Very rarely is the phrase ‘Graphic Facilitation’ met by anything other than confused faces. In truth you’ve most likely seen it in one form or another, but quite simply it’s a fancy way of saying: a collection of hand-drawn images and text that visually play back a story or conversation that took place in real life. Unsurprisingly it’s easier to explain in visuals, so take a look at the pictures below for real-life examples.
If you’re anything like me, Graphic Recordings are far more engaging and exciting to look back at than written minutes or reports. As a self-confessed visual learner, things I hear by ear have a much smaller chance of sticking in my head than a brightly coloured symbol that connects to an idea or topic. I’ve always loved art and wanted to build it more into my daily work. Then, a couple of years ago, an opportunity presented itself after a stressful technical glitch during a training session I was facilitating. A broken AV meant my hand was forced to put my notebook doodling to good use, and bring to life the session through drawing. After then, there was no looking back – I bid farewell to power-point presentations and started to explore Graphic Recording a bit further. I went on a training course, and most importantly, practiced, practiced, practiced.
The way I came to share this at NKD was nothing remarkable. A few passing comments in conversation quickly turned into the focus for one of our Friday morning Showcase sessions. I’ve come to learn that this is just one small example of the way NKD works; when people are genuinely interested in your interests, small sparks of ideas are kindled into something much bigger that can help us and our clients.
For a company that innovates and solves problems, Graphic Facilitation is a fantastic way of bringing these elements together. We shift thinking and so does Graphic Facilitation; a great Graphic Facilitator can capture a series of seemingly random ideas and comments, and translate it into a beautiful and compelling solution that people are excited to look at. Seeing your thoughts played back to you on paper is a powerful tool when engaging stakeholders. We can show that we’ve heard you and we understand that your story is unique – just like the Graphic Recordings you will see at the end of your workshop or training session. Each Recording is personal to you and bespoke, just like the solutions we deliver to our clients.
If you’d like us to come and share how to do this with you, or talk more about how you can do it… please do get in touch.