Crackerjack Visual Thinking

Tag: Engage

  • Half term school holidays – the perfect time to practise your drawing! #visualthinking #communicate #engage #draw

    In the UK, it’s the half term holidays for many schools and many of you may be taking a few days off to spend time with your kids.

    Although there are many things that take up children’s attention during the holidays, (from sports activities to X-Boxes), in my experience kids still really enjoy drawing. A blank piece of paper and some felt-tip pens allow them to be creative and share their ideas (whether it’s Star Wars inspired picture, a fairy story or a new monster from their own imagination!).

    So why not get involved too and practise your own drawing skills whilst also spending some quality time with the kids! From simply helping them finish one of their drawings through to having a full-on family drawing competition (e.g. who can create the best monster…), the practise will help develop your own drawing skill and confidence.

    And then of course you can put these skills to use back in the your workplace and sketch out ideas (maybe not monsters or fairies!) to share your thinking with colleagues more quickly and effectively.

    Remember, drawing your ideas is not childish – it’s the smart way to share information!

    To find out more about visual thinking and drawing your ideas, please CONTACT US.

  • The latest rich picture created by Crackerjack Visual Thinking #visualthinking #communicate #engage

    Here’s the latest rich picture we have created for one of our clients.

    one-third-more-vision

    Chris Henderson of One Third More asked Crackerjack Visual Thinking to create rich picture that he could use in presentations to describe the key concepts and ideas contained in his latest book JUMP! (Delivering astonishing results by unleashing your leadership team).

    We worked with Chris to develop the narrative he wanted to tell and then created a rich picture to support this. Unlike our normal stand-alone rich pictures, this image is designed to be used as part of a presentation or with a voiceover.

    We are currently finalising the hand-drawn animated version of the rich picture for Chris to use during presentations as well as the version featuring a voiceover for use on his website. We will share these with via the blog shortly.

    To find out more about rich pictures and how they could help you to tell your story, please CONTACT US or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

     

  • Dan Roam’s guaranteed way to get your team drawing, fast! #visualthinking #teams #drawing #thinking

    I was in Texas last week. I lead a multinational financial services company through my half-day visual training seminar. They loved it, and asked how they might quickly get colleagues around the world to start drawing more. I suggested a quick visual exercise I call, “The Double-Venn Drill.” It goes like this: The Double-Venn Drill…

    via A guaranteed way to get your team drawing, fast! — DanRoam.com

  • How visualising the outputs from focus groups is good for the organisation and good for the participants #focusgroup #marketing #insights

    Focus groups continue to be a valuable source of insight for organisations wanting to learn deeper insights into their past, present and future customers needs.

    Whether it’s a retailer wanting to learn more about how customers will react to a new product or a pharma company wanting to understand how their products can better help patients, a focus group remains one of the key insight tools available to organisations.

    One way in which the key conversations, ideas and insights coming out of a focus group session can be captured is by having a graphic recording created during the session itself. This large scale visual is created by a graphic recorder live in real-time on a large sheet of paper (circa 2.5m wide and 1.5m deep) using words, images and other visual thinking techniques. The example below is not from a focus group session (they tend to be confidential!), but gives you an idea of what a graphic recorder can produce during an event:

    OUH 12th Dec 2016 Graphic Recording

    The benefits of using graphic recording to capture the outputs from a focus group session are:

    • The graphic recording details how the comments, ideas and insights emerged during the focus group and how they are linked together. This adds an extra level of insight for the organisation on top of the actual content captured on the graphic itself. This is not always possible with more traditional methods such as bullet-pointed flip-chart lists etc.
    • The participants see that the graphic recording is an accurate and truthful record of the focus group session and their comments and insights. This can further engage them with the session and build higher-levels of trust. This increased level of trust can encourage them to offer deeper, more personal insights than they otherwise might have done.

    To find out more about graphic recording and how it could benefit you in your next focus group session, please contact us here at Crackerjack Visual Thinking.

  • Give your people the power to draw (a.k.a. communicate more effectively)! #visualthinking #communicate #engage #teamdevelopment

    Getting people and teams to communicate effectively is one of the key challenges facing organisations of all shapes and sizes.

    We here at Crackerjack Visual Thinking believe that helping people to feel confident and empowered to use sketches, diagrams and drawings to communicate thoughts and ideas can create a significant cultural change in an organisation.

    yesdrawingsign

    We have witnessed people having numerous ‘lightbulb’ moments which were only possible because information and ideas were shared visually (rather than the more traditional formats for sharing information including reports, bullet-point presentations etc).

