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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
Building Networks
Michelle was responsible for building a network of research institutions in South Asia under an ADB supported project, and building their capacity to have influence with their work and ideas in urban sustainability. This included skill development in strategic communications, engagement and relationship building. This happened at the municipal as well as regional scale via networking, training and other forums to connect, learn and share together. Michelle supported the teams from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as a mentor, capacity builder, and trainer to keep people connected and to learn from each other on their efforts and contributions to evidence-based policy making and in support of ADB’s agenda to promote innovation. Michelle is very skilled in her field.
Vivian Castro-Wooldridge
Senior Urban Development Specialist, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Instrumental Support
On behalf of Engineers Canada we are pulling together a session for the World Engineering Congress in Geneva Switzerland which will be held in 2011 September. The theme for our session is Climate Proofing Civil Infrastructure and builds on the work that has been ongoing within Engineer’s Canada for the past five years originating from the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee.
The World’s Engineering Convention attracts engineers from around the world. Our session at this conference is meant to raise the profile of risk assessment, as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies for civil infrastructure.
Michelle has been instrumental in helping our steering committee pull this session together. She has helped us in liaison with the organizing committee from the conference, has researched a potential list of speakers, has contacted and gained commitments from all speakers and in general has helped gather together an entire program for our session including keynote speakers and panelists well ahead of the conference timelines.
Her skills are perfectly suited to the role of secretariat and she has consistently exceeded the needs of our steering committee. She has very strong skills in problem solving and has a focus on action and results. She brings an efficient set of facilitation skills to our team and a full range of leading ideas to add interest to our session. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Michelle Laurie for a similar role. I am looking forward to the opportunity to working with Michelle again in the future.
Paul Fesko
Former Manager of Strategic Services, City of Calgary and World Engineering Convention 2011 Session Chair
Collective Wisdom of People
Michelle is an amazing force in harnessing the collective wisdom of people, online and face to face. I have been a participant at events she facilitated, and a customer when she designed and facilitated for me. I especially appreciate her ability to anticipate how individual activities will unfold. Frequently, her design work involved being a sounding board for me where further distilling and sharpening of objectives for an event were needed. As a facilitator, she makes everyone feel heard and her competence allows me to focus on the learning process rather than worry about details. Working with Michelle produces excellent outcomes and outputs.
Stephan Gruber
Professor, Carleton University
Relevant and Innovative
I hired Michelle to design and deliver a training on graphic facilitation for First Nations community engagement coordinators who work in rural and remote communities (2018). The training was fantastic focusing on relevant and innovative techniques. She worked well with the culturally diverse group as a highly skilled facilitator as well as sharing these skills with the participants. I recommend the training to others and hope to engage her again with our work in the North.
Patricia Howard
Manager Community Engagement, First Nations Health Authority
Transform group process
I wanted to send a quick thank you for hosting such a wonderful workshop. I had a fabulous time and learned a lot, even though I already took the workshop 4 years ago I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take again. The content is rich, the hands on application powerful, the people genuine and the instructors first class. Being immersed in this creative process for two whole days is an amazing experience, I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about graphic facilitation and how it can help positively transform group process.
Fern Sabo
Designer (2014)
Learning along the way…
Reflective practice is a part of our DNA.