I am reading this book "visual meetings" by David Sibbet. It's awesome. The author is so passionate about the endless possibilities to enhance any work environment, meeting, training, workshop, etc. with the use of visuals. I have found it to be really helpful when thinking about the meetings and trainings I do with students and co-workers. Here are a few ideas I have taken from his book and manipulated to make it work for what I do.
Picture cards- I use a free stock photo site (
sxc.hu) for my presentations and such. I have a bunch of stock photos saved on my home and work computer that I use for this kind of stuff. I printed them (four to a page) so they are 3.5x4 and will laminate them to make picture cards. Since they are all stock photos it will look professional (you can see a few of the examples I am using in the graphic above). I can use these for a variety of different meetings with my students. By spreading them around a conference table or a room we are in. I can ask the the group of staff I am meeting with (grads, leadership team, etc) to answer any of the following questions by picking the picture that best answers it.
- What picture best describes our organization?
- What picture best describes the issues/stressors going on right now?
- What picture best describes how you want to be motivated?
These are just a few examples, the questions can be anything. But think about it. If I asked a group of students to talk about the issues/stressors on the group, I can bet their answers without using the picture cards versus using them would be very different. By using a picture to talk about an issue, they can be more honest, descriptive and therefore a more constructive use of time. I look forward to using this technique out.
Post it visuals: Who doesn't love a post it? I love multi-colored post its of all different shapes and sizes.We use post its a lot when planning things out, and even use post its when selecting our staff (its our version of the NFL draft). I had another idea come to my mind of how we could use post its all summer long to keep our leadership, grad and office staff focused on always delivering a quality orientation program. I want to create a huge poster about 6 ft wide and 6 or 7ft tall on one of the walls in our orientation office. It would be broken into 3 main categories with an upper tier and lower tier. Ok as I am typing this I realize a visual of what is in my head might be helpful. This is what I am thinking of (similar at least)...
Anyway, so we would have a post it for every component of the program and then conceptual things like morale, teamwork, etc. At the end of each week the group would come together and decide what belonged in which column, give reasons why it should be in that column, and then brainstorm either how to keep the awesome things awesome and how to improve the things that need to improve. We would have a whole separate panel (with different color post its obviously) devoted to the improving/keeping things awesome ideas. By keeping something like this up, it really gets the group engaged in big picture thinking, problem solving and keeps everyone focused. I am excited to try this out this summer.
Visual one-on-ones: Typically, once a semester in the spring and then once at the end of the summer we will do one on one meetings with all fifty staff members. They go ok, for those students that want the meeting make they make the most of it but for some it is 10 minutes in and out. I think that we could use visuals to make these more engaging. The one chapter in Sibbet's book talks about using visuals in sales meetings and with clients. They talk about using visuals like time-lines to engage clients in a conversation about their goals. I'd like to try this with our students. Using a piece of news print and some markers, and the meeting to draw out time-line of where they are now and where they want to be at the end of their experience. Then plotting out what would need to happen in the middle to get there. The student could leave with a copy to have, or we could hold on to it to use at the end of the summer to reflect on their path.
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