    That’s why we are passionate about helping people develop their drawing skills and offer a number of training workshops which we call ‘Scribble Labs™‘.

    Scribble Lab 1

    Scribble Lab™ 1: Get Scribbling! is ideal for those people wanting to develop their drawing skills. We can offer this as a standalone 1 day workshop or can tailor it to your teams specific needs. Ideal as part of a team development activity.

    We also offer a 1:1 coaching option if that better suits your needs.

    To find out more about how our Scribble Labs™ can help your people to communicate more effectively, please contact us. 

  • Crackerjack’s graphic recording featured on UN Women’s #HeForShe global website #engage #communicate #UnitedNations #graphicrecording

    We’ve just been informed that the graphic recording Crackerjack Visual Thinking created for the University of Leicester’s #HeForShe global ideathon is featured on the #HeForShe global website. View the article here.

    #HeForShe is a UN Women backed campaign developing solutions to ensure the safety of everyone on university campuses worldwide. The University of Leicester is one of 10 IMPACT universities worldwide supporting this campaign and the global ideathon was one element of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign in November 2016.

    heforshe

    heforshe-nov-2016

    The graphic was created live during a 2 hour session. It’s great to see our work being used to visualise and communicate ideas as part of this important global campaign.

    If you would like to have your next event or conference captured visually using graphic recording, please contact us.

     

  • Crackerjack Visual Thinking’s new ‘menu’ helps you find the best way to #engage and #communicate with your people in 2017. #visualthinking

    Happy New Year!

    To help you get 2017 off to a flying start, we’ve created a new Crackerjack Visual Thinking ‘Menu’ that provides you with a quick reference guide to our services and how they can meet your organisations needs. So if you are looking to engage and communicate with your people in new and different ways during the coming year, click below to view the menu:

    crackerjack-menu-2017-small

     

    If you would like to explore how Crackerjack’s services could help you in your work, please contact us for an initial discussion.

  • Great client feedback about one of our recent graphic recordings! #communicate #engage #visualthinking

    “Hello John,

    I got the graphic recording. It looks fantastic, thank you so much. We are going to get a nice big printout of this and put it up on the main corridor. I am still amazed by the level of clarity you pick up in what you have heard – it is amazing!”

    Matt Cadby | Project Manager | Transformation Team | Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

    OUH 12th Dec 2016 Graphic Recording

    To find out more about our work please contact us or visit www.crackerjackvisualthinking.com

  • Running a 2017 Kick-Off event in January? If so, read this! #engage #communicate #visualthinking

    Are you running a kick-off meeting in early 2017 to get you and your team ready for the year ahead?

    Being clear about what you want to achieve in 2017 and how you are going to do this is vital to the success of your organisation.

    60 page PowerPoint presentations and over-long speeches are not the best way to engage with your people and communicate key messages!

    Getting your people really thinking, talking and identifying the actions they need to take to achieve the organisations goals in 2017 will provide you with a much better chance of success.

    To do this effectively we recommend the following steps:

    • Think about when and where you get your people together. If it’s going to be a face to face event, remember that the venue and room play and important role in how energised people feel and how engaged they are with the event.
    • Identify three or four clear organisational aims for 2017. Any more than this and people won’t have the time to really think about the role they play in achieving each of these.
    • Don’t just tell people the information! Help them discover it themselves through activities and discussion. Learning information rather than being simply told it is proven to be the most effective way to really understand and retain information. A graphic facilitation approach which combines facilitation with visual thinking techniques can be ideal for this type of activity.Graphic facilitation involvement
    • Think visually! Wherever possible and practicable, use images and diagrams to complement the other materials you will be sharing with your people. Rich pictures provide a great way of sharing complex information and graphic recording can capture the key thoughts, ideas and comments that emerge during your kick-off meeting.
    • Follow-up after the meeting. Be sure to set up channels that enable people to continue the conversations started at the event. Also ensure that you find a way to visually show the organisations progress against the 2017 goals.
    • Plan ahead! Toward the end of 2017, arrange another event to celebrate success and gather learning’s from the work undertaken in 2017. These can then be used to inform your plans and kick-off meeting for 2018.

    We hope this advice is helpful to you. If you would like to discuss any of the above ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

    John Ashton – Crackerjack Visual Thinking