Put your meetings on the fast track
Have you ever found yourself in a meeting staring at the clock or wondering what its purpose is? At ImageThink, we understand why so many people loathe meetings – they are time consuming, costly, and nonetheless inefficient. Research from Forbes, Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal indicates that we are spending more time in poorly organized meetings, which not only wastes time, but also drains a staggering amount of money and resources ($541 billion dollars’ worth, to be exact).
Ultimately, time is money – and when your meetings lack structure and clear objectives it’ll cost you both.
For many, the solution to these issues is facilitation. You might know the benefits of having a facilitator conduct your meetings include clearer goals, a more suitable environment for increased engagement and participation, and provided documentation and follow-through. But did you know having an expert in graphic facilitation augments and amplifies each of these benefits?
A north star motivates, excites, and ignites
Undoubtedly, one of the most transformative benefits of working with a facilitator is team alignment. Part of our graphic facilitation process at ImageThink involves working with you and your team to uncover a shared goal and course of action to achieve it. Clear goals help your team align and meet expectations.
Think of the meeting, and everyone who is involved, like a train station: the train is the meeting, the passengers are the participants, and the conductor is the facilitator. Everyone shares the same destination, or meeting goal.
Any facilitator will guide you there, but a graphic facilitator will transform your experience, transfiguring your regular old Amtrak into The Hogwarts Express. With ImageThink as your visual guide, your north star becomes as vivid and exciting as a magical mountaintop castle, and your team becomes literal (or at least figurative) wizards, manifesting their ideas into reality. Energizing north stars and set expectations for the group motivate those involved to come together to achieve their goals.
Honestly, all that’s missing is the chocolate frogs.
Pictures speak louder, and faster than words
It’s true – pictures hold the power. Visuals are absorbed into memory 60,000 times faster than text alone. When insights from meeting attendees are captured through visuals, it taps into a different area of the brain, providing the audience with a new, more efficient way to process the meeting’s particulars.
Because of this, visuals help to enhance and accelerate collaboration and ideation. ImageThink uses visual strategy to both structure and lead the conversation, and when our exercises built to channel creative thinking and problem solving are deployed, you’ll find everyone is fueled with new perspectives and exciting project avenues. Visuals act like connection stimulants – making it easier for participants to discover and form linkages between ideas. Think of it as interdepartmental synergy for the lobes of your brain!
Visual documentation can help equalize and elevate all voices in the room, and while it may be overlooked, it’s not unfelt. Images can balance ideas both small and large, scaling all insights to have equal impact. Once an idea is on the board, it’s counted, no matter how many times, or how loudly, Ron keeps restating it.
Seeing is believing: Graphic facilitation creates action
When the entirety of your meeting is summarized into one striking visual, not only does it captivate all of the meeting’s attendees – it also signifies to participants that each individual involved is fully heard and understood and that no ideas were lost in transit.
The full visual can act as a literal roadmap, highlighting a clear path to your destination. By visualizing the desired outcome, and actionable steps to get there, you and your team are left with clarity on what to do next. In addition, the visual leaves little room for misinterpretation, or failure to understand the end goal. It provides direction and showcases the final, bigger picture.
Are you ready to climb aboard and see the benefits of ImageThink’s graphic facilitation services in action? Call us or send us a message to learn more about how ImageThink can help revolutionize your in-person, virtual, or hybrid meetings.
Experience the value of graphic facilitation services for yourself!
