The Center for Graphic Facilitation

On Your Feet: Can Executives Learn to Ignore the Script?

Gary Hirsch in the Portland, Ore., office of On Your Feet, which he helped found. His consulting firm (a self-proclaimed "miniscule multi-national") helps employees loosen up and make “cool mistakes.”

clipped from www.nytimes.com MANAGERS striving to foster creativity often use the time-worn phrase “thinking outside the box” to encourage workers to come up with something nobody else in the room is thinking. But the improvisational actress Patricia Ryan Madson has a better idea: Look inside the box and take a fresh look at what’s already there. The author of “Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up,” Ms. Madson helps organizations find new ways to play off one another in an unscripted romp toward what might be. Turning the planning process inside out, she says, is an important part of learning how best to “ready, fire, aim.” “We’re all creators given the conditions and permission to do so,” she says. “All too often, there are corporate cultures that say: ‘Be creative, but don’t make any mistakes.’  Improv opens doors to doing things a different way.”

Debunking 3rd World Myths with Animated Statistics

You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful.

Making Art Work

clipped from www.catalystranch.com

Article by ALLISON RIGGIO | Contributing Writer | Chicago Journal

It may be years since most white-collar businesspeople went to art class, but a new corporate training philosophy might change the way Chicago does business.

The West Loop’s Catalyst Ranch teamed up with the Art Institute to develop an arts-based corporate train­ing philosophy unlike any other.

Aptly named Art-Work, the program utiliz­es the museum’s artwork as a medium for teaching communication and other business-related skills.

Nancy Andreasen: On Creative People

Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D.

Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at The University of Iowa; Institute of Medicine member; Editor in Chief, The American Journal of Psychiatry; 2006 Vanderbilt Prize Winner for outstanding woman in biomedical research

As part of the Discovery Series Lectures, Andreasen speaks on life, literature, science, children, women and creativity. Although they may have moments of self-confidence coupled with self-doubt, she finds creative people as having a natural innocent and humility that drives them to push against themselves. They are not driven by a "prize". Most often, creative personalities are driven towards answering a question or creating something.

"They are driven," notes Andreasen "by a sense that they haven't gotten it quite right."

This sense of disquiet comes from a profound acknowledgment. "Most find that creativity is a gift.  If you've got something that is a gift, you don't feel that it belongs to you. That's what keeps creative people humble."

See videos>>

GF Guru Update: Christina Merkley

Christina Merkley, Canadian Graphic Facilitator and the SHIFT-IT Coach (see www.makemark.com and www.shift-it-coach.com ) has some added some new downloads and freebies to her sites.  Christina is big into education around the graphic facilitation and recording fields.  (See Flickr photos.)

To that end she has created some large info murals and articles.  One on The History and Evolution of the Graphic Facilitation and Recording Fields and one on her take on common definitions: custom chart work, graphic facilitation, graphic recording and graphic coaching.

Nigel Holmes, Information Graphics Master

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Nigel Holmes, the former graphics director at Time magazine who sparked the information graphics craze, talks to former Newsweek graphics director Karl Gude. For more on Nigel and his upcoming talk at the "Information Graphics (I.G.) Conference" June 3-5, 2007, go to WWW.IGCONFERENCE.ORG). 

12th Annual IFVP Conference

COME GROW WITH US!
Mark your calendars and plan to attend the 12th Annual IFVP Conference on October 18-21, 2007 at the beautiful and serene Bishop's Lodge Resort and Spa in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

THERE'S ONE OPPORTUNITY EACH YEAR TO…

• Learn from the best in the business!
• Engage in dialogue about the future and potential of what and how graphic facilitators and recorders contribute to organizations.
• Network and build community with those who created this work.
• Celebrate our creativity, passion, and uniqueness.

Highlights include:

• Kristina Hooper Woolsey, director of New Media Thinking Project and former director of Apple Multimedia Lab, on the future of visual language.
• Graphic Recording 101 with tips, tricks, and survival information for those just entering our profession. Also, how to market your business. One-on-one personal coaching in real-time by established IFVP members.
• First-ever graphically-recorded Chili Cook-Off - an event so profound, you'll be rolling in the dirt laughing, crying, and calling out for more!

For pricing, logistics and registration, visit:
http://www.visualpractitioner.org/ivpc07/

Master Your Beliefs, Master Your Emotions

Ever wish that you could reverse the unrelenting hands of time and take back something you said that really hurt someone's feelings?

Perhaps you find yourself yearning to react a bit more professionally and less emotionally in tense situations at work?

Or you may simply want to strangle someone over a stray comment or sideways glance?

Well then, if you are searching to become master of your emotions, start with this insightful article from the Neuland monthly newsletter, written by Steve Davis, master facilitator (and Chuck Norris look-alike!).

What are emotions and what is emotional mastery?
Emotions are often described as energy in motion. They become problems only when we judge them as wrong, bad, or inappropriate. When we let our emotions run us, we miss the message that they carry. When we repress them for fear of what they might cause us to do, they simply lie in wait to emerge with a vengeance later on. Emotional mastery is the ability to process our emotions so that we receive their message and use their energy for appropriate action. Read Full article>>

You can subscribe to Steve Davis' free weekly ezine for group leaders at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com and check out his virtual university, packed with information for group leaders and participants at www.FacilitatorU.com.

We're All in This Together

Master Facilitator, Steve Davis, describes what he has learned facilitating inter-cultural groups. To say the least, it requires alternate structures, methods, and processes.

He shares his experience teaching teleconferences to 45 people operating in the Pacific Rim for a large global corporation, focused on virtual meeting facilitation. Most of the participants on these calls were from Asian cultures for whom English was a second language.

Jeff Han's Touch Interface Revolution

Can't Touch This   

Working all but alone from his hardware-strewn office, Jeff Han is about to change the face of computing. Not even the big boys are likely to catch him.

Video: Remapping the Universe In this video, Jeff Han and Phil Davidson demonstrate how a multi-touch driven computer screen will change the way we work and play.

   

From: Fast Company Issue 112 | February 2007       | Page 86    | By: Adam L. Penenberg