The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Blagojevich Corruption Network Map

Spotted by Der Networkmeister, Valdis Krebs on  The Washington Post:

A Tangled Web

Operation Board Games - the sprawling public corruption probe that led to the recent arrests of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff - has already brought eight convictions, and it is far from over. Here's a who's who of figures ensnared and how they are connected.

Muji Chronotebook

I spotted this gem at ZenHabits.net, in another good post on productivity, A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly.

This zen designed little day planner notebook eliminates the traditional (Western) grid structure and uses a simple clock/mindmap model.

Full review: http://www.jackcheng.com/stuff-i-love-muji-chronotebook

Picturing the Panic on the Back of a Napkin

Check out this fun cross-section of attempts to explain the economic wormhole and how it ripped the fabric of our financial universe! From Dan Roam:

Several visual lessons in what went wrong with Wall Street
The last many weeks have been a field day for people around the world to unleash their inner stick figure. As everyone from market analysts on Wall Street to truck drivers on Main Street struggles to describe what is happening in the global economy, we see more "solving problems with pictures" than at any time in memory.

Of the dozens of clips and links that people have sent me, here are my four favorites so far. (Warning: some of these are longer than they need to be, some more superficial, and some more crude, but all are worth the few minutes they take to watch.) Think of this as a fifteen minute crash course in global economics, presentation design, and visual thinking -- all at the same time.

Also check out Xplane's animated Subprime Explaination.

Follow Us on Twitter

C'mon! All the kids are doing it.

By following @graphicfilit8 on Twitter, you can follow research and blog posts by visual practitioners like David Grey, Dan Roam, David Sibbet, Christina Merkley, VizThink and more.

VizThink Podcast: Learning is Not Enough

Listen to podcast

This is a very sane and clear description of the mindset and language that a visual practitioner needs in order to address the needs of their clients--specifically, solving their problems.

From VizThink :

Often, learning is not enough. It’s not enough to watch a great podcast or go to a great conference and learn new things, try new techniques, or even meet interesting people. The natural high that comes from learning and attending an event can fade quickly, that is, if you don’t do something about it. Have you ever got back from a class, webinar, or conference filled with ideas, yet your colleagues don’t get it? They look at you funny and then keep going about their work. Then the daily demands and pressures of work click in and quickly the natural high has dissipated and the learning has been forgotten.

Well it doesn’t have to be that way! In this 17 minute, 54 second, we talk with Lance Dublin, change management and implementation guru, about how to take those ideas and put them to work (even with people who weren’t there) when you get back home or to the office.

T. Boone Pickens Scribes Future of US Energy

Click here or image to launch the video.

T. Boone Pickens uses live drawing of the facts and concepts behind potential future energy plans for the US is worth watching in its entirety. I have a hard time coming up with a better example of how to create a series of simple pictures to explain a complex concept.

~ From the blog of Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures:

Don't Rage Against the Social Machine

  

PHOTO: via grayturner on Flickr

Apparently there seems to be a rumor about the economy tanking or something? No, wait! That's what everyone is talking about twenty-four-seven. In department memos and budget meetings over Excel spreadsheets, every working executive is trim-trim-trimming those "extras" and "non-essentials".

A major target for the cutting room floor: off-site meetings.

Like, can't we just conference everyone else in? Can't we do one of those screencasts? Let's put off strategic planning until 2011! Sell the watercooler on Ebay!

On the contrary, just like skipping meals, foregoing a tune-up on your new used car, or remembering your anniversary... small things have big, unintended consequences; namely: getting serious work done with other humans.

---

Working virtually is an alchemical art, requiring just the right balance of trust, personality and skills. Inside larger organizations, face-to-face time is essential in cementing the first item on the list (trust).

This Thanksgiving vacation I found myself brokering a peace between two family members over a forwarded email. However, once all the people were in the same room, we could work out an understanding in seconds--based upon forgiveness and authenticity--that would never have been possible on-line.

For the most difficult discussions, we still need personal contact, body language, gesture and the ability to look another person in the eye.

Web rage can erupt over the most innocent of emails, the most innocuous of blog posts. In an article last year on CIO.com, cyber-wonk and social networking expert Clay Shirky co-authored an article on web rage, dissecting why so many behave so badly whilst on-line. 

Why? We are visual creatures who make split-second decisions based upon non-verbal cues.

Shirky and co-author Daniel Goleman, social and emotional intelligence expert, point out obvious trust lost on so many when doing virtual work in teams, large or small. The online world lacks a channel for in-the-moment visual cues from voice, facial expression and posture that the social brain needs to navigate the nuances of human interaction. 

All one need do is follow the comment trail on your local paper's articles regarding hot-button issues like public schools or the opening of a new Wal-Mart.

One commenter posts, another responds, and soon a flame war breaks out.

Flaming, of course, refers to an e-mail message that comes across as rude or otherwise annoying, and a flame war happens when the recipient of such a message flames back, leading to an arms race of insult. Flaming is but one of numerous ways a lack of social intelligence can sabotage the use of technology, especially when it comes to working with others together online. Any IT manager takes a risk that a group's efforts will falter if he ignores the psychological dimension of social computing.

So as we determine the "non-essentials", I hope that we recognize the very essential need of humans to meet face-to-face and work out their differences, to design innovative solutions, and to make peace through building trust.

As a story on NPR demonstrated this morning, social network models have proved it: happiness is contagious.

For more about the other side of this collaborative coin (lots of people working virtually in smart mobs), check out:

• Clay Shirky's new book, Here Comes Everyone (2008)
• Video of Shirky at Pop!Tech 2008
  

Facilitation Skill: Be a Catalyst for Clarity

Establish clear, manageable objectives, and deliver them.

From Steve Davis of Facilitator U:

It's easy when we're trying to present something new, particularly in a training environment, to be overwhelmed by all that we want our participants to know on the subject. 

As good trainers, teachers, and facilitators, we want our audience to get the most learning in the least time. The problem is that this type of thinking can get us and our audience confused. 

Trying to deliver too much information impedes learning. Learning isn't solely about information. It's about using information to accomplish something we couldn't accomplish before. This requires time to digest, integrate and apply new ideas.

VizThink Webinar: Creating Global Change with Visual Language

FREE VizThink webinar entitled: “Creating Global Change with Visual Language, Thinking and Practice”

TIME: December 10, 2008 at 11:00am EST (GMT 16:00) 

The world is reaching several tipping points. We are experiencing a financial, climate and energy situations which are unprecedented. The complexity of the crisis is immense and the need for clarity and actions is growing. For the visual thinking community the opportunity is huge, and our contribution is desperately needed.

ILOVESketch

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

From Kevin Kelly, The Technicum:

Speaking of screen fluency, you should check out this video of an intuitive 3D sketching pad demo. Using a large-screen touch-sensitive Wacom tablet-screen, an artist can produce 3D sketches as fast as he/she can draw.

The software, called ILOVESketch, appears to be experimental, but I would imagine that the folks producing special effects would be the first to pick it up when it goes commercial.

Also industrial designers.  With quick strokes of the pen you can build a complex curvy shape (not just the blocks that Sketchup does) faster than you could sculpt it in clay or in CAD. This is one of those technologies that people have forever said "they ought to invent this."  It almost seems like magic.