VizThink 09 Highlights: Icebreaker

Connections with friends you've never met...

As a facilitator, I love to collect icebreaker activities. I enjoyed this one that was used at VizThink 09, and thought I would share it.

There was white drawing paper covering each table. We were asked to write or draw a few things about ourselves on the paper. I think we were given 3 minutes.

We then looked at our tablemates words/images (there were approx 8 people / table) and drew connection lines between any items that were the same (or where there was a connection).
For example, I drew a connection from my time in Japan to a Japanese woman across the table.

At the end of the exercise, you stand up and observe all the connections you have with people that were strangers 5 minutes ago.

VizThink 09 Highlights VII: John Wards' Kinesthetic Modeling

John Ward leading our workshop

I saw some outstanding talks at VizThink 09, and met some really interesting people - but the greatest takeaway from the three days was definitely my introduction to Kinesthetic Modeling.

The workshop was led by John Ward of Many Minds. John is one of the nicest men you'll ever meet. I'd been introduced to John last year, when he was doing the graphic recording of the Leadership Challenge event I attended in Sonoma, so I was happy to see him again.

I knew that John was on the agenda at VizThink, but apologized to him - I wouldn't be able to attend his workshop, because I needed to see another one.

John, gentleman that he is, scheduled a follow-up session for myself and a number of others who also expressed disappointment at missing his session.

So, Tuesday night we all gathered to learn about Kinesthetic Modeling.

I am a camera...

John issued each table of 4 a bag of 'holy scrap' - odds and ends that possess no inherent meaning - and asked us to dump the bag on the table. Then he walked us through a quick process:

1. Each of us were to grab 3-4 pieces that 'spoke to us'.
   
2. Organize the pieces in a manner that said something about us
3. Let the other members of our table tell us what they see.
4. Share what we saw and meant to convey.

My arrangement is displayed above. My tablemates saw a swimming pool with aliens.
I saw a collection of technical hardware (I'm an engineer), that were very toy-like (I still love to play), and I arranged them into a camera (my favorite toy, tool, and mode of expression).

That was interesting, but the big project was yet to come:
Our team project called for us to model the current economic situation and its impact on the visual thinking community. To say we were skeptical would be an understatement.

The four of us modeled in silence. It was really bizarre to model and utilize resources with no conversation. I had no idea what my colleagues were making, so just did my own thing and tried to stay out of their way.

After about 15 minutes, John asked us to stop.

We were left with what you see below.

The current economic situation and its impact on the visual thinking community

John asked us to walk around the table, commenting on items we didn't construct, and write down what we saw in those objects. After we did that, the people who constructed them told us their intention. We were aligned on many items, but very different on others.

Our next step was to create meaning from all the observations, and capture our key thoughts.

Our thoughts...

You'll see that our thoughts were quite profound for such a quick activity:

• Our beacon (the spoon) is surrounded by barriers.
• The community is outside the wall.
• Shelters from the storm look frighteningly similar to traps.
• Walls had been built through fear, but they are keeping the community from the 'gold'.
  

I don't think I've ever seen an activity bring that much alignment on a complex issue so quickly.

I'll be trying this one with my internal teams in the near future.

I would highly recommend that you attend one of John's workshops and see this methodology for yourself. It's very powerful.

Facilitating with Card Decks

If you've missed it, Dave Gray (of XPLANE) and I have been having a dialog in the comments section of my XPLANE Discovery cards post. The conversation has rotated around facilitation card decks like the Discovery cards, IDEO's method cards, Roger von Oech's Creativity cards, etc...

Dave made an interesting comment that he thinks these card decks derive their inspiration, "not from playing cards, like Pokemon, Tarot and the good old Bicycle deck, but rather from recipe cards. Each card is essentially a recipe, to be pulled from the deck when it can be useful and executed".

I think he's on to something, but I would suggest there's more to it than that.

I rarely think without a pen in my hand (the running joke at work is to hide the white board markers if you want to shut me up... but it doesn't work!), so I put together the above diagram of Facilitation tools.

The diagram includes the card decks I use most often, plus kinesthetic modeling (building models with clay, etc) and photo facilitation (using imagery to stimulate thought and conversation).

As you can see, this conceptual model has 2 axis, with 4 points.

