How to Utilize Graphic Facilitation Charts Effectively

Utilizing Graphic Recording Charts Both During and After a Meeting

I recently graphic recorded a session for a client and we utilized some unique applications of the graphic recording services that I thought would be great to share!  In addition to the onsite and real-time graphic recording services, we did some interesting prework, event marketing collateral, and post work that resulted in really engaging the session participants both before, during, and after the event!

Using a Collaborative Approach to Vision Work and Utilizing Graphic Recording Pre-Event Services

The group was hosting a visioning session for their company and wanted to engage the participants in this process.  While the company’s senior leadership team had some idea of the general direction, they also knew the value of engaging the employees in this process and hearing their valuable input from the frontline.  So the senior leaders provided me with a bulleted list of the over arching general direction for the future and I created a Vision Journey Map chart of this content in my studio.   During the visioning session, we then were going to create a real-time chart of the participants input.  But, we didn’t want the two pieces of input (the senior leaders’ and the employees’) to be on separate murals which would inadvertently highlight an US versus THEM mentality.  So to highlight a COLLABORATIVE process, I created the vision chart in my studio, which was 4’ tall by 32’ long, but I illustrated the senior leaders’ content spread out over the entire 32’ and left plenty of WHITE SPACE in between illustrations.  The result was a partially completed/filled Vision Journey Map.  When the meeting participants walked into the room, they saw this partially completed map with very intentional big white spaces left to be filled in.  During the session, I then drew the participants’ input to the Vision Map in REAL TIME.  By the end of the session, we had CO-CREATED a complete Vision Journey Map!  Everyone, senior leadership and employees alike, felt very involved and heard through the visioning process and were excited to have their combined Vision Map with which to move forward!

Graphic Recording and Pre-Event Marketing Collateral

To generate energy and anticipation prior to the event, we digitized certain illustrations from the Vision Journey Map that were created in advance.  We then utilized these digital images as event ‘teasers’.  The ‘teasers’ were printed on paper puzzle pieces with some of the Vision images on them that were distributed beneath the participants’ hotel room doors the night before the event.  There were a variety of different images, with each participant receiving one puzzle piece.  This created some intrigue to the event, curiosity, and also worked as a fantastic informal conversation ice breaker as participants were waiting for the event to begin the next morning.  Participants were sharing their different puzzle pieces with one another over coffee and breakfast that morning, wondering what the session would be about!  What a great way to have people chatting over breakfast about the upcoming visioning event as opposed to the weather!

Behind the Story: How will the Client Utilize the Graphic Facilitation Charts Post-Event?