Lisa Theissen, our social reporter for rosviz18, has a 2 part blog reporting on what happened as well as sharing thoughts on juicy ideas that came up that we didn’t have time to dive into. Here is part 1 of her workshop reflection:
“I’m always excited to see a new group of people take risks, be vulnerable and learn something new. I an opportunity to do this only a short while ago in Rossland with Michelle Laurie, at RosViz18.
The group, as it often is, is from varying backgrounds, brought together through facilitation work and the interest in taking the work further and deeper.
Our visual introductions were a great way to get started on the wall, trying out new ways of putting things together on the page. Participants got a good grounding in how to use the body to create large lines and circles, and what works in terms of printing and clarity, colour and spacing. Along with shapes, landscapes, faces and people, we talked about lettering and containers for gathering ideas.
Thanks to a spontaneous chart drawing by Maureen, we visually constructed a plan for a small group dinner out at the Flying Steamshovel!
Day Two began with a bang – dancing from page to page, getting a sense of what it is to do some co-drawing. Feedback here was interesting – participants talked about how it felt to write on ‘someone else’s’ page, about looking for the visual theme and continuing it. We talked about different kinds of agendas, about the development and suitability of different ones for different circumstances.
Everyone spent some time going through the materials and looking at different iconography ending off with a quickly paced ICON JAM! It was interesting to see the visual themes that developed around words like ‘technology’ and terms like ‘on-boarding’. Later, when developing templates, one of the big ‘aha’ moments for me was the idea of the tree metaphor not just being looked at from roots to leaves, but also in terms of cross section, of rings. We also practiced the art of facilitation itself, along with some live graphic recording or sketch noting. Those who didn’t have the chance to draw live got this after lunch where everyone recorded a live talk!
In addition to lots of doing, we also spent time on reflection and learning. The concept of Harvest weaved through the workshop with a dedicated discussion on the afternoon of day 2. Harvest could be personal, to share widely or for specific audiences. It showed again how many ways there are to interpret a workshop like this. Participants created specific and thoughtful take-aways, including a river/path through the journey of our two days together, a technological overview of digital tools for connecting and building – and a literal take-away, cards with key learnings from the days drawn on each.
Our time concluded with a visual evaluative practice, a way of individually reflecting on the time together, looking at what each of us had hoped for, what we actually experienced and learned, and plans for how we can take it all forward and apply it more in our lives, in our practices as facilitators, and especially on big paper!”
