Graphic Facilitation
With graphic facilitation,
I capture a conversation in real time into a free-format cartoon, amplified with observations and humorous provocation.
The drawings are ready to be used
instantaneously as a re-cap,
where I talk the audience through the illustrations: what did we just talk about? What did we NOT talk about? How did we talk about the things we talked about? What were we paying attention to, and how did this affect the tone of the conversation, and the opportunities we saw—or missed?
After the session,
the drawings serve as an easy and energizing way to share the learning, either from the original drawing, an electronic image file, or using the drawings as part of further refined material.
The process
We start with a brief: what’s the event, who’s participating and what’s the goal of the event. We decide on the medium: pen & paper or digital. Next, I’ll study the necessary materials to set my brain in the right context. Last, set-up and we’re good to go.
In the session itself, my main focus is on listening, and hearing. Hearing what’s being said, and how. What’s left out of the conversation?
My favorite thing is to do a spoken re-cap at the end of the day, or during lunch break. That’s where I can give you a reading guide to the picture, and share with the audience some of the thinking behind the pictures. My clients have given very positive feedback on this impromptu re-cap.
Once the day is done, you’ll have the digital work in your inbox. I can arrange the scanning of the paper version and have the paper originals as well as the digital image files delivered to you.
Your options for graphic facilitation:
Let’s do it in real life!
Ready to bring people physically into a shared space? Let graphic facilitation help in bringing their minds together, too!
My favorite duo, pen & paper, come in many sizes. Do you fancy big (1 m x 2 m) sheets of paper and a physically shareable -size outcome, where participants can collect around the drawing and discuss it? If you prefer, we can connect my iPad onto the screen so that you control when you beam the drawing for the audience viewing.
Hey, it’s virtual!
Perhaps now is not the time to bring everyone together, but rather work at a distance? No problem. I can join your virtual session with iPad and you can either share the drawings online or digitally after the event. The outcome can be presented both as a still image and a time-lapse video.
Don’t quite know what it is that you want or should do?
That’s a great place to be! Give me a shout (well, e-mail and calling are more effective medias) and let’s suss out the best solution together.
“I have spoken at many conferences over the last 15 years and seen a number of graphic facilitators. I absolutely love how you captured my talk both in pictures and words; so insightful. You have a remarkable skill and the best I have ever seen.”— Roger Flynn,
Professional Speaker and Chairman
”Annika’s artistic touch is brilliance of some higher order … we have worked together for years and years, but I can’t remember one single time her drawings wouldn’t have made me re-think creatively what I had just spoken. She serves the cause of thought in motion. ”— Esa Saarinen,
Professor of applied philosophy at Aalto University and co-director of the Systems Intelligence Research Group and an amazing human being
“If you need something done fast and correct, in a creative manner to get the extra WOW! Annika is the one for you.”
— Itzik Amiel,
Global Authority on Networking &
Personal Branding, Bestselling Author;
award-winning International Speaker
Why are the examples so few, and some of them so old? 99,78% of my work is confidential. So this is all of the remaining 0,22%Examples of my graphic facilitation work
Fete of my favorite philosopher
For once, Esa Saarinen himself was not on stage, speaking, when his 60th birthday was celebrated at the Aalto University. A number of business and thought leaders shared their stories on how Esa and his thinking had inspired and influenced their thinking. My drawings were created on the spot, on large sheets of paper.
Esa Saarinen is a philosopher, author, speaker and systems thinker. He is a Professor of applied philosophy at Aalto University and co-director of the Systems Intelligence Research Group, and an amazing human being
Finnsight 2015
I was the graphic facilitator of the Finnsight 2015, an annual national foresight event.
View a video of my recap presentation at the end of the day. For the sake of a Finnish audience, the recap is in Finnish with some English sprinkled in on the parts of the session that were presented in English.
Online panel discussion on the benefits of facilitation
A 30-minute, 4-way online discussion panel on the meaning and merits of facilitation for legal professionals.
Created for Itzik Amiel and International Bar Association. See the video of how this particular piece of work came to be.
Howard Gardner and Esa Saarinen on leadership
When great minds come together, great material comes out. The father of the theory of multiple intelligencies, Howard Gardner and philosopher Esa Saarinen shed new light on leadership in a rare shared session.
Once he had received my illustrations, in his e-mail to me, Howard Gardner wrote: “… I appreciate your attention, your accuracy, and your wit-- in two media!”
Howard Gardner is a well-known developmental psychologist former Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is currently the senior director of Harvard Project Zero, and since 1995, he has been the co-director of The Good Project.