The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Make Way for Multitasking Millenials

You definitely know that you have crossed an invisible age barrier when you look at a new piece of cool technology and think to yourself, "Blech! Who'd wanna use that?"

I am embarrassed to say that this is how I view text messaging. The downside of this reaction, of course, is that this is now the predominant form of communication throughout Asia and, more important, young people all around us.

Facilitator Michael Kaufman of InnovationLabs sends us this article on the evolving brains of the new generation of knowledge workers, who apparently have brains that are able to digest and synthesize information in a way that their ancestors (and big brother Pete) can not.

Watch out Boomers and Gen Xers, the Millennials are busting open paradigms about how we gather, store and disseminate knowledge!

Graphic Facilitation Training by Meeting Magic

ADVANCED FACILITATION SKILLS
Meeting Magic are pleased to share their facilitation expertise in a 2-day Advanced Facilitation Training Course.

Building on their depth of facilitation experience, Meeting Magic have developed this training course in advanced facilitation skills. Designed for experienced facilitators, it explores the use of graphic facilitation to support effective working in even the most challenging of situations. 

Making a Difference: SpiritBank Business Resource Center

Sean Griffith describes the art of graphic facilitation as "Process Art".

Process Art applies advanced “visual thinking” and creativity tools to complex processes and ideations. The use of Process Art creates a large-scale visual representation of ideas and thoughts in real-time, through the use of icons and colorful pictures illustrated from the interactions of participants in any group environment.

Sean sends us this from his work with SpiritBank:

Ted Cundiff, President of the SpiritBank Business Resource Center (BRC), sat down with Business Resource Center Strategic Partners Kristen Bergman of New Media Worx and Sean Griffin of Vizalution. Their charter was to work with the Ihloff management team to enhance their re-branding process along with creating a shared vision with the evolving business goals and objectives of Ihloff Salon and Day Spa. The BRC team knew right away that this business challenge would benefit from the power of graphic facilitation. The Marketing and Business Development Game Plan was chosen based upon the process's visually driven ability to accelerate desired outcomes, create shared vision, and motivate people into positive action.

A Look at Loosetooth

I want to brag about one of our contributers: Brandy Agerbeck.

She sews, she cooks, she draws, she makes stuff, she publishes it all on her--not one, not two, but multiple--blogs: Art/Work Blog, Shop Blog, VisCom Blog and The Me Blog.  Her ability to scribe is, to use her favorite word, "kick ass".

Oh, she is also mother to a happy and healthy hedgehog.

Check it all out at Loosetooth.com.

The Faces of Innovation

In more and more innovation sessions, I've seen the project kick-off meeting begin with the Nightline coverage of IDEO. This inside glimpse of a real product design session, shows us IDEO's motley crew of designers, anthropolists, accountants, programmers and poet reinvent the design of the shopping cart.

IDEO director Tom Kelly discusses the make-up of just such an innovation team in his newest book, The Ten Faces of Innovation : IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization.

In three personality types--clustered as Learning, Organizing and Building Personas--Tom delineates the roles and modes of thinking going on behind each "face".

The aptly named roles (anthropologist, hurdler, caretaker, cross-pollinator, etc.) are certain to make any CFO and MBA squirm until they are reminded that the mission is to accelerate game-changing products, services and strategies.