How to Train Your Brain to Be Just Fine when Things go “Wrong”

Well…that water doesn’t look like I wanted it to…

Can you remember a time that something went “wrong”? Trying a new recipe turned out…meh. A difficult conversation with a loved one. A creative project didn’t turn out perfectly on the first try.

How did you react? 

The sheer volume of curated feeds can make it easy to fall into a thought pattern that if something didn’t go perfectly right the first time, it failed. 

This is crazy talk. How can we expect ourselves to instantly be experts without practicing, experimenting, failing, pushing, learning, expanding, playing, falling…and getting back up? 

We’re human. We’re going to do things “wrong”. It’s beautiful! And, with practice, we can shift how we feel when things go sideways. Here are a few of my tried-and-true favorites:

• Bring the humor. Try not to take yourself so seriously – it’s okay to laugh at how ridiculous mistakes can be.

• Check your expectations. It’s fantastic to push yourself, and to expect that it will probably take a few tries to improve consistently. 

• Practice kind self-talk. Imagine a friend is telling you about whatever it is that happened – what would you tell them? Now, bring that same compassion to yourself. 

• Be curious. What can you learn from the situation if you let go of feeling like you need to defend what happened?  

• Take five. Give yourself the space and time to take a break – do something you love to reset yourself.

Ahhhh, yes. That’s what I was going for. Why don’t things turn out perfectly the first 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?

An agenda slide designed for a remote graphic facilitation process.

Special Education System Improvement: Remote graphic facilitation with leaders of education systems to improve systems to better support students with differing abilities state-wide. 

A scene from a storyboard work in progress.

Videos: From invasive species to more (award winning!) Drawing Connections to vets and climate change, the ConverSketch studio is humming along in 2022. These videos are still in various stages but I’m excited to share them with you in the coming months!

You DID That – Visual New Year’s Reflection for 2021

If you’re like me, taking time to reflect on the year and set intentions for the next one can be a powerful practice. A few reasons I love it: 

• Revisiting and celebrating accomplishments – work and personal

• The opportunity to focus energy on what’s important for the future

• It creates space to acknowledge and mark the passing of time (especially needed when during covid it can often feel like a “Blursday”)

But taking the time to “do reflection” also feels like it takes some effort. Where to start? Do I really have time for this? Have I even done anything worth reflecting on? 

I recently learned the term productivity dysmorphia: the inability to see our own successes or to acknowledge the volume of our own output. It can be easy to constantly be looking to the next thing without properly taking time to acknowledge the energy, creativity, critical thinking, and genius that went into what you’ve already done. We don’t need stats to know that the past two years have been hard. Burnout is real, especially for working moms: I salute you. 

To balance the societal current that is pushing us to do more, right now…I’ve realized I want to offer an opportunity to celebrate your wins! Right click on that worksheet at the top to download and fill in your own reflections.

If you want to do some future-focused work, I updated a visioning worksheet for 2022 – right click the image below to download it. I’ll also be participating in this Intention Setting Workshop on January 6th, co-facilitated by my wildly talented friend Abby Van Muijen. 

More New Year, New Practices from the Archives:

A Gentle New Year’s Reflection - 2021

Reflect & Envision - 2017

Tips for creating a Vision Board - 2016

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, 

Peaceful Holiday Wishes for You

Happy Holidays!

From my heart to yours, sending warm wishes for a peaceful and joyful holiday season. 

Whether you’re feeling extra festive or extra stressed (or both), here are some links to thoughts for the holiday season I hope might provide some helpful tips – from drawing winter trees and presents to taking a moment to breathe and recenter: 

• Strategies to overcome feeling overwhelmed

• How to draw happy little winter trees

• Breathe deep to help feel calm 

• The most wonderful time of the year...to remember what matters most

• Give yourself this gift

• A powerful gift you can give for free, any 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?

In the Studio: Working on wrapping up a whole flock of videos for Colorado State University. Here’s a snapshot of one I’m looking forward to sharing next year!

Strategic Facilitation: Hosting and guiding a process with a USFS Social Science Team as they reflect on the work so far and imagine the future with on-the-ground partners and leadership.  

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. 

Drawing Connections to Climate Change is an Award-Winning Video Series!

I’m so proud to share that the National Park Service Drawing Connections to Climate Change illustrated video series won a 2021 Silver Telly award!

Who else won a Silver Telly in our Public Service & Activism category? Stephen Colbert. COLBERT. 

These shorts tell stories of climate impacts in places and ways we don’t necessarily think of first – such as loss of cultural resources due to intense storms, or warming leading to an increased threat of avian malaria for rare birds. 

What I love about the approach we took with these videos is that they tell it like it is: climate change is having some massive impacts on our beloved wild places. AND there are things each of us can do to minimize climate impacts! The series always ends asking the audience “Can you picture it?”, as a tool park interpreters can use to engage with visitors and imagine a future we want to see.

I am so delighted to be part of this team and would like to take a moment to send a major shout-out to Larry Perez and Matt Holly at NPS for championing this series and making darn good videos! Your skills are fire and it’s a joy to collaborate with you!

You can find the entire series as a playlist at NPS Climate Change Response Program’s YouTube channel, or browse the links below:

• Our newest release is from Haleakala – avian malaria and climate change

• Castillo de San Marcos, Florida – sea level rise and historic cultural resources

• Organ Pipe Cactus, New Mexico – the historic Gachado Line Camp and intense storm cycles

• Jean Lafitte, Louisiana – sea level rise and historic and natural resources

• Yosemite, California – the importance of winter seasons for the park to rest

• Summer Heat Safety – how to stay safe even when things heat up in National Parks

• Cabrillo, California – ocean acidification and sea life in tide pools

• And the very first Drawing Connections video from back in ’17 -- Fort Laramie, Wyoming – river flooding events and cultural resources

If you’d like to work together on an illustrated video, I’m currently booked out into spring of 2022. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss your project or be connected with another talented illustrator in my network. 

