Slideshow of bikablo® visual facilitation training

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Slideshow of bikablo® visual facilitation training

Last year we ran a 2-day class in the bikablo® visual facilitation training in Melbourne. While I created the photo documentation for participants, I thought why not exporting a slideshow for everyone to share.

To give a bit of context: On the first day of the training you reactivate your drawing skills and on the second day we put the learnings into practice with group facilitation exercises, visual storytelling and graphic recording.

The original slideshow export was much too long so I cut out the Graphic Recording exercise from the second day. I think you get an idea about the training. Enjoy the 60 seconds footage!

Younito is thinking

Get an idea about the training

If you haven’t been in our bikablo® visual facilitation training. Please check out our training schedule.
Marcel van Hove

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.

Why start drawing today and become a visual facilitator tomorrow?

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

Trainer and Agile Coach

In everyday life, our brain processes picture all the time, for example when we see a car on the street. The brain will immediately connect it to all the information about how fast it is, which direction it is going and if it will be a threat or not. This is happening in pictures, not words and our brain processes visual information very effectively.

Why drawing for yourself?

Drawing for yourself is a great way to create ideas and improve your memory. Most of us learn quicker if we visualise the content to be learnt. When recalling the information a picture comes up in your memory more easily than words.

Drawing also helps us to be creative. As my daughter said when asked why she would draw: “My brain creates new ideas”. That is absolutely right, drawing helps us to focus our mind and create new ideas. Or why do you doodle on the phone?

Why drawing with others?

Drawing for your team is the next step. Brain science shows that about 25% of humans work mainly verbally. Another 30% work mainly visually and about 45% work best with both, words and pictures. So if you are addressing an audience you will only be able to reach 100% with a combination of words and pictures.

You don't need to be an artist

It is not about impressing the team with artistic masterpieces. Everyone can learn to communicate by drawing, there is no artistic talent required. It is about simple drawings that you use to explain what you mean.

Having to solve a problem? Drawing in meetings will start a conversation quicker. In the same way, as if you draw for yourself, you will create new ideas easily and you will identify more and more solutions. Having conflicts in a group? Draw the attention to the whiteboard and away from each other.

Become a visual leader

You become a leader of the conversation with a whiteboard marker. It brings a lot of focus and clarity into the discussion and helps to understand different points of view. The number of Aha! moments rises, people are much more engaged and it makes meetings much shorter and more effective.

If you have a complex problem to solve, I say you can probably save half of your meeting time just by drawing together. Take a photo of the whiteboard and every participant will be able to recall the meeting at one glance afterwards.

In summary

  • You remember more and create new ideas easily
  • You reach your audience better
  • You solve conflicts by speaking towards the whiteboard
  • You create clarity and focus in your next meeting
  • You become a visual leader
  • Meetings are shorter, effective and fun again

Think you can’t draw or a meeting on a whiteboard yet?  We would like to invite you to come to our next bikablo® visual facilitation training and learn the simple drawing technique that so far more than 1000 people worldwide have learnt.

Marcel van Hove

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.

The visual facilitation fishbowl

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

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

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 technique

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.

The visual facilitation fishbowl

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:

  1. The u-shape circle:
    Instead of two closed circles, you turn the inner and outer circle of the fishbowl to an open circle (u-shape circle) and place a pinboard at the opening of the circles.
  2. The outer circle:
    The outer-circle is not in the passive listener role – in the outer circle, you turn into a doodler or scribbler. You write down and draw insights you have while you are listening carefully. As soon as you have a visual note on A4 paper finished you bring it to the front wall so that everyone can see and read it. These sheets of paper provide a flow of insights for everyone. The inner-circle can relate to them which helps to lead the conversation. If you have an insight on paper you would like to explain, stand up with your drawing, join the inner-circle.
    (The picture is taken during an in-house visual facilitation training where we practised graphic recording in a visual facilitation fishbowl setting.)

Become a visual thinker

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 van Hove

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.

A great visual facilitation training day in 77 seconds

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.

Younito is thinking

The training in 77 seconds

Symbolic drawing is natural

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.

Watch the 77 second video

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 van Hove

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.

Reactivate your drawing skills with bikablo® visual facilitation

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.

Younito Man

Maybe you aren’t an artist but you can draw

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:

  • Explain the idea!
    The child uses words and symbols to explain their idea. If they draw a big circle with a tiny circle on top and put the word “Daddy” next to it – the idea is in your head! There is a big round shaped man on the paper!
  • Engage with others!
    If you are that big round shaped “Daddy” you might feel something? Maybe you think about your next diet? You instantly engage with the idea your kid just told you.
  • Show yourself!
    The child also shows itself because it presents how it sees the world. You might also be impressed by the skill your youngster has and by the love it shows when presenting the masterpiece to you!

A hand full of key symbols

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.

Do the bikablo training with us

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 van Hove

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.

Frontline explains their business model in an 80 second video

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

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.

Have a look at frontline

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.

Younito has an idea

Here is what and how we did it

1. Kickoff:

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!

2. Frontline drew!

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.

3. Marcel drew!

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.

4. Recoding day!

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…

5. Receptionist became rockstar!

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!

Finally​

Here is what Digital Division Manager, Fleur Vickers says about the work we did:

tick“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 van Hove

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 of Agile Australia

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 van Hove

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 facilitation on A4 paper – The golden middle way

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

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.

Notes taking activity

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.

Support the meeting with graphic facilitation

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!

The golden middle way

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 van Hove

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.

Visual Summary of the LAST Conference Melbourne

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

Co-Founder Visual Friends & Agile Coach

I was looking forward to the LAST conference for quite a while. Last week the LAST conference took finally place at the Swimburn university in Melbourne.

After I gave my talk about visual thinking (PDF), I invested the rest of the day drawing one visual summary of the LAST conference. I would like to thank all conference visitors for their help and their visual notes without that big sheet of paper would be still white and boring!

Furthermore, I would like to thank Ed Wong and Craig Brown for their great organization of the LAST conference.

Younito has an idea

Progress at lunch time

I started early setting up my easel and getting paper and markers ready. I pencilled a layout in that I had in my mind and got started on the headline (in the middle).  
Younito is thinking

Progress at lunch time

In the afternoon I drew in all the insides that I got on post-its and brought them onto paper. 

The final work around 4pm

 

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.

The ScrumMaster – How to develop a team

Younito Man
Marcel van Hove

Marcel van Hove

Agile Coach & Visual Facilitator

This video describes the role of a Scrum Master and the journey an agile team and the Scrum Master is on. It uses a 2D chart to describe the correlation between the team maturity and the level of self-management.

If you like the video, please share it with your friends! 

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.