The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Introduction to Brandy Agerbeck & Her Graphic Facilitation Video Tutorials

Why Scribing Works: Tom Wujec on 3 ways the brain creates meaning

This is probably the most concise, well illustrated explanation of what happens in the brain will we watch graphic facilitation in action!

From TED 2009: Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas?

A Message from Bigger Picture: Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Hello friends,

As visual practitioners we all believe in the power of visuals to create engagement and clarity.

At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference <http://www.cop15.com/>  we are the next 12 days using this power to help WWF create clarity around what is happening at the conference and what a good deal and agreement may look like.

We invite you to help us bring a lot of visuals into the negotiations and out to the public and hereby raise the understanding and prove the power of visuals.

The Art of the Idea: 8 Ways to Light the Bulb Above Your Head | Slideshows

via www.fastcompany.com

Great slideshow using wonderful collage painting to illustrated these ideas for keeping creativity flowing in constrained times.

Dan Roam: 1st Public "Back of the Napkin" Conference

Join Dan for his first public visual thinking conference. This is the complete two-day version of visual training that Dan has delivered at Microsoft,eBay, Boeing, Gap, Kraft, the US Navy, and theUnited States Senate.

$1,095. Register Here.
https://www.regonline.com/thebackofthenapkin_march2010
Kabuki Hotel, San Francisco

Attendees receive:

• Two full days of hands-on visual problem solving
• The Back of the Napkin Expanded Edition
• Unfolding the Napkin Workbook
• Personal whiteboard and drawing tools

For full details, visit The Back of the Napkin.com.
Dan's two new books available Dec. 30!


The Back of the Napkin Expanded Edition

• Larger format.
• Color.
• New & updated material.

Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures

• Completely new "how-to" visual method guide.
• Dozens of self-guided visual exercises.
• Introduces the 4 unwritten rules of visual thinking.

Facilitator U: Are You a Catalyst or a Control Freak?

photo by Matt Andrews

Russian writer Isaac Babel believed that “no iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.” In working with others, can anything bring a group of people to the brink of breakthrough more effectively than an unexpected, yet perfectly timed question mark?

What about those exclamation points!

This post from Steve Davis of Master Facilitators Journal describes the subtle art of knowing when to apply pressure to catalyze movement and when to allow openness for people to struggle.

Silly as Service: What Facilitators Don't Know Can Help Their Groups

PHOTO: "Mud Pie" by Matt Andrews © All rights reserved.

This article from www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com describes the value we bring as facilitators when we let go of our (false) image as an authority figure and empower our people to access and utilize their own wisdom and problem-solving skills as a group. Often, this requires us to look a little silly!

GOP Healthcare Op Art

A stunning example of how to create a disinformation graphic.

From Time.com Posted by KAREN TUMULTY Thursday, July 16, 2009:

House Minority Leader John Boehner, borrowing a tactic from the health care wars of 15 years ago, has put together an arresting graphic "to expose the truth about the Democrats' health care plan to the American people." Over at TNR, Jon Cohn has responded with onethat looks at how things work now. I'm posting both of them below. Which is scarier?

THE BOEHNER CHART OF WHAT THE HOUSE DEMS' PLAN WOULD LOOK LIKE

JON COHN'S CHART OF WHAT THE CURRENT SYSTEM LOOKS LIKE:

(You can click on the images to enlarge them.)

Jon Stewart Pillories GOP Health Care "Chart"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
White House M.D.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Drawing Idioms

One of the most potent tools in the graphic facilitator's toolkit is that visual turn of language that packs serious cultural meaning in a surreal phrase: The Idiom. 

In its loosest sense, the word idiom¹ is often used as a synonym for dialect or idiolect--that unique combination of words, phrases and inflections used by a specific induvidual.² 

In its more scholarly and narrow sense, an idiom or idiomatic expression refers to a construction or expression in one language that cannot be matched or directly translated word-for-word in another language.³

This NPR Morning Edition piece, An Enchanting Tour Through a World of Idioms, features an interview with author Jag Bhalla on his new book I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears, a compendium of worldwide idioms. 

There is a great slideshow of idiomatic illustrations by New Yorker contributor Julia Suits that illustrates idioms that, perhaps to English-speakers, may seem to be bizarre idiomatic phrases. 

Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People.

When I was a bachelor living in Chicago, my mom called one evening: "Your brother has a question for you."

She put 8-year-old Josh on the phone, who was curious if I still owned that 200-foot climbing rope. "Why? What's your plan?"

He was trying to solve a unique problem: How to connect a long rope from the 75-ft pine tree in our yard to the roof of the house in order to slide down it as a zip line.

(NOTE: Josh has been to the emergency room more than anyone else in our sprawling, adventurous family!)

Point being:

1. "Problem-solving kids" are great,
2. They need some skills and models to help'em, 
3. And society needs lots more of them!