Graphic recording is a gloriously imperfect practice and art form. Yet when it’s done well, it presents itself like a Mozart symphony: perfectly composed as it hits the page, with nary a mistake in sight.
So this question invariably comes up at the end of every project I do:
Wow! How did you do all this without making a single mistake? And what do you do if you make a mistake or have to make a change to a graphic recording?
Well, there are two types of mistakes that could occur on the graphic recording page: the ones you don’t need to see…and the ones you do.
Invisible Mistakes
Do graphic recorders ever make mistakes on the page? Of COURSE we do! We’re human, after all…and our markers don’t come with spell-check.
So when we need to make a correction on the fly, I and other graphic facilitators turn to a best kept secret: white address labels. It’s our equivalent to dry white-out.
Notice a word spelled incorrectly? Draw the flag for Mexico instead of Macau? No problem! Slap a white label over the offending marker strokes and keep on going! (Hint: for covering areas with lots of marker strokes, or for coverage that won’t bleed through when you fill in with color over the original, use the labels with silver backing.)
It’s quick, it’s easy, and it covers so effectively that folks think you got it all right the very first time! ;^)
Visible Mistakes
Now, that’s not to say that we don’t make visible mistakes. There are times when the conversation’s direction or substance needs to be corrected with the group. Where the group originally wants to pursue one idea, then decides that it’s off-target and changes the idea for something else. Or someone brings up a topic and it evokes a strong reaction in some members of the group.
Those changes, in a graphic facilitator’s book, aren’t really mistakes. They’re core content to the process.
Those changes and “mistakes” we want to leave as visible to the group on the graphic recording, because they are a testimony to the work and decisions of the group. They add a level of richness and depth to the understanding of the process the group went through to reach its conclusion, and oftentimes will provide strong motivators to keep the work on track moving forward.
In other words, these “mistakes” contribute to the art of the group’s process. And those are mistakes worth keeping.
Me misspelling the word “mistake,” on the other hand, is a different story altogether! ;^)
