Visual Camp

Visual Camp took place last Tuesday; a mini unconference organised by the DotGovLabs innovation hub to kickstart dialogue between  policymakers and visual communicators. It was a space to explore how visuals might help communicate policies and issues, and how those of us working visually could work with public services and civil society to communicate policies & issues.

Mindful Maps gave a short introduction alongside the marvellous Simply Understand to present the groups with a few thoughts on visualisation which I will write up into a separate post (download the slides here).

We then went into workgroups around various themes. Laura Sorvala and I were in the ‘Maps showing the issues communities really care about’ group, where there was a lively discussion about what the value of map-making might be in terms of creating change.

From the Come to Your Senses event the previous weekend, we had a lot of questions related to this; what do we do with emotional and experiential data once we’ve collected it? How can this type of tool be of real value? How can we design and facilitate the map-making process in communities to make it helpful & relevant to contextual issues?

Image: Laura Sorvala, from this blog post analysing the themes from Come to Your Senses.

This will be an ongoing conversation, as many of the questions asked in the discussion provoked more questions! These are some of the main points covered:

• Maps can facilitate change by helping people connect the dots
• Maps can help us harvest human capital
• The data collected is important, but it’s what we do with it that will actually make a difference
• Maps can aid us in remembering data – conversations, opinions, issues etc
• Can maps translate between the public and policy, and act as a tool to help us find a common language?
• By enabling participation, map-making can give people permission to express opinions and emotions
• Maps can be powerful simply as visions, which can spark real change by altering perceptions, empowering the user and engaging people

More to come on this topic soon, hopefully facilitated by future visual camp conversations!

Constructing new group narratives

After some graphic recording at a management away day last month I have been reflecting on how graphically recording a process can help move a group through a narrative and help participants get onto the same page in terms of upcoming organisational changes. The day was a group reflection on where the organisation is at the moment and changes that need to happen in the next year. Mindful Maps harvested key information from the day to create a visualisation that reflected both the input of individuals and the desired collective change.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was a workshop with the Drum Café from Wandsworth where participants explored collective rhythm through tribal drumming. After the drumming session the energy in the room changed completely and the process became more participatory with breakout groups focusing on action and ways forward.

In recording events of this type, I have experienced that ‘getting everybody on the same page’ doesn’t necessarily mean getting everyone to agree. Visualising conflicts and difficult questions is as important as visualising positives. Illustrating participatory processes allow this to happen because it gives people the opportunity to have their voices seen as well as heard.

Mindful Maps ventures into HR

Last month I was asked to work with graphic harvesting at an internal HR event for a construction company, facilitated by Tetra LD. We harvested some very rich material from the process, visualising how employees would like to restructure their department and participate in organisational changes set to take place over the next five years.

The graphic recording was as interesting as always, but there was part of the event I found particularly fascinating. During the breakout sessions where groups were working on different things I was being asked to draw or visualise ideas by the groups; therefore making the visual process much more participatory. The ideas generated in these sessions actually went on to influence the outputs of the day.

To close, this was one of my favourite metaphors for the day. The group was talking about innovation not always being something new, when someone came out with the phrase ‘dinosaurs used to be innovative’. Quite right too.