Why Visuals in Meetings Are So Good

Many of you are folks I’ve had the pleasure of getting to collaborate with, and you’ve experienced the magic sparked by visuals directly.

Even if you get it, sometimes you need to persuade someone else why it’s an excellent idea to have a visual partner in the room. This is what I hear from clients time and again.

Graphic recording…

• Wraps your people in the beauty and richness of their ideas when the room is full of walls covered in colorful and content-full drawings

• Sparks creativity

• Brings joy and laughter

• Supports groups as they co-create the extraordinary

• Helps you get more done in less time

• Deepens shared understanding

• Can create a distinct brand and feel for events

Here’s what an absolutely phenomenal recent client said:

“Karina is a joy to work with. She was thoughtful about all parts of our meeting planning process, and extremely skilled at guiding our teams’ conversation. She was able to adapt on the fly when important conversations arose and seamlessly adjust to the needs of the group while keeping us on-task to accomplish our goals. With her help, our group made progress I didn’t think was possible! We have a strong sense of our mission and values, and tangible plans to realize them. The visuals that she sketches during the call helped ground our conversations and are really easy to work with as we move forward. Thanks, Karina!”

— Hazel Shapiro, IARPC Collaborations

And for some cool science behind visuals, check out this post.

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?

Las Vegas, NV: At the RES 2022 Economic Summit with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe sharing strategies to write and win grant funding for social, environmental, and health goals.

Fresh Video: This video helps prospective undergraduate students understand what career paths they might pursue with a degree from CSU’s Environmental Public Health program. Major appreciation to the team at CSU and Bevin Luna for the narration and original music! Click here or the image above to view the digitally hand-drawn video. Note: I am not currently accepting new video projects.  

The Underrated Potential of Designing Time to Connect in a Retreat

Is your team is planning an off-site retreat soon? If you are, I cannot recommend one thing to your agenda design team enough.

If you want to…

• Make the most of the fact your team traveled to (most likely) an intentional location

• Help shift mindsets from “me” to “we”

• Build trust

• Leverage your time together in person…

Build in unstructured time for your group to get to know each other.

It can be so tempting to pack every last moment of an agenda with work to get done, especially after 2+ years of mostly remote collaboration. But here’s what happened when we didn’t do that with a group I got to graphically facilitate through a 2-day offsite in person last week.

This team is geographically dispersed, and some folks had been hired during the pandemic, so they had never met together as an entire group in person. Together, we designed an agenda that began with a day of hiking and an optional group dinner before we even began to talk strategic planning. Meeting them the next day, I never would have guessed they hadn’t met together before. The participants themselves remarked at how connected they felt even after just 3 days together.

If you don’t have time for a full day of hiking, fear not! We also created optional semi-structured opportunities for participants to get to know each other during lunch and infused each day with activities that provided a chance to share personal stories in large and small groups, like the one above.

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?

Boulder, Colorado: For the previously mentioned focused, fun, and collaborative off-site retreat for a team of arctic policy researchers. Thank you IARPC Collaborations for the work you’re doing for our planet!

Fort Matanzas Video is live! The final installment of the Drawing Connections to Climate Change illustrated video series is out in the world – find out how you can help protect habitats that support the beautiful and diverse wildlife of the Florida Coast! Note: I am not currently taking on new video projects.

Getting Ready for GCSE Global Conference - Will You Be There? The Global Council on Science and the Environment is hosting their annual virtual conference June 21-24, 2022. If you’re a Member Institution, an unlimited number of participants from your school can attend for free! To register or learn more about the event, click here. Here’s a graphic from last year’s conference!

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.

Here’s How to Channel That Inner Creative Kid

Do you ever feel like you can’t draw? I felt that way too. In fact, I dropped my art degree in college because I didn’t think I was “good enough”. 

On a recent graphic recording job, someone remarked “I wish I could draw like that!” and I replied, as I almost always do, “anyone can draw!”. You might roll your eyes at me, but roll with me for a sentence or two.

When you were a kid and someone gave you paper and markers and said “go for it”, that’s exactly what you’d do, right? Those papers would be covered in stories, made up worlds, families! Then…something changes along the way and you start to doubt. And draw less. And less. 

You (probably) wouldn’t run a marathon without training, right?

Why on earth would we expect ourselves to be excellent at something we don’t allow ourselves to practice?

The generous and talented late Howard Ikemoto put it better:

“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, ‘You mean they forget?’”

— Howard Ikemoto

So give yourself a chance. A blank piece of paper can be intimidating. To get over that, you can cut straight to the chase and make a title in the center of the page, or start with making some marks in the corners, playfully, that loosen you up. Here’s a blog post where I show another fun way to get used to making marks on blank pieces of paper.

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 teaching a workshop…today! This morning (CO time) I’m sharing my insights and practices for email marketing with my colleagues for the International Forum of Visual Practitioners - here’s a snippet of the outline I’m going to be working through with participants.

Adobe Creative Campus: Not only did I get to illustrate the presentations and key ideas from the Creative Campus Collaboration, I also got to design some swag for the participants – check out this tote and tumbler! The team at Adobe also crushed it and had this page highlighting the graphics and sound bites put together by the end of the day.

Denver: An in-person job – hooray! Working on paper and with chalks to support higher education executives and CIOs discussing how to support students in a digital age.

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.

How to Say No When it’s Right

Saying yes to opportunities, professionally or personally, can lead to some adventures you’ll never forget, or an opportunity to push your comfort zone and learn something new. 

Sometimes though, it’s important to say no – working on a priority where you need to focus your creative juices, or holding space for family or self-care. If you’re like me, saying no can sometimes feel like hurling yourself off a precipice into the unknown – will they be angry? Will this burn a bridge I’ll regret? Will there be NO RETURN? (Spoiler: no.)

I’m always glad I declined something if there was a reason not to – even if it was simply a feeling. Especially if I can do so in a way that feels honest and explains the why behind my decision. 

Recently, an interview I read with Ashley C. Ford that succinctly brought together some reminders about saying no, as well as how to do it gracefully. Here’s what stuck with me most: 

• Be kind – just because you’re saying no doesn’t mean you have to be rude or cold

• Being honest is better for everyone to avoid frustration and false expectations

• Be clear on your priority/goals, and use that as a guiderail to be able to say no to things that aren’t working toward that, or don’t serve that

• Turns of phrase I have already used when struggling with the right way to say no: 

  • I’m sorry. I don’t have the bandwidth for this. (So simple. So honest.)

  • This is an amazing opportunity. I hope you’ll keep me in mind for something in the future, but if I do this, I want to do it 100% and there’s no way I would be able to give you 100% right now. Or…

  • I want to do the best possible work for my clients that I’m wildly proud of. Right now I don’t have the capacity to give you that high quality collaboration. 

  • I can work on this, but I’ll have to let go of this other project. Which do you want me to prioritize?

Do you have guidelines for how to choose what to say yes or no to? How do you say no in a way that feels authentic and with integrity?

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?

Climate Change, Media, & Kids: A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of supporting a workshop hosted by NSF about how to leverage media platforms to tell stories and educate children on climate change. It was AWESOME and I can’t wait to see where this goes!

ShapingEDU Pente Challenge: ShapingEDU was back for another innovative virtual event – a pitch challenge for teams working to improve the future of education in the digital age…with real cash as the prize! I got to support teams as they practiced “yes, and…” improv thinking for their pitches, and was an expert resource to help them create custom visuals for the pitch or work through complexity. I love that ShapingEDU always includes student voices!

Arizona HIV/AIDS Leadership Academy: Another cohort wrapped up by reflecting on leadership values and key takeaways to be better leaders working to End the Epidemic. I’m always floored by the vulnerability and support the facilitators hold for each cohort. 

Take Your To Do List from Overwhelm to On Point

If you love the feeling of crossing things off your to do list, I’m right there with you. And if sometimes you look at that list and put it right back down, walking as fast as you can in the opposite direction, once again, I’m with you. 

Which is why I want to share two easy strategies for making to do lists a little more manageable that came to me within days of each other: 

1.     Make it a Get To Do list*. One little word to help remind us all how lucky we are to be alive, doing work that makes the world better. 

2.     Make an Already Done List. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a minute or two to write down things you HAVE accomplished. Getting out of bed and brushing your teeth can 100% be on that puppy, and so can closing the biggest deal you’ve ever made with a dream client. You do you and celebrate those wins! This one is from @Lizandmollie, give them a follow!

*I can’t remember where I saw this one, so if you’ve seen this and have a source, I’d love to give them credit!

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?

ShapingEDU’s Pente Pitch Challenge! The first of it’s kind, it’s Day 2 of the Pente Pitch Challenge where 5 teams of higher education dreamers, doers, and drivers from around the world are competing for funding toward their impact projects. From post-pandemic era best practices to immersive experiences to humanizing learning, today we find out who will win the big bucks!

All Parks Zero Landfill Initiative: Last week I had the enormous pleasure of working IN PERSON with NPS, the National Park Conservation Association, the National Park Foundation, and Subaru to bring the first Zero Landfill Initiative pilot project to a close. The three pilot parks shared best practices and reflected on how to carry this work forward. 

Adobe Creative Campus Collaborations: Another fabulous convening focused on Digital Literacy across the globe with Adobe! The highlight was definitely the Graduate Thought Leader Panel who knocked everyone’s socks off with their poise, eloquence, and big ideas!

10 Things about Creativity that Are Still True 10 Years Later

ConverSketch is officially 10 years old today! 

Thank you. You’re the reason I get to write this!

Anniversaries are a great excuse to celebrate and taking time to recognize milestones feels especially important right now as time is simultaneously flying, blurring, interpretive dancing - whatever it’s doing - during covid. 

Every year I like to share things that have resonated or I’ve learned as a self-employed creative. My hope is that you find something useful to try, or that validates what feels true to you, or might push your comfort zone a little bit, in the best way possible. 

