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How do YOU invite clients to make their mark in a graphic facilitation session?

How do YOU invite clients to make their mark in a graphic facilitation session?

I was recently working with a project team to think through a big, hairy, complex, multi-million dollar problem. I was up at the wall, facilitating the team and doing my thing with my markers, when one of the participants raised his hand and asked if he could draw something up on the sheet of paper we were working from. Other folks in the room looked horrified, and I could read two universal…

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World Sketchnote Day is January 11th!

World Sketchnote Day is January 11th!

How cool is this! Leave it to Mike Rohde and our awesome friends at Sketchbook Army to create an international holiday for sketchnoting!   January 11th is World Sketchnote Day! Woot! If you love sketchnoting, appreciate the beauty that shines through someone’s sketchnote, or would simply like an excuse to pick up the pen and give it a try, then THIS is the day for you!   Learn more about how to…

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What makes a sketchnote beautiful? If you create sketchnotes and have a pulse, at one point or another you've probably wanted what you draw up to be beautiful.

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Ready or Not, Here It Comes!

Ready or Not, Here It Comes!

Did you ever play ‘Hide and Seek’ when you were a kid?   Remember what it was like to cover your eyes with your hands and count down to the moment when you can look at how your world has changed and see who you can find? How scaryexciting it was? What would you find once you uncovered your eyes? Would you scream with delight as you ran about finding your friends? Or would everyone have magically…

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My uncomfortable New Year's wish for you

My uncomfortable New Year’s wish for you

Ah, the holidays! This is the time where our familiar friends come to the forefront. . . the familiar foods, songs, traditions, and rituals we embrace each year to celebrate the end of the year as we prepare for the new.   One of my favorite traditions is to draw up a New Years card just for us. (I’ve done it for the last six years in my business!) Here are the cards I’ve drawn up through the 2015…

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The Last Temptation of a Facilitator As facilitators, it's tempting to think that at the end of a session we need to have personally solved our client's problem.

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Share a doodle of gratitude this holiday season December is the month where I formally reflect on the year that's been and think about the year that's to come.

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The single-best way to beat holiday stress

The single-best way to beat holiday stress

The number one cause of holiday stress isn’t the kids or the in-laws. It isn’t the shopping or malls. It isn’t the crowds or crazy drivers out on the road. And it certainly isn’t the ever-collapsing window of time to get everything done.  

No, the number one cause of holiday stress is the six inches of space between our ears. Period.

  Our holiday stress is all in our minds. . . and it’s a…

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Five gifts I’ve received from my graphic facilitation business Today's my birthday. (Yay! Happy birthday to me!) As I gazed out at the overcast Austin skyline from my hotel bed (I've been on travel on my birthday for the last five years) feeling all warm and cozy, I suddenly remembered:

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You already ARE the change

You already ARE the change

[blockquote source=”Rainer Maria Rilke”]The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.[/blockquote]   I drew this sketchnote while at Esalen recently, and it wasn’t until after I got back that I saw it’s deeper message.     Both the caterpillar AND the butterfly were sad. Broken-hearted, even. In the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, both seemed…

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Sketchnoting as Visual Tone Poem

Sketchnoting as Visual Tone Poem

I just spent the week up at the Esalen Institute up in Big Sur, California. I was there for a workshop exploring relational constellations, a process I remember studying during my psychology days but never having any real experience with.   A person selects others to represent various roles and physically places them in standing positions in a starting tableau. The people representing various…

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Saying "No" and Other Scary Things

Saying “No” and Other Scary Things

You know what scares me?   Creepy clown dolls.  

Creepy. A$$. Clown.

Between watching Poltergeist when I was in junior high, to reading Stephen King novels (It for the clown, The Tommyknockersfor the creepy dolls), plus not to mention being surrounded by centuries worth of old dolls collected by generations of females in my family when visiting my grandmother’s house (those dolls were EVERYWHERE!…

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Mustering the Courage to Leap into the Unknown

Mustering the Courage to Leap into the Unknown

I’ve been on the edge of a scaryexciting decision lately.   (Don’t worry: once I know for sure what’s going on, I’ll let you know!)   But it’s been leaving me in a space of simultaneous terror and excitement, as I vacillate between this opportunity being too good to be true and feeling like I’m truly in the right place at the right time.  

It’s a heck of a spot to be dwelling in right about now.

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When it comes to your business, don't be bacon.

When it comes to your business, don’t be bacon.

Breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day. In my book, a finely-crafted breakfast is a thing of beauty.   Case in point: the gluten-free French toast from the Fig Tree Cafe in Hillcrest.  

Photo Credit: Fig Tree Cafe

  When I was diagnosed as being allergic to gluten, I thought my French toast days were over. (As far as breakfast foods go, I LOVE French toast!) So I was pretty heartbroken with…

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Can Anyone Really Draw? An open letter to a graphic recorder friend It's been building for a while now: the whole question about "art" and "drawing" and graphic recording…

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What to do when you're all wound up

What to do when you’re all wound up

I take yoga classes to help keep my body flexible and ready for my graphic facilitation work. (It’s a surprisingly-physical practice, graphic facilitation!) Taking care of one’s body is particularly important when you’re working with a disabled dominant arm (the result of a work injury years ago) and a problematic left low back and hip.  

So the other day I was in my yoga class and I thought of…

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The Comparison Game and Graphic Facilitation Have I mentioned how much I dislike hanging out on Facebook? Not because of the people. No, many of my friends are there, and it’s a fantastically-easy way to stay in touch with them.