Full Circle Associates

If you haven’t explored Brainpickings, DO. Inspiration galore. Here is one I grabbed late last year to share…

Andy Warhol meditates:I broke something and realized I should break something once a week to remind me how fragile life is. It was a good plastic ring from the twenties.

via The Best History Books of 2012 | Brain Pickings.

So what am I going to break this week? This month? This year? Here are a few ideas percolating.

• Break some social media habits (like Facebook!)
• Break out of my blogging slump and try some new approaches to loose up some ideas that are circling in my head. Avoid circling the drain…
• Break some bad eating/lifestyle habits — typical new years stuff. But I’ve been making progress.
• Break out of some of my consulting habits (hm, breaking habits seems to be showing up as I brainstorm…)

So how will this remind me about life and its fragility? It’s power? I don’t think I’ve fully “gotten” Warhol yet.

What about you? What will you pay attention to breaking?

I was a bit shocked to notice I had not posted on my blog since mid October. Since then I have been to Vancouver, BC, Italy, Washington DC, India and now back to DC. So at the least I thought I’d wave to y’all and share some pictures!

It makes no sense to fly all the way to Singapore just for a keynote, so the good folks at Straits Knowledge and IKMS set me up to offer a graphic facilitation pre-conference workshop prior to KMSingapore (#KMSG). 12 folks joined me to explore how we productively use visuals as we facilitate in our work. After some visual introductions, we did the classic “I Can Draw” exercises, then worked on basic visual vocabularies. With that under our belts, we explored how we can use these visual skills in a variety of facilitation settings. You can see the full agenda here. Below are some images from the workshop, including our use of the visual practice “river of life” as a workshop evaluation tool.

Resources

• https://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Visual+Work+and+Thinking

I have been heads-down with work, leaving my WordPress backend full of half drafted blog posts. I only seem able to get the quick ones out. This is one of those. I have been working to build both improvisation and “art” (however you want to define that  - for me it has been bringing drawing into the meeting room) into my work. There is something about both that reenergizes people and elivens their brains. @courosa  (Alec Couros) tweeted this link today and I had to share.  Not only are these guys phenomenal, but look at the audience. Look and learn!

via The Human Jukebox | cdza Opus No. 9 – YouTube.

The early bird deadline is past, but we are sending out the word at a couple of F2F workshops in the next few weeks and I want this post findable on my (messy, messy) blog.  The time to commit is NOW!  I learned so many new things this year that I want to share. I want to learn from y’all. The folks who have signed up so far are fascinating and a few are far flung! So expect great, diverse interactions. We have a few more spaces available so MAKE YOUR MOVE!

Once again, here are the details:

Michelle Laurie and I are excited to announce the 3rd annual graphic facilitation workshop (aka Rosviz!) in beautiful Rossland, BC, Canada, July 18-20th, 2012. We had so much fun at #1 and #2, we are going for #3! (See Sylvia’s great video from #2 here.)

Drawing on Walls at the 2011 Graphic Facilitation Workshop in Rossland, B.C.

You are invited to this experiential workshop which takes place almost entirely at the drawing surface!

We’ll start the evening of July18th by warming up our drawing muscles and silencing those pesky inner censors. The second day, we’ll build into the basic practices of graphic facilitation and recording. We will pay attention to preparation, the actual visual work, and follow up including digital capture of paper based images. Our third day will be devoted to participatory graphic approaches, practicing and giving peer feedback. You can expect to go away with icons, ideas and approaches which you can use immediately, as well as ideas about how to hone your practice.

When might we use this practice?

Sometimes our imaginations are sparked by a visual where words fail us. Think about when communities plan and imagine their futures, when teams consider the possible outcomes for their projects, when groups create maps to track their progress.  These are all opportunities to use visuals to engage and deepen community dialogue. You can use visual thinking to improve teamwork, communications, meetings, build engagement and to plan work. Step out of the PowerPoint rut!

Who should attend?
Facilitators, project managers, team leaders and members, town planners, teachers and anyone who would like to engage others beyond words.

Please Note: You do NOT need previous experience or have to consider yourself an artist. At some level, we can all draw and use visuals to enhance our communications and engage diverse audiences.

Quick details: Michelle will be hosting and we’ll both be co-facilitating. This 2.5 day workshop begins the evening of Wednesday, July 18th and ends mid-afternoon on Friday, July 20th.  Pricing  is  CA $840.00 thereafter. (US Friends — it is about the same in dollars! If you have/want to pay in dollars, I can take those. NW)  Email Michelle to register: michelle.k.laurie(@)gmail.com.

via Workshop Alert – Rosviz is back! | Michelle Laurie rants and raves.