1. One continuum spans from tools that are Mysterious/Provoking at one end, to tools that are Clear/Reminding at the other end. Oracles at the top, Plain English at the bottom.
2. The other continuum spans from Directing (the tools are pushing ideas and stories at you) to Listening (the tools are pulling ideas and stories from you)

Based on these continuum, there are four types of tools:

• Recipe Cards - I love this analogy from Dave, and it fits the model. These cards are clear. They might be reminding you of possibilities that you already knew. They are directive, with some level of instruction. Recipes shouldn't be mysterious and - typically - aren't meant to be inspiring. They might inspire you, but that's a result of how you use them - not a design of the recipe (unless your recipe cards are fragmented and you can mix and match - but then it's not really a recipe). Everyone who uses a recipe should get a similar process.
  I would put the IDEO, ThinkPak, and 36 Stratagems cards here.
• Externalization Engines - These are tools that are meant to pull stories and ideas out of you. But they're clear. They are not meant to require deep interpretation. These are often cards that are sorted into 'yes/no', 'hit/miss', 'good/bad/neutral' piles.
  The Leadership Challenge Values Cards are a perfect example. They are a set of cards with values listed on them. The user does a quick sort to identify and prioritize their values and then discuss them. It's what I call an externalization engine.
  I would put the XPLANE Discovery cards here as well. They are used in a sort, they pull stories and thoughts from the user, and they are very clear. The cards do provide some direction, so I push them closer to the center of the grid.
  
• Muse Devices - These are also intended to pull stories and ideas from the user, but these are NOT clear. Everyone will have a different interpretation. These are, basically, oracle devices.
  I place Kinesthetic Modeling here, along with Oblique Strategies (thanks Dave! I ordered two sets. I also see there's an iPhone application for them) and my Tao Te Ching cards.
  Photo Facilitation sits in the middle of Muse and Externalization, because the images are concrete (clear) but can be interpreted differently (provoking).
• Mentoring Devices - First, I'm not in love with the label 'Mentoring', but I'll live with it for today. Mentoring devices are directive, but not necessarily clear. They are for people who need a push towards possibilities, not old methods.
  Roger von Oech's card decks fit here. A line like "Ask a fool - to dislodge assumptions", is directive, but counter-intuitive to some, and begs the interpretation of a 'fool'.

Why did I spend the past two hours building this model? That's what my wife just asked me when I tried to convince her that it was really interesting...

Well, as a facilitator with a box full of tools, I like to have a framework that helps me decide when to use a particular tool.

Second, a framework like this helps me decide if I have full coverage from the tools in my kit (it looks like I do).

Finally, this framework helps me work with others - both my peers, and more importantly, my clients. Discussing this model with a client would allow me to decide which tool is appropriate and obtain their buy-in.

Well, it's a new model, so feel free to kick the tires and rip it apart. 
What tools am I missing? 

Is there a better way to draw it?

Disagree with my labels?

Let me know...

VizThink 09 Highlights: XPLANE Discovery Cards

I am always looking for new tools to add to my toolbox, so I got all geeked up when I saw these Discovery Cards at the XPLANE booth at VizThink 09...

This card set is designed to facilitate the discussion of issues. There are four subsets in the deck - 'crisis', 'growth', and 'change' form the issues portion. The participant(s) will recognize their current issues in this set and set this side. They then tell the story of their problem. 

When this step is completed, the fourth subset - 'action' - is used to identify possible actions.

I love using visual and kinesthetic tools to facilitate discussion. I call them 'Externalization Engines'. Photos, Legos, Cards, Physical Modeling, Drawings, Posters: all of these allow people to present thoughts and feelings that are difficult to articulate.

My set of cards arrived today and they look great.

I can't wait to find a opportunity to use them.

Make sure to check out XPLANE's Discovery Cards, and I'll update you as soon as I use them.

VizThink 09 Highlights V: Dan Roam

One of the highlights of VizThink 09 was seeing two talks by Dan Roam, author of "The Back of the Napkin".

On the left are my notes from his talk, "3 Rules of the Whiteboard". Dan is smart, funny, and a really nice guy.

We had a talk about my name. When I told him I was named after John Glenn - the astronaut/senator/astronaut was in orbit at that time - he got excited and said, "I'll have to draw a spaceman in your book then!"

He then drew a little astronaut in a mercury spaceship for me... very cool!

Dan does his presentation on a tablet pc - demonstrating that most ideas can be communicated with simple graphics.

