Over the last weekend I completed two strategic planning sessions with non-profit boards, the Family Violence Project and Intrepid Theatre. I have piles and piles of charts to put the finishing touches on, but before I do that I wanted to do some reflection on how these sessions went.

When I started out in doing this graphic facilitation, I really focused on developing my skills in drawing and visualizing things as icons, etc. Use of color and backgrounds and visual metaphors was a big thing for me. What I’ve slowly shifted towards now is realizing it’s much much more about the facilitation than about the graphics. When I’m able to enchant a group with an impromptu sketch (airplanes are one of my faves) it gives a sense of levity to the atmosphere, but what’s more important is the space and time that graphic facilitation gives to a group. That was very evident with the Family Violence Project.

This organization has pioneered peer-led therapy groups for men who use violence and abuse in their family relationships, and has made amazing contributions to Victoria’s families in their history. Faced with a loss of their funding last year and a transfer of their main programs to a partner organization, they are now needing to redefine themselves and set a new course. The graphic recording was a supporting aid but did not draw the focus from the interaction between the board members as they compared ideas and shared their interests and beliefs about the group. I felt honoured to be in the room with these people who share the common goal to transform the way men and families heal and recover from abuse.

Graphic recording also serves to keep a discussion on track, and this was evident with the Intrepid board. This was a larger group of people who hadn’t been working together for very long, and many of them were fresh to the board so they didn’t have an insider’s knowledge. The Skills Inventory was a major eye-opener, as the group saw all that they as a board had to offer the organization, and also compared it to the “Skills We Need” segment of the Skills Inventory done by the previous board. The discussion of Scope, Scale, Reach and Structure (a framework pioneered by Mitchell Temkin of Associatus Consulting) nearly went off the rails, as there seemed to be a certain gravity towards discussing detailed tactics at great length, at the expense of taking a big-picture view. I had to crack the whip a few times to bring the group back to the focus, and as it worked out we barely had time to put together a very rudimentary action plan at the end.

The GM for Intrepid Theatre suggested to me that I devise a way to “prime” the group for making an action plan, perhaps by doing an up-front action preview at the start and not leaving action planning until the end. Reflecting on this I think that if there is going to be an “action planning” segment at the end of a day (which maybe there doesn’t need to be) then instead of having to brainstorm actions, I should collect them up by putting star post-its on any “action-like” ideas that show up on other charts. This can be done throughout the day so when it comes time to do action planning, all the group has to do is look at the stars and flesh out the details of who, what, when, where, why and how.

Reflecting on my own development as a facilitator (please excuse the navel-gazing) I think I am learning to step back out of the group and be a fly on the wall during the productive parts of conversation. This is always tempered with the instinct and timing to step in and keep a discussion going when it’s stalled. I tend to be a little hesitant to interrupt people who are passionately debating something, even if they’re off track and we’re blowing the agenda. That’s where I may need to work with group sponsors more effectively and ask ahead of time, “how will I know if you want me to intervene or let this trail lead to a natural end?”

All right all right. I’ll step away from the keyboard now and start working on these charts so I have them finished by tomorrow afternoon. I’m going on a four-day road trip to a regatta in Portland (for those who don’t know, I’m a competitive rower).