Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity

Just as social networking has reclaimed the Internet for human interactivity and co-creation, the visual meetings movement is reclaiming creativity, productivity, and playful exchange for serious work in groups.

Visual Meetings explains how anyone can implement powerful visual tools, and how these tools are being used in Silicon Valley and elsewhere to facilitate both face-to-face and virtual group work. This dynamic and richly illustrated resource gives meeting leaders, presenters, and consultants a slew of exciting tricks and tools, including

• Graphic recording, visual planning, story boarding, graphic templates, idea mapping, etc.
• Creative ways to energize team building, sales presentations, staff meetings, strategy sessions, brainstorming, and more
• Getting beyond paper and whiteboards to engage new media platforms
• Understanding emerging visual language for leading groups

Unlocking formerly untapped creative resources for business success, Visual Meetings will help you and your team communicate ideas more effectively and engagingly.

When people work visually they have better ideas, make better decisions, and are more committed to producing results. A twenty-first century guide to using the latest visual thinking techniques with your groups and teams, Visual Meetings give you a bounty of tools and tricks to unlock creativity, collaboration, and breakthrough thinking.

• Use graphic recording, visual planning, storyboarding, idea mapping, and similar techniques
• Give better presentations without resorting to PowerPoint
• Consult and sell with graphics and visualization tools
• Get beyond paper and whiteboards to tablets, iPads, and other new media platforms
• Make all meetings more interesting and productive
• Improve both face-to-face and virtual group work
• And much more… 

The Power of Visual Meetings.

I: Just Imagine.

What if Meetings Were Really Fun AND Productive?

1. Visualization Is Worth 80 IQ Points / Tapping Energy, Intelligence, & Creativity.

2. Everybody Knows Graphic Language / It’s Gesture with a Pen.

3. Four Easy Ways to Get Started / Personal Visualization, Napkins & Flipcharts, Graphic Templates, & Getting Others to Draw.

II: Engaging Groups & Building Rapport.

Why Visual Listening Is So Compelling (and Easy!).

4. Getting People Involved / Using Pictures to Interact.

5. Presentation without PowerPoint / Simple Drawings & Graphic Templates.

6. Consulting & Selling with Graphics / Drawing Out Customer Interests.

7. Hands-On Information / Sticky Notes & Dot Voting.

8. Using Images & Interaction / Collage & Picture Cards.

III: Graphics for Visual Thinking.

Mapping Ideas & Finding Key Patterns.

9. Group Graphics / Seven Ways to Write on the Wall.

10. Problem Solving / Getting Unstuck & Thinking around Corners.

11. Storyboarding & Idea Mapping / How Innovators & Designers Work.

12. Visual Planning / Using Graphic Templates to See the Big Picture.

13. Multiple Meetings & Gallery Walks / Making Sense of Things over Space & Time.

14. Digital Capture / Extending Your Meeting with Visual Documentation.

15. Visualizing at a Distance / Using Tablets in Web Meetings.

IV: Graphics for Enacting Plans.

Visuals for Teams, Projects, & Getting Results.

16. Supporting Team Performance / Visualizing Goals, Roles, & Action Plans.

17. Decision-Making Meetings / Aligning on Agreements & Getting Commitments.

18. Project Management Meetings / Mapping Progress with Pictures.

19. Facilitating Innovation & Change / Playing with Prototypes.

20. Training & Workshops / Leveraging Action Learning.

V: Seeing It All Come Together.

Tools for the Seriously Hooked.

21. The Path to Visual Competency / Learning from the Groups You Lead.

22. The Future Is Visible Now! / Seeds of a Real Revolution in Meetings.

23. Resources & Networks / Grove Tools, Web Resources, Bibliography.

Index.