VizThink 09 Highlights IV: Visualizing Tomorrow

My infographic of a factory going from 100% waste to 30% waste

At VizThink 09, I attended a 20-minutes session facilitated by Elizabeth Pastor of Humantific and accomplished way more than I though possible in 20 minutes.

We did quick warm-up drawing exercises, and then started making meaning.

By the end of the session, I had created the graphic above. It's a today/tomorrow image of a company going from 100% to a strategy with 33% reuse and 33% recycling.

I'm not bragging about the art or anything, but it's amazing what you can learn in 20-minutes.

VizThink 09 Highlights III - Authenticity in Storytelling

An overview of our story

Our VizThink friends - Darin Westich, Carolyn Grant & Jill Zimmerman from Proctor and Gamble - led an excellent session on storytelling authenticity.

Robin and Yvette from Duarte Design

In the session, we (Robin and Yvette from Duarte Design and another guy whose name - excuse me, please - I didn't catch) were asked to create a story with a beginning, middle and end - that utilized narrative and data.

My mindmap of the rules of authenticity

It was amazing how much we accomplished in about 20 minutes, once we had a structure and information. There really is NO excuse for not having an authentic and compelling story in your presentation.

VizThink 09 Highlights II - Jessica Hagy

Jessica Hagy debunks 15 Professional 'Rules'

If you haven't seen Jessica Hagy's brilliant Indexed site or book, you should go look at it now. Don't even bother with my site until you've spent an hour in hers... really.. hers is a treasure. I grant you permission to go there (if only Jennifer had just said that.. "Go Brad. Hell, it's Angelina. Clearly, I've been bested").

Jessica gave a very funny, informal presentation where she summarized 15 professional rules, and then debunked all of them. In between, she had us use her favorite tools - Venn diagrams and the X-Y axis - to make some sense of our worlds.

This was my favorite exercise.

1. Draw a 2-circle Venn Diagram.
2. Label the first circle with something you're really good at.
3. Label the second circle "Prostitution"
4. Find the relationship between the two (if you're a lawyer, the overlap will obviously be much greater than the one in my diagram).

Here's mine.

Teaching is what I do, but it was hard to find a common area, at first.

Then I found it - Students named John.

Try the exercise.

And if you get a chance to see Jessica present, I recommend you do it.

VizThink 09 Highlights I

My plan for global ninja domination through photography and music 

is given away by my VizThink 09 Badge... oh well...

For the past three days, I've attended the VizThink 09 conference for visual thinkers my back yard of San Jose.

It was a great event. I was able to participate in sessions by visual thinking rock stars Dan Roam, Jessica Hagy, Nancy Duarte, John Ward, Karl Gude, Dave Gray, Colin Ware, Bob Horn, and Tom Wujec.

Despite that impressive list, I still missed sessions by David Sibbet and many other fine experts...

Over the next few days, I'll post some photos and comments about the sessions I attended.

Today, I'll just summarize my 5 top learnings from the event.

This Colin Ware slide pretty much sums up the 

advantages of visual communication over text in certain situations

My top five learnings were:

1. Kinesthetic Modeling Rocks! - John Ward led an outstanding session where we silently built a collaborative model that expressed the recession and it's impact on the visual thinking community and VizThink. Very powerful discussions emerged quickly. This is a tool that's going right into my kit.
2. Tableau May Expose Me as an UberGeek - Tableau demo'd their 'data sandbox' software that lets you play with data and explore graphic possibilities in real time. Yes, I said "play with data" - how's that for an oxymoron?
   I (sadly) couldn't have been more excited if Lindsey Lohan had done a table dance in front of me. I'll be playing with the 14-day trial of this software over the next few weeks and will keep you posted.
3. I can create quick 'Today/Tomorrow' diagrams - In a lightning fast 20-min session led by Elizabeth Pastor of Humantific, we created 'Today/Tomorrow' diagrams that were very successful at communicating. Nicely done, Elizabeth!
4. I got a nice 3x3 storytelling grid from the folks at Proctor Gamble - I'm always looking to add storytelling tools to my kit. The method that these folks use to tell authentic user experience stories is simple, but effective. A very experiential session gave us confidence we can use it.
5. Oh, that's what SQVID does! - I'm a huge fan of Dan Roam's "Back of the Napkin", but I have to admit that SQVID didn't quite connect with me. Well, lights went on when I say Dan present the material. He's a great speaker. I'm looking forward to playing with the SQVID model at work now.

As I mentioned, I'll be putting up photos and comments from the sessions I attended, so stay tuned!