From the Top Drawer

Doodles and discussion on Graphic Recording

Does your global work feel connected?

Graphic Recording illustration detail

Distributed teams can work differently to achieve global goals.

Working globally is a huge challenge. There are issues of how leadership engages global workforces, teams and work groups. It is easy to default to focusing on the local and not connect fully to the global, even when you use virtual technology for your meetings. How do you make these meeting participants feel, and indeed BE, connected.

First, remember your goals and desired outcomes. What do you want or need to achieve? Why do you need to have this virtual meeting in order to meet those outcomes? Are there other ways of working?

Second, treat your virtual meetings with the respect they need in order to achieve your outcomes. Think about how to create the meeting so all participants are engaged, connected, participating fully, and acting on their agreements, even if the leader isn’t in their local office. Continue Reading…

In the process of trying to identify things we are looking at, our brains will close incomplete shapes and patterns.

Gestalt Theory #

How well do you work virtually? Globally? As distributed teams?

It is not about doing virtual meetings. They have become the norm for many companies and organisations. It is about how well you work virtually. And it is not just about mastering the technology. It is more about creating agendas and ways of working that make virtual meetings effective. Just using f2f models for working does not work. How you manage people, time, the virtual space and the energy of the group is more critical virtually.

Scribing Magic knows how to create virtual meetings that work well. Working with our partner Meeting Magic we help you build great agendas and understand how to lead high quality virtual meetings. Scribing Magic helps you implement the meeting to reach your desired outcomes. Let’s have a conversation about your virtual meetings for your global and distributed teams.

Can virtual meetings be visual?

Virtual working is more the norm. Do it well!

Virtual working is more the norm. Do it well!

With the growth of tablet technology we are absolutely able to support your virtual meetings with visual communications and graphic recording. Having visual virtual meetings will not only make that individual meeting stronger but will help address some of the stress of the global versus local issue.

Virtual meetings can work for worldwide organisations or for smaller organisations that have chosen to work in distributed teams and work group. Virtual meetings are becoming a norm in many companies. Doing it well is not yet a norm, which can undermine successful conversations and overall communications. Continue Reading…

What word sums up high-quality graphic recording?

There is a lot of focus within the graphic recording community about what constitutes good recording and what do we call ourselves and what do we really offer our clients. These are all important conversations and we support those discussions. That said, I helped train Meeting Magic’s Advanced Facilitation workshop these past few days. Interestingly, none of those topics came up from our clients. But there was one word we kept hearing and talking about.

Complexity! Continue Reading…

Sharing the den of the dragon.

Piers Linney during his panel on innovation.

Piers Linney during his panel on innovation.

John Ashton recently recorded the Thomson Reuters “Innovation in Market Data Technology.” On one of the panels was Piers Linney, from Dragon’s Den, a UK entreprenurial, reality TV show. While it was a pleasure to meet Mr. Linney, it was more of a pleasure to support the summit with graphics, helping delegates see what they were talking about.

Visible or invisible. That is the question.

The best graphic recording is there to serve the group. Scribing in meetings is there to add value to your conversations, strengthen commitment to outcomes, and support the group getting to action. Graphic recording is there to help you get your job done.

A recent question we’ve been addressing is how visible is the graphic recorder? How ‘up front’ should the recording itself be? Is the chart front and center for the group to engage? Is the chart in the back of the room capturing a record, much like taking visual minutes of meetings?

This is all important stuff to work out ahead of time with the meeting sponsor, leader or facilitator. We have a series of questions we ask before the meeting. How will you use this graphic recording going forward or is it only to be used by the group in question? What is the role of the recorder in this session? Why are you including graphics in this meeting? Will this specific chart be used again by this group?

Key questions that impact the group and their work are important for the graphic recorder to engage. Planning ahead for including scribing in meetings will create time and thought for how to best utilise graphic and the recorder. Waiting until the last minute to have recording as an add on might add a pretty picture but risks making visual thinking an afterthought rather than a key component to having a successful meeting.

To learn more about making your work visible and knowing how and where to place your graphic recorder, give us a call (+44 (0)1628 471 114 or email us to begin a conversation about graphic recording in your meetings.