Visual Stories : a template

During my visit to New Zealand last week I enjoyed a couple of tasty dinners out with some of the great people from Agile Wellington Meetup and Boost New Media.

Over a glass of New Zealand Pinot Noir, I noticed how we shared story after story after story - personal stories, travel stories, food stories, funny stories, business stories ... laughter here and there, learning, sharing and connecting. 

Stories are certainly on the rise! Their value and impact when they are used to communicate key messages across teams and organisations is undeniable too! (You can read more about how to use stories in business in the book 'Hooked: How leaders connect, engage and inspire with storytelling', by my Thought Leadership colleagues Gabrielle Dolan & Yamini Naidu.)

 

While telling the stories is one aspect of great communication, recalling and revisiting them later on is another aspect that I think needs greater attention and focus.

In a client workshop recently, one of the senior leaders shared so many brilliant and inspiring stories throughout the day.  We heard sales stories, planning and project stories, tales of challenge and of achievement and so many other inspiring messages. You could see and feel how well the content, style and messages impacted on the team.

So that these powerful stories weren't 'lost', I visually captured them.


This is the type of output I captured for one of the team's sessions. Small circles or vignettes are great shapes to write some words and icons to remind the team of the key content from the stories being shared as we travel along throughout the workshop or meeting. 

Be sure to relax... you don't need all of the details covered in every story. I often say 'A small visual anchor can hold a weight of information'. You only need a small visual to remind you and others of the detail and content and how you felt about the story and its message. Given you didn't hear the leader's stories from last week, these visuals won't mean so much, but it's the style or design or approach I'm interested in you grasping. 

So... to make sure you don't 'lose the plot' when it comes to stories, I'm sharing my template.  It makes them Visual Stories and helps prolong their life beyond the telling in the here and now. 

Click to save it, print it out or sketch out your own series of circles (or other shapes) to collect the key points and learnings the next time you hear a great story you want to remember. Use one circle per story, or one circle for each key point or moral of the story.

In this way you can quickly review, revisit and retell these chunks of content and information.  

The end!

 

What's important to 'capture' visually?

I'm often asked how I know when something is important to capture using visuals. This 'graphic recording' or visual approach to working with people in groups and teams is powerful in that for me, it primarily helps people hear each other. 

People get to truly 'see' what is being said. 

So out of everything being said, how do I know which parts are important to a group and which parts to leave out?

Context - What is this whole conversation about for this group - not for me, for them? Keep this in mind - it truly is about the 'big picture'. When you're clear about their purpose, reason, why... you'll be put in the picture about what is important. So take note of the title of the session, the role of the team or the speaker/presenter, the mission or purpose of the meeting or conversations. Whatever is important for them, needs to be listened out for.

Repetition - when topics, key phrases and content are repeated (by different people - in conversation, presentation, printed material or discussions) I know there is some importance there, so I'll capture it. 

Pause... talk. When people give a little pause before they present their important phrase or word, I'm listening out, in a BIG way. A common situation is when people say things like ... "I think what this team needs is <tiny pause> more accountability.' And often the words 'more accountability' are delivered a little louder, a little faster or a little slower or in a slightly higher or lower tone. Listen out for the pause or other voice changes outlined in my earlier blog post on what's important and what's waffle. They are a perfect indicator that the speaker is trying to say 'this is important' - so I'll capture that. 

You can't capture everything - you need to distill, delete, rearrange or economise, so these tips will help you on your way to doing this. 

Your thoughts, their shoes

Are you working on something at the moment for a client, customer, colleague or yourself? Designing or creating something - a solution to a problem, a response to a call for help or a new service or product idea swishing about in your head?

Whenever you step in to any type of 'design' mode - a response, solution, creation or proposal - you need to bring together your thoughts, and a good dose of 'standing in their shoes'. 

Yes, that old saying of walking a mile in someone else's shoes gives you a sense of what it's like for them. 

A visual way of doing that is using an Empathy Map. 

Here's one I prepared earlier for you!



Either click and save to print this one, or quickly sketch out the lines and labels on a whiteboard, flip chart or a blank page in front of you. 

You can use post-it notes to write your thoughts on and then post them on the chart... or you can write directly on the page or canvas. Make the canvas big and it will work brilliantly as a conversation and collaboration tool. It's certain to get diverse views up on the wall!

And you can keep the chart visible and refer to it to remind yourself - and others - of who you're working on this 'thing' for. 

I worked with a customer solutions team this week and we collaborated on several Empathy Maps. Rather than talking generally about customers, users or clients 'out there', 'them' or 'those people', we developed a couple of customer personas. These imaginary - but quite true to life - customers kept focus on what they were really thinking, feeling, saying and doing. We gave them names and characteristics that were representative of the target audiences for the program of work.

It was a quick process to identify what problems and pain we were solving, and what successes or gains we would be delivering. We also included some of the comments from research and focus group conversations that some of the team had been having recently. 

Ooooh it was a 'rich' and interactive session! 

With this information as a great foundation, you can then add your own thinking, expertise and input.

It's one of the key elements to design thinking - start with that empathy, understanding and customer or user perspective. You can find more about Empathy Maps from a wander with Google or in the book Gamestorming.

Now what are you working on at the moment? How can I help you with that? Let's create an Empathy Map together and see how good thinking and some time in other people's shoes can create a range of brilliant solutions for you and your clients or customers. 

Simon says : Start With Why

Simon Sinek's popular TED Talk and book of the same name'Start with Why' came up a few times in workshops, sessions and client meetings recently. 

So I re-listened to his TED Talk this morning and then visually captured the key points on my iPad. This week's visual sip is a distillation of literally what 'Simon says'. 



Over the past week I've watched, listened, graphic recorded, facilitated and provided feedback on a number of presentations, pitches and speeches.

Some of them were brilliant! Like the very talented speakers that came through the Thought Leaders Speaker Showcase in Sydney last week. My visual notes of that inspiring morning are here.  These most compelling presentations started with why!

But out in the workplace over the week, I saw plenty of dull 'n dozy, read these 50 bullet points and 'hurry-up-and-finish' presentations that clearly didn't start with why! Many were soaked with what and how. Uninspired. Uninspiring. 

Highly paid, big hitting leaders were delivering these presentations. Most of them took the 'dim the lights, draw the shades, lock the door ... and make them listen to my damn PowerPoint' approach for their presentation strategy. Who'd want to follow a leader like that?!

If they'd simply started with why, with a story about purpose, about cause and about belief, they would have been way more powerful, compelling, engaging and ... unstoppable across the organisation, and the industry. 

When you next plan to step on to a stage to present or you take position at the front of the room, take note from the Speaker Showcase stars and Simon Sinek and start with why!

That was then. What's now... and next?

Planning and strategising with people often involves looking back as well as looking forward - and a bit of 'what's going on now' too. 

I use this visual template to sort out the then, now and next. Otherwise I find the conversation can get a little knotted!

So on a flip chart or whiteboard or on my ipad or a notepad, I'll draw out a winding road (when is change ever a straight road or a freeway?!)

Then I'll put in the past, present and the future. But I label them with 'Then', 'Now' and 'Next.' It's a different palette or language and sounds more active. 

And I LOVE to use the 'You are Here' red dot from tourist and shopping centre maps, to remind people they are actually in the here and now. Then there is great perspective back as well as forward. Think rear-view mirror as well as the front windscreen. 

Windy road, then, now, next. Now have your discussion. Capture key points, 'Click' to photograph the notes of your discussion - and you'll be able to recall a heap of detail from that conversation, as well as categorise some equally winding content.
 
Now, what's next for you today?