10 is a nice number and feels like a big deal! So, here is my list of 10 Things about Creativity that Are Still True 10 Years Later:

1. Creativity is Not a Talent... I often come back to this quote from Hugh Mcleod: “Creativity is not a talent. Creativity is a drive,” because it moves creativity from the pedestal of Something Only Some People Have to a Skill Anyone Can Cultivate. Do the work, do it to the best of your ability, ask how to get better, embrace the practice of what you get to do every day.

2. Creativity Requires Rest. Sometimes it’s important to do “nothing”, to move in your body and integrate information, make connections, to disconnect, to rest well, to be kind and gentle with yourself. 

3. Creativity is Authentic. Be yourself, your unique way of being and perceiving in the world is incredibly valuable and may inspire or make sense to someone in a way nothing else has. 

4. Appreciation Feeds the Creative Soul. When I’m frustrated or drained, taking a minute to brainstorm what I appreciate in that moment is an energy reset. I remind myself that I have the great privilege of doing this work with people who are making the world better.

5. Intuition Guides Creativity. In moments when I have felt something deep within, no matter how illogical it might seem, in those moments when I do listen to that inner feeling and go with it, I know in my bones it is the path to take in that time. Maybe not the easiest, but often ease emerges in ways I don’t expect.

6. Creativity is Fun! Playing, experimenting, laughing, imagining, dropping into flow state, sharing an idea you’re proud of, drawing something silly to tell a story. Creating and holding space for fun sows seeds of creativity.

7. Creativity is Curious. The more willing we are to ask questions and truly listen to the answer, the more delightfully rich an experience or conversation has the space to grow. What might happen if we say yes? What if I’m…not right? What might emerge if we let go of what we thought we knew and leaned into another way of thinking?

8. Creativity is Human. We are delightfully imperfect and are fed by connection with others. When designing graphics or the process or questions, remembering that above all else we are humans. Despite the tech, the pace, the everything else around us, we all share this humanness. 

9. Creativity can be Collaborative. Whether in person or remote, centering opportunities for meaningful connections and relationships and connections opens the way for sparks to ignite. 

10. Creativity is Generous. There is no limit to our creativity or how we use it. The more we give, the more we get. When I am working in a mindset of abundance and generosity, that often inspires more of the same, creating ripples and waves out into the world.

Thank you for being the reason for this reflection, the Why behind ConverSketch. It’s an honor to partner with you to bring more creativity into the world together! 

For even more reflections and some tips for how to implement them, here are my reflections throwing all the way back to 2016:

• 2016

• 2017

• 2018

• 2019

• 2020

• 2021

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?

Filming the Latest NPS Drawing Connections to Climate Video: This video is all about Fort Matanzas National Monument in Florida, and how resilience to climate change is imperative for the unique habitat and wildlife species that call the area home. Stay tuned for the finished video later this year, and watch the  award-winning series here!

RespiraCon: How might we ensure everyone has access to important medical equipment, like ventilators, around the world? Experts explored the challenges and opportunities to leverage open-source technology and practice for more equitable, high-quality equipment on a global scale.

Calling All Complexity Navigators: 3 Visual Strategies to Get Clear on What Matters Most (Then Get it Done!)

Pretty much anyone reading this is used to juggling all sorts of things. I mean, just a couple, right?

When it gets complex or you start to feel overwhelmed, you don’t have to get caught in the weeds or keep re-hashing the same half-formed ideas! 

Here are some visual strategies you can use to refocus on what matters most, whether it’s your team’s vision or making time for your loved ones. You can use each one individually, or combine them to build on one another and move toward clarity and action!

1. Let’s start with this Hot Little Tip graphic recorders love: Turn your notebook sideways for a quick mindset shift. Even turning the page from portrait to landscape can help shake up your thinking. This one is courtesy of Brandy Agerbeck (skip to about 5:40 into the video for more on this).

2. Now that you’ve flipped your notebook like the boss you are, try creating a mind map of your project(s). Put your main topic in the center, then add themes or big “buckets” around it, then details around each of those. You can get as granular as you like (focusing on one project) or get meta and map out everything going on in your life – whatever serves you.

3. Now that you’ve written out your mind map, you can climb Action Mountain! Start by picking one goal/vision/priority and put it at the top of the mountain. Then, work backwards from the goal: What are 3 major steps that you know when you check off, you’ll have moved toward the goal? Get as specific as you can so you KNOW when you’ve climbed that summit! Then finally, and this is perhaps the MOST important: Pick one thing you can do today or this week to start moving forward. 

*Remember: Writing things down is powerful stuff, so even 5 minutes of mind mapping then writing your action step is a HUGE move! 

For a different and more linear approach, check out this post on how to pull yourself out of an Overwhelm Spiral. 

What are your favorite tools to navigate our complex world?

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?

Leave No Trace: This fantastic organization hosted a virtual happy hour with partners to give a few updates leading up to this year’s Outdoor Retailer.

In the Studio: Drafting agendas and preparing for upcoming facilitation projects and moving video projects through script writing and storyboarding pieces of the process. While photographing this storyboard in natural light, the hens thought looked egg-celent.