Excerpts: Mapping a City

Below are several images taken from a larger map I created last week. Often the mapping I do contains proprietary information: plans for the future of an organization or team, sensitive details about their next steps and hot-off-the-press ground-breaking ideas. I never share those image here or anywhere. I can however, share a few excerpts from the maps that hint at some of the great topics of conversation I've been listening to and mapping for clients.

The Art of Reflection

It's a wonderful experience to watch people reflect on the maps that have been created during a meeting, off-site or conference. When groups make time to look back at the insights, questions and actions that emerged through out their experience as a team, they are integrating their hard work. It's as if they are looking at a scrapbook of their accomplishments, except these photos are visual records! A simple 'gallery walk' will encourage integration: in silence people walk past the maps, make notes if they choose, and take in the maps as a way to recall their whole experience. Gallery walks can be done at the end of an experience, like the photo below, or through out an engagement; anytime people have a chance to process their work in silence, at a deeper level, it's well worth the effort!

BSidesSanFrancisco: A Security Conference

So very happy to be working at this year's BSides Security conference right across the Bay in San Francisco. This conference is such a cool idea: all the folks who don't make it on the roster of the BIG, well funded security conferences still have something to say. So let's let 'em talk. And all the folks who'd like to go to the BIG, heavily-sponsored conferences but don't want to pay hotel, airfare and steep prices...let's let 'em in for free! Tah-dah: you've got BSides. I could say more, but I'll map instead:

Map for a friend

One of the great things about working in the field of Visual Facilitation is the chance to meet and work with so many talented, creative people. I made this map for a friend and colleague, to sing her praises and help attract students to some of the courses she offers. It can be a challenge for some of us to brag about how great we are, so we can ask a friend to do it for us!

Mapping Movement!

Here's a new game: it's called 'Find the Mapper!" It's kind of like 'Where's Waldo' but instead of looking for cartoon guy with a striped shirt, you're looking for someone mapping.

Here's a clue:

"That was kind of fun" you might say but then ask, "But, why were you mapping while a room of people stretched?" Excellent question!

Besides proving the point that you can take mapping ANYWHERE, I was mapping a class called, "The Joy and Flow of Kicking Ass" taught by Alex Iglecia in order to help participants remember what they learned and share their new practices with others. Alex guided a packed house through a mix of yoga, Uzuazu, and other techniques for taking exercise to the level of self-empowerment. Once everyone saw my mapping techniques, they were blown away and looked like this:

Here's one of the maps I created during the class:

The Strongheart Fellowship Program and Grace's story

This map was created after I heard a beautiful and compelling talk given by Grace, a Strongheart Fellow and the founder of Strongheart, Zoe Adams. Grace shared her amazing life story with a group of leaders, focusing on how we all have to develop courage and wisdom to attain our goals. Zoe explained the mission of Strongheart and how their work with young people is changing the world. Please visit the Strongheart site here.

Live mapping: A leadership journey

This map was created while a small leadership team responded to the question, "What if the last three days could unleash the potential of 50,000 people and their families?".  Each executive in the room responded to the question while I captured their words and added related images. The acorn in the center of the map was a metaphor used through out the three days to help participants imagine what their work could become in the future.

Samuel Merritt University: World Cafe mapping

These maps were created during a World Cafe dialog among staff and faculty members of Samuel Merritt University. I helped to develop the questions used in the Cafe, and was happy to listen to the lively discussions and capture the output from the three rounds of conversation. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Driving Towards Solutions: Louisiana Department of Education

Here's a map I created in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education and their Non-Tested Grades and Subjects (NTGS) group. The image portrays the NTGS journey towards developing ways to track student and teacher success in subjects that don't use traditional metrics such as Career and Technical Education. Members of the various NTGS Workgroups signed the road map to show their support of this vision of student achievement.

SINGLE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VIEW.

Style Testing

One part of the process of creating a whiteboard animation is called style testing. The artist shares initial sketches based on the content of the animation as a way to explore how the client envisions the work they'll create together. This process can take place even before a script is written; you already have a concept of what you want to explore or explain through animation - in other words, you have WORDS and ideas.

The next step is to bring in PICTURES.

With style testing you find out if the way I visualize hunger is similar to how you 'see' hunger. We'll learn pretty quickly if we're on the same page...or not! Bottom line is, style testing helps us co-create a look for the animation long before we get in the studio to shoot the video - and that saves time, money and a lot of creative energy!

Here's a sample of my style testing images for an upcoming whiteboard animation. Thanks to Mitch Butler who is a teacher and collaborator on this project.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION