The Center for Graphic Facilitation

VizThink Podcast with Jerry Michalski

Jerry Michalski describes himself as "a pattern finder, lateral thinker, Gladwellian connector and explorer of the interactions between technology, society and business."

In this podcast from VizThink, Jerry discusses how he thinks visually and helps others to navigete the massive universe of ideas and information.

Visual Knowledge Management from VizThink:

100s of messages in your inbox, overflowing blog readers, browser tabs filled with websites to explore…that and so much more can lead to information overload.  For over a decade, Jerry Michalski has been using his Brain to not just process that information, but to organize, recall, and find hidden relationships between the disparate pieces of information.  In this 15 minute, 34 second podcast, we discuss using visualization for knowledge management, dealing with massive quantities of information over long periods, and a view of where future technology needs to go in order to manage the rapidly increasing volumes of information.

PODCAST: http://www.vizthink.com/blog/2008/12/29/visual-knowledge-management/

BRAIN: You can view Jerry's massive on-line brain, Enumerated Wisdom, at: http://sociate.thebrain.com/

Show/World Mapping Tool

 http://show.mappingworlds.c

Similar to WorldMapper, this cool Flash-enabled tool allows you to selct a subject from the top menu and watch the countries on the map change their size. Instead of land mass, the size of each country will represent the data for that subject --both its share of the total and absolute value. [Thanks, Tim Zak]

Evernote Makes Scribing Searchable

OK. This changes the game.

Using Evernote, the new software to integrate collections of images and text across platforms, graphic facilitators now have a tool that allows for their work to be searchable.

It works, too! Once you upload, drag-n-drop or email a photo of a drawing, the software adds it to a "notebook" that is either public or private. Then, the user can do a normal word search and Evernote finds the word--even in handwritten form!

Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain

In working with many diverse groups of people, coming together to solve complex problems, I am absolutely flummoxed by this paradox: young minds struggle with complex, inter-related problems, while "more mature" minds struggle to learn new concepts.

Rather than throw both brains out with the bathwater (what a badly mixed metaphor!) how best do we design collaborative projects and discussions that accommodate all brains, whether wily, worldly or wise?

clipped from www.nytimes.com illustration by Yarek Waszul When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong. Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit. The studies are analyzed in a new edition of a neurology book, “Progress in Brain Research.” For example, in studies where subjects are asked to read passages that are interrupted with unexpected words or phrases, adults 60 and older work much more slowly than college students. Although the students plow through the texts at a consistent speed regardless of what the out-of-place words mean, older people slow down even more when the words are related to the topic at hand. That indicates that they are not just stumbling over the extra information, but  are taking it in and processing it.

Meeting on the Right Side of the Brain

We've been preaching it for years, but I guess it is now news:

Creative work environments improve creative thinking!

Congrats to Leslie Marquard and Catalyst Ranch on leading the piece. Thanks for bringing "right-brained thinking" to a "left-brained" world. (Actually, working in creative environments and using multiple learning modalities inspires whole-brain thinking.)

clipped from www.nytimes.com Steve Kagan for The New York Times By ELAINE GLUSAC | Published: April 30, 2008 WHEN Leslie Marquard, an executive coach, holds strategy sessions for consulting firms or university administrators, she ushers her buttoned-up clientele into rooms full of Pogo sticks, ethnic art, hammocks, vintage furniture and a pillow “harem.” “They are surprised and also endeared by it,” said Ms. Marquard, a co-founder of Marble Leadership Partners in Chicago. The “it” she referred to is Catalyst Ranch, an independent alternative meeting space in a former sausage factory near the Loop  in Chicago. “They’ll say, ‘That table looks just like one I grew up with.’ It subconsciously releases the mind.”

 

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.”

175 Data Visualization Resources

 

clipped from www.enterprise-dashboard.com Written by the talented content maven (and Dashboard Spy reader!), Meryl K. Evans, it features carefully vetted data visualization related web sites categorized into the 3 groups of Examples, Blogs and Resources. I’m a bit upset at being beaten to the punch (just a little), but I certainly respect the quality of the list. Meryl told me she spent 3 solid weeks editing the links. Let’s help her maintain and grow this valuable resource. See the list of 175. Definitely visit Meryl’s list, but here’s a teaser sampling of some cool data visualization sites: Cool Infographics Poster Collection: Incredible posters with data visualization examples. Digg Labs: Visualizations used to track the latest news. Google Trends: Charts showing trends of Google searches. MedMaps: Medical MindMaps. Sesame Street on Visual Thinking: Teaching children to visualize shapes. There’s 170 other links, so put on your thinking caps and explore!

Why Wikis Rock

If you have been confused about the exact utility and function of wikis, take a look at this very fun and accessible video clip by CommonCraft.

I have be a what you might call a "power-user" of the project management sofeware Basecamp for several years now. And, of Blogger. Oh, and TypePad (which powers this site).

Plus I've sunk oodles of time and ca$h into designing the Web2.0 app for graphic facilitators, MissingLink. All of the aforementioned tools are essentially mutant forms of a wiki--as is the ever popular source of all knowledge, Wikipedia. Each one of these browser-based tools allows multiple users (aka. people) to create, edit and participate in on-line communities.

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.

Open Learning Tools

[ From new member Andi Roberts in Spain ]

The Open University, part of the OpenLearn story, has also allowed free access to part of their courses on "systems" courses which can be found at the bottom of this page for those who don't know how to map systems its a basic start.

They have many simple tutorials for educators and life-long learners on new web-based learning tools, for example:

FlashMeeting is a one-click video conferencing tool. It allows a dispersed group of people to meet from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, running in a standard web browser window, with the Adobe Flash 'plug in'. If you have a properly installed web cam and microphone you will be able to communicate with friends and colleagues anywhere they are.
See OU QuickGuide

Compendium is a software tool for visual thinking. You can use it to cluster and connect icons linked to ideas, concepts, arguments, websites and documents. Use it just for personal reflection as you study or work on a problem, or share your maps with others... your summary of a topic, or a learning path through the maze of the Web, might really help someone else!
See OU QuickGuide