Marcel van Hove
Co-founder of Visual Friends
Co-founder of Visual Friends
Visual notes help us to remember and to structure our thinking. A visual facilitation fishbowl combines the strength of visuals with the facilitation format of a fishbowl.
Facilitating big group discussions can be challenging. Especially when you want to discuss one specific topic in the middle. You need to be an experienced facilitator to keep the conversation running and everyone engaged. It gets even harder if the topic has many side tracks and you as the facilitator have to decide which side track is important for the discussion and which one needs to be shortened. To make this a group decision and keep the discussion flowing the fishbowl format is worth a try.
The fishbowl works with two concentric circles of chairs in the room. One small inner circle (4-6 chairs) where the speakers sit and drive the conversation and an outer circle (many people) where the audience sits, listens and thinks about new ideas .
The rule of the fishbowl is that only the people in the inner circle are allowed to talk. If you are sitting in the outer circle and would like to add something to the conversation you need to stand up and walk from your seat in the outer circle towards the inner circle. If all chairs are occupied in the inner-circle you line up and wait until someone stands up and offers you his chair. Normally that doesn’t take long. As soon as you sit you can add your point to the conversation.
It may sound a bit difficult to do but with a bit of practising the group moves its way into collaborative visual thinking!
So what is a visual facilitation fishbowl? The visual facilitation fishbowl is very similar to the normal fishbowl and all the rules apply. However, two things are different:
If you think you can’t draw – you are welcome to join my bikablo® visual facilitation fundamentals training (Level 1.1). No drawing skills required!
Discover how much Visual Facilitation can help to do discussions and achieving goals. If you are having any questions, please feel free to contact me via Mail or Phone.
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Graphic Recording
When are YOU happy at work?
I am happy at work when I can use my full potential to solve problems and deliver great outcomes. Normally that means I am standing in front of a whiteboard drawing or coaching people. To be able to do so you need a work environment that enables you to and leaders who encourage and assist!
That’s why there were speakers talking about modern ways of human resource management, like James Law, brilliant minds like Kerri Rusnak talking about her journey in becoming a leader and creators of modern work environments like Angela Ferguson from Future Space.
However, a creative work environment is nothing without people. That is why Jurgen Appolo talked about modern ways of management, Jason Fox spoke about the search for meaning in life and Luke Giuliani started the Fitzroy academy of getting shit done. It’s all about WHY you do things! This gives purpose for your whole life. Luke’s final two questions: „What do you value in life?“ and „What do you want to leave behind?“
If your values are not the same as your employer’s – why not open up your own company on the side? Helen Soundness spoke about Etsy, a platform to sell your own goods. More than 850,000 businesswomen work from home and sell goods and services.
Last but not least Shawn Callahan talked about the power of storytelling at work. Stories are much more memorable because they activate our visual mind. In a story it’s all about pictures, we can image in front of our inner eye.
However, the speakers were great but the audience was awesome. Lynne and I invited the audience to start scribbling as well, so we handed out foam boards.
Have a look at their great artwork! Well done everyone!
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
About 5 years ago something incredibly inspiring changed my life! I was an agile trainer and used mostly PowerPoint at that time when I attended my first Bikablo® visual facilitation training. I never had a learning experience where I could see such quick progress. In only one day I learnt the basics of how to present ideas on a flip chart and how to explain my ideas with my own drawings.
The training in 77 seconds
I went back to symbolic drawings, like every child would naturally do. Now, 5 years and a lot of practice later, I offer the same training in Australia. See my 77-second video to get an impression of a great day with 14 attendants in Melbourne.
We started with how to hold a pen and drawing basic shapes and lines. Then we went on to draw containers, shadows and colours and practised loads of figures and symbols. Everyone had a great day! Please enjoy the video!
