Making Ideas Visible

well that was fun! Got to work with a room full of kids, learning how they learn best, gathering that qualitative data which will be built into learning programs across the state. Apparently my name is being passed along to someone in the governor’s office for more work.

Two hours of work and had to stay two nights because I couldn’t get a flight out in time to make a connection home so I wandered downtown and took in the sites.

That 5 am flight this morning had an early wake up.

Now I think there are only three states I haven’t been to yet.

Making Ideas Visible updated their address.

do things differently to bring your emerging ideas to life. check out the Detroit Symphony's story:

The board chair of the Detroit Symphony wanted to synthesize their complex financial story into a visual map that could be used to re-start a conversation with the philanthropic community in the city...

http://bit.ly/2XPKeeQ

My version of an agenda: sometimes when I design and facilitate I give myself a loose structure to follow and respond intuitively to where the group wants to go in the moment. The design of a two-day retreat for a small group of colleagues who wanted to explore a more formal professional working relationship with each other as a team. One of the key areas they worked on which had the most juice was: What are we leaving behind? What are we raising up?

When we do a multi-day meeting and end up with a lot of visual maps, we can stack them into a sculpture and they become a gathering point for conversation and a photo backdrop, creating a “wow” factor for the participants.

What can we do with the visual maps after the meeting/conference? There’s lots of ways to use them to keep the content in front of people’s minds. We create a high quality digital image which can be reprinted into wall paper, posters, reports and we even do these pieces that compile all of the visual maps into one image. Perfect for framing.

Admit it, you have marker envy!! Making sure that they’re full of ink for the next job. These are Neuland markers and they’re the best.

When I need to get my own thoughts out of my head I do an “elegant braindump” so that I can see all the pieces I’m currently chewing on. I do these--usually a more extensive version--for individual clients as well. Check out The Emergence Session.

At a trade show in the booth, we provided added engagement and content with our visual mapping as participants identified ways to make the shipping industry more sustainable.

We love unleashing creativity. Oftentimes our visual mapping is the catalyst for participants to go for it with their own drawing and diagramming to get their ideas out on paper in their own style.

Constantly immersing myself in new learning of processes, techniques, materials, etc. keeps me excited about and engaged in my work. I love how what I do has endless possibilities to expand and grow. This was a 5-day workshop that helped me rediscover myself as an artist and bring that more into my work.

We support a lot of design thinking workshops and they’re always great fun to do--helping folks think differently, put themselves in their client’s shoes and come up with ideas they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

True. There’s a delicate balance between too much and two little constraint. Also there’s an extra G. (we can correct misspellings when they are pointed out to us and no one caught this one in a room of educators)

Go for it! We’ll cheer you on the entire time (and help as needed). http://bit.ly/35CyDTP

When the ideas are all around you inspiring your best thinking. That’s what we do.

That’s one way to look at it. Just keep going, you’ll end up somewhere. It may not be where you think you wanted to go. It may be even better.

We designed these templates on the wall using the organization’s process of “Aware, Woke, Work” so that participants could map where they are in the process of racial equity during a national grantmakers conference.

Creating a vision for the High Museum of Atlanta, GA based on the principles of creativity, community and culture at a meeting in one of the galleries. This visual map took about 45 minutes. The content came out really fast but we got it. The drawing of the chandelier is from a piece of artwork in the collection as were a couple other drawings in the map. Context matters.

The perennial question… how? A lot of our work has to do with culture, talent and strategy--the big topics businesses and organizations are grappling with these days. We’ve been immersed in these conversations for a long time so we know the terrain and can help you find your way thru it.

More and more businesses and organizations are investing, like really investing, in the emotional intelligence of their people so that they can work better, be more self-aware and be happier. We love supporting that kind of work.

When you can visually map the assets in a system you get a snapshot of the whole so that you can see the gaps, overlaps and be able to adjust. It’s a smarter way of working when you’re collaborating with multiple stakeholders.

Working with a bunch of earth and space scientists from around the world as they are re-imaging their vision for a welcoming, inclusive and diverse organization. They were a client of mine back in 2009 and I’ve worked with them off and on ever since.

Sometimes a visual map will convey the energy of creation that’s emerging from the group in more of an abstract drawing/diagram vs a series of illustrations. This is one of those maps. The group was in the process of languaging where they wanted to go but hadn’t completely landed on it, so I used marks that made movement and connections rather than drawing recognizable things while they were figuring out where to land their ideas. This is why drawing that is less illustrative and more instinctively expressive like gesture can hold the space for what is emerging when a group hasn’t arrived at something definitive yet. Because you may need a mark (line, shape, color) that may not yet be a recognizable object but can still hold the shape of the thought/conversation.

Envisioning a new way of being for an organization of scientists that’s been primarily US-focused, white and male. Lots of vibrant change is being ushered in. And it’s welcomed.