and push your group deeper can be a great idea. If you don’t have capacity for that, or want to give scenario planning a try on your own first, here are my tips to get started.

• Make four quadrants and label them with elements that are important, something like this: Best/Worst, Lots of XYZ/Very little XYZ

• Fill in your initial thoughts on each scenario — don’t stress, but DO give yourself time to return to this with different perspectives.

Potential questions to think about in each quadrant:

• What do you have control over? What is outside of your control?

• What do you feel like in this scenario?

• Who’s “on your team”/what resources already exist?

• How likely is this scenario to occur?

• How would this scenario impact your organization/life? 

• Are these impacts acceptable?

• What might you/the organization do to build resilience?

Tips:

• Allow yourself space to feel and sit in the discomfort of the worst case scenario (lower left in my image above)

• Then allow yourself to be relentlessly optimistic for the best case scenario (upper right in my image above)

• If you don’t know what would go in the other two quadrants, that’s okay – this is a starting point

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?

Urban Ecology for Positive Futures: Supporting a new, global, and transdisciplinary network of researchers and practitioners exploring urban ecology in different ways. As they begin their journey, defining HOW to work together, and what they might explore for a positive impact.

University of New Mexico Tech Days: We covered topics from pro cybersecurity tips and suggestions, to creating a positive environment for women in technology, to a reflection from the CIO of the past year and how the organization adapted.

What Seeds Are You Planting? A Custom Reflection for You!

The seasons are changing.

It feels miraculous every year when we see small shoots of bright green poking up through the soil. 

It also feels like we can see the light at the end of the covid tunnel here in Colorado with more and more folks getting vaccinated.

As things return to more normal, it may feel like the pace of life will pick up (or maybe it already feels fast to you as we’ve adapted to remote work and the new patterns that has brought). 

As we’re shifting seasonally, this can be a moment to think intentionally about what’s next for you. Here’s a visual template to take a few minutes to reflect, which I’ve found to be incredibly powerful as a business owner, especially when things feel like they’re moving quickly.

RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD

Right click to download and print!

Right click to download and print!

If this doesn’t serve you – that’s okay too! You do you. Here are the questions:

• What seeds do you want to plant now that will sprout and grow this year? 

• What have your roots quietly been up to beneath the soil and frost of the winter? What are things that aren’t visible yet, but are forming who you are and want to be? What keeps you nourished or gives you strength?

• What does it look like to nurture those roots so that as they wake up, you can bloom this year? What do you need to do for yourself?

Together, we have weathered some big storms this year. And you already know, weather patterns in spring are anything but stable – there’s bound to be another snow or cold snap this season. And as more of us are getting vaccinated and feeling more confident to see those we care about, there’s almost certainly something unexpected in our future we’ll need to shift around. 

And we know we can! 

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, 

If this reflection resonates for you, let’s connect to talk about designing custom processes and visuals for you or your team.

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

Pacific Northwest Fire Science Symposium: Helping co-design and co-facilitate a 3-day symposium for Burn Bosses and other Fire Science professionals across the US Forest Service and partner organizations. We used Mural to collectively share and reflect resources and ideas throughout the week. 

Community Outreach: With a non-profit client looking to redevelop an outdated building to better serve their own community, and the folks in the neighborhood. We used Jamboards to explore options, concerns, and build consensus around what makes sense as the project moves forward!

Head’s Up: Time Out of the Office in Late April. I’ll be out from April 19-30 spending time in nature on rivers and will not be checking my email or phone regularly during that time. Thanks in advance for your patience on communication!

Have You Seen this Button? How to Create a Custom Background in Jamboard

Have you hosted a virtual meeting and felt like you knew people had really good ideas, they just weren’t speaking up? 

Regardless of whether the meeting is virtual or in person, not everyone feels comfortable speaking in front of a group. Add unmuting, raising hand, distractions, etc. in virtual spaces…and it’s easy to just not say anything.

One of the simplest ways I’ve seen engagement and energy skyrocket in a virtual meeting is to create space for people to add their ideas to the conversation in a virtual whiteboard. ­

Google Jamboard is free and doesn’t require folks to log in to access it, however I was really frustrated with Jamboard because I couldn’t “lock” anything down.

Until I noticed a button and discovered a simple solution.

Now I can create custom visual templates for breakout groups and embed them as the background so participants don’t accidentally move it around and confuse the group:

Here’s how you can embed your own image to create a branded, beautiful, or curated experience in Jamboard:

Step 1: Find the Set Background button.

Step 2: Select your own image. 

It’s. That. Easy! 

Okay, but maybe you’re thinking “Yeah, great Karina, you can draw up a template and embed it. What about someone who doesn’t want to/have that skill?”

I’m so glad you asked! You can embed any image as your background – your logo in the corner or an inspiring scene. It’s easy to do a Google image search right in the Set background tool. Then, once your background image is set, you can create shapes as boxes for text, and add a fill color to make them pop over the image, like this: 

Once you’ve created the shape from the toolbar on the left, click on it so it’s highlighted. Then, this toolbar will appear at the top, and you can choose a fill color, like so:

And, of course, if you DO want a custom visual experience for your next virtual meeting, you know where to find me. 

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?

iMasons Global Member Summit: This year the iMasons focused on gender parity in the datacenter field, exploring equity vs. equality, how to foster inclusive spaces, and how having a more diverse workforce is better for your business.

Client Spotlight: Check out how the National Parks Conservation Association leveraged the graphics created during a Zero Landfill Initiative retreat a few weeks ago! Major round of applause to Karen at NPCA for her creative communication for “the best meeting notes I’ve ever seen!” according to one participant. See the entire report here. 

Zoom, obvi: March 20th is International Day of Happiness, and Zoom asked me to illustrate what their employees (they call themselves Zoomies, which I love), said makes them happy. Here’s the image I created, and you can see the time-lapse on Zoom’s Insta and Twitter feeds!

Pacific Northwest Fire Science Symposium: I’m currently in the midst of co-facilitating a three-day workshop with training sessions and building a deeper network in this community working on resilient landscapes across the region.