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
In almost every meeting or workshop I hear the same sentence: “I CAN’T DRAW!” In the early ages of our life we start to draw naturally. As soon as the kids can talk they explain their ideas in drawings. They present their ideas to their parents. Maybe you know sentences like “Daddy that’s YOU”. These first awesome drawings are very similar to the drawings that we need today in our business life to explain and solve complex problems. This article explains why and how to reactivate your drawing skills.
Something went terribly wrong! How could it happen that we were once able to explain our thoughts in pictures and over the years we lost this skill? In my school education a couple of teachers told me that I couldn’t draw but what they really meant was that I am not an artist. But somehow I took away that statement, as I CAN’T EXPLAIN IDEAS BY DRAWING and that is where I was terribly wrong for almost 20 years of my life! I don’t have to be an artist to explain something in pictures and you neither! Our children are maybe not the next Picasso. However they do three great things when they draw for us:
Now you know that you don’t have to be an artist to explain your ideas but I wouldn’t recommend that you go into your meeting and draw in front of people without some kind of technique and preparation. This could go wrong because even symbolic drawing takes time! What you need are a hand full of key symbols and step-by-step drawing technique that you can rely on in your next meeting.
At this point we step into the land of Bikablo: Bikablo® is an easy to learn visual facilitation technique created by the kommunikationslotsen in Germany. Over the last 10 years thousands of people in Europe have learnt this technique. Bikablo is based on 10 easy principles and guides you to have a quick start into visual facilitation. You will be able to draw simple, fast and good looking drawings to convey your idea, engage and be yourself.
If you are interested, you are welcome at the Visual Facilitation User Group in Melbourne or book in your next bikablo training (Melbourne / Sydney) .
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Co-founder of Visual Friends
When Frontline asked me to help them explaining their business model in a short video, I was instantly in it. Frontline is a not for commercial profit, member based retail buying group, working on behalf of the retailers and supplier.
Frontline helps in areas such as accounting and administration, negotiating discounts and trading terms, group buying opportunities and new technologies, particularly in online retail and wholesale websites.
I met the Digital Division Manager from Frontline and we had a short kickoff session in which we talked about the key message. This may sound simple but it isn’t. Quite often your key message a bit hidden between the lines. So instead of getting to that directly – try to listen to stories and try to scribble it on the fly. We had heaps of fun!
Inspired by the initial scribbling session, Frontline came back with their own scribbles and a great story about a couple that runs a shop together appeared. Fred and Fran were born! We selected “Being connected with other retailers” and to “Get help whenever needed” as strongest key messages. Even better Frontline also prepared the text for the voice over so that I knew how much drawing roughly is possible. Even if you can adjust the speed of the video, if there is only one sentence and you have a whole page to draw it doesn’t look so well.
With that raw story and audio outline I went home and started drawing myself. Whenever I had a slide ready I quickly flicked it through with my iPhone to Frontline and got instant feedback. At the end of the day I had the drawings ticked off.
Every slide needs to get drawn once again to get recorded. I used my Canon EOS M camera mounted on a microphone stand over the drawing table but my other videos are recorded with and iPhone5. The most important thing here is light and that the camera is exactly over the paper. In this way you have less problems with shadows. After the cutting we met at Frontline for the sound over…
If you call Frontline today you talk to the same person that did the sound over. This fact underpins the idea of being connected. So the same person that Fran spoke to in the video. You can speak to yourself. I love this little fact!
Here is what Digital Division Manager, Fleur Vickers says about the work we did:
“In just over a minute, our new video clearly communicates a business model many of us have struggled to explain for years! Marcel was fun to work with, and helpful in turning our receptionist into our voice over girl. So much so that she may consider leaving us for a new career. Good one Marcel.”, Fleur Vickers, Frontline Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Last week I had the honour to create a graphic recording for Activate Agile session of the Agile Australia 2014. It was a really nice day which brought students and future employers together.
Seven great and inspiring agile professionals across different companies described their daily work-life in their agile companies. The audience was mostly students and were invited to ask questions to the panel on stage. Awesome idea of the organizers to bring the graduates of the future together with great employers.