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?

Another New Video! This video for the National Park Service is designed to introduce a virtual field trip for students to learn about what brown bears eat when they emerge from hibernation, but the salmon haven’t started their run yet. CLICK THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Ute Mountain Ute Student Voices: The Tribe received a grant for after-school programming for youth, and are starting by gathering the kids’ ideas and interests before taking steps to begin creating the programs – here’s a snapshot of one focus group. 

Graphic Facilitation: for a couple of teams right now. This is a custom element I’ve embedded into the Miro Board to support the multi-disciplinary team of researchers applying for an NSF grant to get on the same page about their approach and begin the process of writing up the complexity in a coherent way. 

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!

How to Co-Create a High Engagement Virtual Event: Best Practices from the ShapingEDU Community

Every time I get to work with the ShapingEDU community, I’m blown away by the creativity and passion of the team at ASU to positively “shape the future of learning in the digital age” as they say. 

Even in a world of remote meetings, ShapingEDU walks the talk to convene for meaningful work driven by the community, which means it’s then carried on afterward? 

So, what best practices can be transferred to YOUR organization? 

For highly engaged virtual or in-person events, let participants guide content. This was done through crowd-sourcing then voting on nine wicked problems facing education in the weeks leading up to the Unconference. 

Minimize talking at, maximize talking with. Most of the three days was spent in working groups focused on the content participants upvoted. There was a framing plenary panel, then off folks went to share their insights and cross-pollinate ideas. 

Provide some structure. These hours-long working groups were guided by community members who volunteered to facilitate them ahead of time, who had knowledge, expertise, and the ability to step back to let the group do the work when it made sense. Each had their own zoom meeting, and participants were encouraged to work together across Slack.

Infuse creativity and play. The opening reception was a ridiculously well-curated Wicked Mystery Party where participants discovered there were self-guided and team-oriented mysteries to solve by talking with characters in different breakouts, exploring clues in different settings online, and working together. Not to mention a graphic recording “ghost” who floated around to capture snippets of the process and offer sometimes helpful hints. 

The base map for the Wicked Mystery Party opening reception. Participants could click on yellow buttons to explore different rooms, looking for clues!

Finally, each day was facilitated with reconvening the groups to share ideas and look for connections, patterns, and insights together. These report outs were graphically recorded in real-time and reflected back to the participants visually and verbally for comprehension, memory boosting, and looking for new ideas together. 

Cheers ShapingEDU – you all are truly remarkable and I’m proud to be part of the community!

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?

ASU ShapingEDU Unconference: As you may have read above, the Unconference is a lively event. This year, we created quite a few materials ahead of time, including this explainer video on what Black Swan Events are and why we should care!

Communication and Symbioses Workshop: I’m in the midst of graphic facilitating a two-day workshop for a team of researchers exploring connections between microbial symbioses and signaling and communication.

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.

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!

3 Tips for Getting the Most out of Your Virtual Whiteboard

By now, most of us have experienced more video conferences than we can count (why, in the name of all that is holy, would we ever have the desire to count?). 

Which means over the past year, as a graphic facilitator in the digital sphere, I’ve collaborated with clients to create custom templates for virtual whiteboard platforms for events where participants say things like: 

This was the best zoom meeting I’ve been to!

- Participant at the 2021 Zero Landfill Initiative Retreat

And…

I had the Miro board up throughout the entire 3-day conference!

- Participant at the 2021 Zusman Neuroregeneration Symposium

So, how can we get these same exclamations at your virtual event? 

Let’s go ahead and take some work right off your plate and share what I’ve learned through trial, error, and following discoveries of others experimenting in this space. 

Hot tips: 

• Include important logistics such as the agenda, zoom links, survey links, etc. I create a custom layout with visual elements for specific sessions or for general feedback. In addition, I’ve learned it’s helpful for participants to be able to easily navigate the multiple links, web pages, and documents if they’re all linked into the board you’re using.

• Build time to engage with it into your agenda. This is KEY to successfully using a virtual whiteboard. To make the most of this tool you’ve invested in using, BE SURE to include time(s) each day to engage with the whiteboard. Whether it’s an activity, or just time to network, 10 minute blocks of time can make a huge difference to help participants connect. BONUS: Remind people where to find it – drop the link in to the chat box regularly.

• Add a new element each day. In a multi-day virtual event, once participants start to get the hang of navigating your whiteboard space, create new elements for them to interact with each day. Make them delightful and useful – asking specific questions about content or simply providing a space for a morning/afternoon reflection creates a reason to draw people back in, and more opportunities to connect with each other.

Curious which virtual collaboration platform is right for you? This post contains a brief pros and cons of a few popular ones here. Have a tool you love? Please share it with me, I always enjoy learning from the Brain Trust (all y’all).  

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?

Houston Methodist Neuroregeneration Symposium: Capturing key ideas from heady talks about how to repair neural function after spinal cord injury. My favorite thing about this workshop is how focused it is on creating space for collaborations between labs and fields of study!

Friends of Refuges Annual Meeting: For the Suwannee and Cedar Key Friends of Refuges, covid didn’t keep these folks from sharing updates and anthropological research from the area in a virtual setting! Did you know that Swallow-Tailed Kites migrate 5,000 miles over 2 months to get to Brazil each winter? 

Ready to create a unique and engaging virtual whiteboard for your event?