Let’s shift ideas into action…
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Engaging Beyond Words: using visuals for understanding & learning
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What clients are saying…
Careful Preparation
The graphic facilitation workshop that Michelle and Nancy provided for Alberta Agriculture staff in fall 2011 was fantastic! They began by setting the stage through careful preparation with the intention of the participants knowing it would be a safe place to learn, stretch their abilities and try new things. And it worked. Participants found the workshop to be energizing, fun, and interesting, but most of all useful. Everyone walked away with ways they planned to incorporate the concepts into their daily work to better engage co-workers, partners and clients. From using it in everything from agendas, minutes, flipcharts and handouts; to ice breakers, meetings, and team building; to note-taking, brainstorming and other planning processes; the graphic facilitation techniques are here to stay. A huge thank you to Michelle and Nancy for lighting the fire!
Sharon Stollery
Ag Industry Extension Branch, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Training for all skill levels
The ‘Engaging Beyond Words’ training was highly engaging, fun and wonderfully facilitated by Michelle! I have a background in graphic design and Michelle’s training was a great refresh on simple visual techniques to help audiences understand key concepts quickly. It provided practical details on how to expand my visual communication approach. On top of the toolkit offered, during the training we collaborated on real-life engagement challenges that were informative, invaluable and inspiring. I highly recommend this training for all skill levels as there was so much to learn.
Marina Nagibina
Design CoCreate
Highly Motivated Professional Facilitator
I have worked with Michelle Laurie on several projects over the past four years and found her to be a highly motivated professional facilitator with an unusual combination of skills. She is a very creative thinker, has excellent organizational skills and is a very effective communicator. She has been particularly successful in motivating communities to the Columbia Basin to take active steps towards mitigating climate change impacts and is one of the leaders in promoting climate change adaptation methods. She is well versed in using innovative teaching and presentation techniques including animation, video production and multi-media tools. She works exceptionally well in multi-stakeholder processes, has considerable international experience and has a very outgoing personality. In other words, she is one of the key people you want to have on your interdisciplinary team.
Hans Schreier
Professor, University of British Columbia
Expert Advice and Support
Michelle has provided expert advice and support to assist the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) to be a leader on challenging and innovative projects/processes for more than a dozen years. In the early 2000’s when climate change was starting to be understood by governments and the scientific community Michelle designed multi-year strategic initiatives with more than twenty local governments and communities to help these communities understand what climate change is, how it may impact local communities and what type of actions these communities should consider to be more resilient or adapt to a range of future climate scenarios. Related to international water policy, Michelle helped develop cutting edge processes to help develop the capacity of community leaders, elected officials and staff to both understand the range of issues they were facing, how these impacted their various areas of authority and what tangible actions they could take.
Michelle has worked collaboratively with CBT and others and is willing and generous in sharing her skills. She has been supportive of CBT staff and the many partners our organization works with. She demonstrated great skill and knowledge in working with a variety of partners groups (including NGO’s, local governments, provincial governments, first nations and federal governments). She creatively designed and facilitated hundreds of meetings to strategize, learn together and engage people on tough topics. Additional highlights include facilitating the kick off meeting of government, utilities and First Nations where they agreed (for the first time ever) to work on reintroducing salmon to the Columbia River, assisting CBT staff to design a new organizational department for the Trust, and assessing long standing initiatives for learning and their evolution. She brings a broad wealth of skills and experience adding value to any team. Michelle is especially skilled helping to think through very complex multi layered issues and lay out very practical and useful frameworks for addressing this complexity. If you need help solving interesting complex problems Michelle Laurie is the person for your job!
Kindy Gosal
Executive Director, Special Initiatives, Columbia Basin Trust
Passion and Enthusiasm
Michelle worked with the District of Elkford through the Columbia Basin Trust on a Climate Change adaptation Project. Michelle was completely committed to the project, and ensured it was on time and produced the intended results. Michelle brings passion and enthusiasm to work. It was a pleasure to work with Michelle.
Corien Speaker
Former Chief Administrative Officer, District of Elkford
Innovative
The graphic facilitation workshop experience added a new and innovative method to my professional skill set. After the workshop, I was offered a job with a community design organization because my skills of community engagement are linked with visual interaction. I highly recommend the workshop to others!
Susan DeBlieck
Community Design Lab, Iowa State University & Workshop Participant
Learning along the way…
Reflective practice is a part of our DNA.