The stop-motion video below summarizes the 2:30 hours of lightning talks, question and answers sessions from the seven inspiring Melbournians on stage! Check it out!
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Co-Founder Visual Friends
Almost every meeting I sit in and every workshop and training I attend – I doodle. It helps me to organize my thoughts and capture key insights I had. So why do I do it on A4 paper and not in my private notebook? Learn more about graphic facilitation and how to do notes now.
During meetings people often ask me to have a look at my notes and if I would do it in my private notebook, I guess that would not happen so often. It could be seen as lurking into Marcel’s private diary. Who in their right mind would do that? Furthermore I can just put finished A4 drawings in the middle of the meeting table to share them. I don’t need to explain, I just put them in the middle. It happened that someone started picking up the finished A4s and put them up on the wall with blue tag. At this points my note taking activity becomes a group activity and collaboration started. People refer back to the pictures.
So why not using a big sheet of paper. 1.5 meters wide and 3 meters long? I think if I am invited to participate in a meeting as a mate it could be seen as an act of overtaking the meeting or even worse – showing off what a tale poppy I am. Who in their right mind would do that? Remember you are not invited to the meeting as a professional graphic recorder – you just know the value of graphic facilitation in a meeting and want to support the meeting with your doodling!
What’s about A3? I brought A3 paper along and people asked me straight away what I am up to. It is not common to have bigger size paper than A4 on the table. You can do that next time or even better hand over the markers to a person in the meeting who is inspired and wants to participate.
Bottom line, for me A4 paper is the golden middle way . Every office seems to have unending resources of A4 paper – you can steal as much as you want from the printer next to you – At least until facility management catch you.
Have a look at my last vivid stream of thoughts..
Would you like to become a visual leader as well? Join us in the visualisation class here.
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Graphic Recording Sustainable and Fair Food Festival
When the organizer David Hood told me that there will be three other graphic recorders at the festival, I was even more excited. Nothing is greater than learning from each other and inspiring each others drawings.
The topic of the “Sustainable & Fair Food” festival was “Going Local in 2020”. About 100 people were around discussing how the future of fruit farming and shopping will look like. The organizer David Hood from Doing something good guided through the evening and his team of facilitators made my life as a graphic recorder much easier.
The article was written by Natalia Tsygankova. Natalia has always loved words and talking to people. She has put that passion to good use and has been sharing people’s stories in the community radio, TV and print media for the last 10 years. Natalia is also a big fan of true storytelling events and regularly volunteers at the most famous one – The Moth, interviewing the winner. You can hear her own story of moving to Australia from Russia in 1999 here. Natalia believes that everyone has a story – So what’s yours? Contact her today to share your story.
Co-founder of Visual Friends
During the last 3 month I am reading through the book Flow by Donald G. Reinertsen. I had it on my iPad for ages but was too busy to read it. This book belongs definitly to my Top10 of the most enlightening books ever read! I think Donald Reinersten did a great job in bringing Matchs and Product Development together, but he fails in explaining the content to a wider audience like me.
I am reading chapters over and over again to get the full understanding. I thought it would be great to turn a chapter into a little video. This following video is based on the capture about “Queues” that I renamed into “Waiting Snakes”. I added my personal experience as an agile coach and visual facilitator – I hope you have fun watching it!
Enjoy the video!
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
Co-founder of Visual Friends
These slides visualise a brown bag session about Agile Management Innovation (AMI) of @berndschiffer at MYOB hosted in the Melbourne office.
I love doing visual recordings in A4! It is just so little effort to prepare it and you can chuck out one slide if you made a mistake. If you want to get a grip on the visual recording – I suggest creating a series of A4 slides like this one.
Marcel combines agile team coaching with visual thinking. Marcel believes that a group of people drawing together on a whiteboard can change the world. He loves high-performing teams and therefore coaches teams every day.
