🍫The Quest #11:Good news about doodling, the art of visual facilitation, and show to tell

Hello Friends!

Greetings from Barcelona☀️. Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition. See the new special shout out section below 🙌. If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. You can catch up on past editions here.

In this edition: Good news about doodling, learning the art of visual facilitation, and showing while (or instead of) telling. That’s our Quest this week. Here we go!

🍫Doodling is Like Eating Chocolate

I scribble one kind of daisy when I am thinking about something. I guess that makes me a doodler. So I was pretty excited to read this Fast Company article on the benefits of doodling from Drexel University. Here are 2 really good reasons to doodle:

• Doodling (and art-making) stimulates the area of the brain that’s related to rewards. It’s the same area that is activated with dancing, laughing, and eating chocolate.

• Participants of the study felt more creative afterward. They believed they had more good ideas and could solve problems more easily.

Study author Girija Kaimal concludes, “Doodling is something we all have experience with and might reimagine as a democratizing, skill independent, judgment-free pleasurable activity.” In other words, perfect for facilitation and group work.

Source: Equal Parts Studio @equalpartstudio

🖊️From Doodling to Visual Facilitation

I dream of being able to draw stunning visual notes while facilitating. All kinds of studies show that we process visual information way more efficiently than anything written or spoken. My friend and Brussels-based visual facilitator Chris Malapitan introduced me to the world of graphic facilitation many years ago. He is one of the best visual facilitators I know. Check out this beautiful hand-drawn 1 minute explainer video that he created. If you want to brush up your visual facilitation skills, grab a piece of paper and a marker, and watch Chris’ free “how-to” video on Basic Visual Elements. This video gives me hope that one day my dream may come true. Here’s the kind of cool stuff you will learn to draw in under 30 minutes:

Source: Chris Malapitan YouTube: Basic Visual Elements

If you want to take an even deeper dive into graphic facilitation, Chris recommends “The Graphic Facilitator’s Guide” by Brandy Agerbeck. I also loved her video What is Visual Thinking that “helps you reclaim drawing as your best thinking tool.” Yes please!

📕Show and Tell

Another book that Chris recommended to me (thanks Chris!). Show and Tell by Dan Roam teaches you how to use visual thinking to make extraordinary presentations. Roam shows us the 3 simple rules of Show and Tell including “tell the story with pictures.” Yet another good reason to brush up on our visual thinking skills.

Blind Portraits

So here’s a doodling facilitation classic that I was reminded of recently in the Scaling Intimacy workshop. It’s called Blind Portraits. It is done in pairs. It can be done online or in person. It helps to boost observation, sharpen your perception skills, and build connection.

• Each partner has a paper and pen and sits facing each other.

• Each partner has 3 minutes to draw the other person’s portrait.

• You cannot lift your pen from the paper, and you cannot look at your paper while drawing. You look at your partner for the entire 3 minutes while drawing.

• After the 3 minutes is up you put your partner’s name at the top and sign the bottom. You and your partner share your drawings, along with your reflections.

• Here’s the portrait I made of my partner (OK I may have lifted my pen. A couple of times.)

• 

🤜🤛Resources Recommended by You

Big thanks to the following Questers for sending resources to share:

• Wendy Ng in Singapore for more insights on Ikigai + Ikigai Tribe Podcast

• Allegra Calder in Seattle for a Paul Graham article on how to Think for Yourself

• Djanira Cortesao in Barcelona for Brene Brown’s latest podcast with Priya Parker

Have you come across any rources that you are excited about? Please send them and I’ll share them.

💡Quote of the week

Thanks for reading. I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to email me at gwyn@gwynwansbrough.com. Visit my website for ways we can work together here.

If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it. 

Until next week!

Gwyn

P.S. I’d like to give a special shout out to Connie from Toronto, Nadia from Montreal, Wendy from Toronto, Barry (aka Dad) from Bracebridge, Andrew B. from NYC, Themis from Athens and Sezin from Turkey. Thanks for your feedback 🙌

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