The other day I was catching up with a graphic facilitation client (I had facilitated their distributed team through the use of custom visual templates and exercises to help them “get on the same page” at the start of a critical project.) At first he talked about how powerful and effective the process was for our last project together.
“We Can Do This Ourselves!”
And then he shared this story… which he said was okay to share with you (names removed to protect the innocent):
We had another project starting at the same time as the one you helped us with, and we tried to bring you in for that project as well. We told the project director about how well the process worked, and showed him the results, but he didn’t want to spend the money so someone said , “Hey, we have the templates she used, we can do this ourselves!” So they tried it with their other project and it was an epic fail.
(Actually, the word he used was “clusterf#$k.”)
What Went Wrong
Interestingly enough, the problem wasn’t because of the level of customization in the graphic templates. According to this client,
I actually think the templates would have worked well for the other proposal. The issue in this case was the way it was facilitated.
The person leading the process had a specific and personal outcome he was driving the group toward… so instead of performing as a neutral and open facilitator he was trying to strong-arm a specific, pre-known decision from the group. And if you’re driving a meeting with your specific outcome in mind, then you’re not facilitating a meeting… you’re delivering a speech.
The templates provide structure, but you need to be able to openly facilitate the process. And the power is in the facilitation process.
Lesson Learned
Again, in the client’s words:
Powerful personalities may be essential to generate innovation, but those same powerful personalities–when armed with a stake in the outcome–can disrupt collaboration, and often require an impartial third party to facilitate the ideas so that the group can see the innovations and identify their roles in realizing the innovations.
So while the graphic templates and visual processes used in our project worked well, this director failed to realize that it was only part of the equation.
At the end of the day, graphic facilitation is more than a “pretty picture.” It’s skillful facilitation of visual processes designed for – and in service to – the group.
What are some of the ways that you see “skillful facilitation” showing up in graphic facilitation? Share your comments below.
And as always…I cannot wait to see what you draw forth!
