Give Your meeting Traction, With Visual Thinking Frameworks
When teams face tough challenges - building new strategies, designing new products, digging into the root of an entrenched problem - the old adage is to “think outside the box.”
But what if you built a box that actually helped?
As a graphic facilitator, I’m a big fan of constraints when it comes to creative problem solving, especially in a collaborative setting.
Visual thinking frameworks offer the guidelines and guard rails a meeting needs.
They get your team clear on the problem at hand and offer a roadmap to solve it by layering visual metaphor and graphic facilitation on top of design thinking strategies. In the hands of an experienced graphic facilitator, visual frameworks get everyone on the same page fast, and offer traction to what otherwise might turn into (yet another) freewheeling ideation session that feels good in the moment, but that doesn’t really get you anywhere.
Here are a few of my favorite visual frameworks to use with teams who are serious about making their meetings matter.
Bridge To The Future | Look Back To Look Forward
What It Is
The bridge to the future gives teams a chance to map out where they are now, where they want to go, how they’ll get there, and what challenges might arise along the way. It’s a quick way to gain a holistic view of your collective goals and aspirations without losing sight of the work it will take to make them a reality.
When To Use It
Use this framework to strategize new initiatives, to use current strengths as a stepping stone to future wins, and to uncover both what elements of your team’s culture you want to keep as you move into the future, and what you’d like to set aside.
Empathy Mapping | Are You Thinking What They’re Thinking?
What It Is
Empathy mapping gives you a tool to get inside the head of your target audience. Whether you’re a pharmaceutical researcher seeking to better understand a patient population or an ad executive working out a new marketing campaign, this framework seeks to understand the 360 experience of a given demographic.
When To Use It
Use an empathy map to get clear on what matters to your audience, uncover their hidden pain points, and to test your own assumptions so that you can build the right solution for the right problem.
Headline From The Future | Picture Big Wins
What It Is
The headline from the future framework grants your team license to imagine a moment where their wildest dreams of success are realized and celebrated. Why? Because once you visualize the big win you want, you can start working backwards to figure out how to get there.
When To Use It
Use this exercise to unlock team aspirations, to build motivation, and to investigate your team’s mission, vision, and values.
Priority Mapping | Get Clear On What Matters
What It Is
When you’re buried under a to-do list the length of War and Peace and have no idea where to start, start here.
Priority maps allow you to chart effort against impact for smaller tasks and larger initiatives alike so that you can focus on what matters most, given your limited resources and time. You’ll walk away with a clearer picture of your quick wins (high impact, low effort), what’s worth your energy and resources (high impact, high effort), and what you might want to let go of (low impact, high effort).
When To Use It
Use this at the close of an ideation session to hone in on winning ideas, to help teams navigate crunched schedules, and to differentiate between the urgent and the important.
Want A Bespoke Visual Framework For Your Next Meeting?
Visual thinking frameworks can be altered, layered, and modified to help teams work through the most challenging problems. Reach out here for a free creative consultation to learn how they can help you make the most of your next big meeting.