Pioneers of Public Health Solutions
The NYU School of Global Public Health (NYU GPH) is fueled by a bold vision – to significantly improve the health and populations by pioneering solutions that advance health equity around the world. Standing at the forefront of research and innovative public health initiative, NYU GPH works tirelessly to advance and promote equitable health on a global scale. NYU GPH guides its students to lead the charge in addressing complex global health challenges.
Yet, tackling these world-pressing health challenges is not possible without a strategic plan. With the need to address funding, the integration of junior team members, and create goals that would align departmental efforts, NYU GPH’s strategic plan had much to achieve. NYU GPH reached out to ImageThink in hopes that the power of visuals could spark creativity and collaboration, and ultimately shed light on these gray areas.
Uncovering cross collaborations
After a brief overview of the day’s goals and activities, ImageThink’s Founder, CEO, and graphic facilitator Nora Herting kicked off NYU GPH’s session with a visual activity. In an effort to stimulate creative thinking through use of visual modalities, attendees participated in the creation of their own visual bio. In this activity, attendees visualized their role, and defined what they’d like to know about other team members. Since a large part of this session involved introducing junior team members and identifying new ways of working with one another, this icebreaker set the tone for collaborative and strategic thinking.
Following this visual kickoff, NYU GPH reviewed their mission and strategic vision. This review primed the next segment of this session: exploring collaborative partnerships between departments, and setting strategic goals for the center. To set goals for the center, Nora had the NYU GPH team break off into rotating groups with flip charts. During this segment, attendees set roles and teams, examined their current state, and envisioned the center’s future state (including the opportunities and challenges that laid on the horizon). With junior team members working alongside more senior members, the larger team tackled matters of funding, where priorities overlapped, and how they each would contribute to the collective. While members of NYU GPH ideated and explored these critical topics, an ImageThink visual strategist visualized key points from their discussions in real-time, revealing a synthesized board of the center’s aligned upon goals.
After looking closely at previous successful collaborations, Nora guided the NYU GPH team to envision the group’s collective future state for collaborations. In groups, attendees worked together with visual flipcharts to identify potential cross-collaborations, barriers, and resources. Visual capture of the center’s goals helped ensure that NYU GPH’s collaborative efforts mapped back to their bigger picture.
Getting buy-in and nailing the execution
At the conclusion of our session, NYU GPH attendees were united and energized by shared goals, and a renewed strategic plan for their center. Several boards captured NYU GPH’s goals for the center, future collaborative endeavors, and a determined, new way of working with one another. With visuals to roadmap their path ahead and to clarify their strategic plan, NYU GPH was able to garner research faculty buy-in and move forward successfully.
Our partnership went so well that NYU GPH returned to ImageThink for graphic facilitation 6 months afterwards. They needed help realigning their efforts after they consolidated a number of centers into one. Following another successful graphic facilitation session, NYU GPH continues to leverage their visuals to guide their efforts concerning world-wide, equitable health.
