Are you struggling with a lack of professional development or problem-solving skills within your organization? Or maybe there is little to no cohesiveness and interaction among key professionals within your industry? 

If so, a community of Practice (CoP) just might be what you need to consider as an effective solution for these challenges. 

What is a Community of Practice? 

A Community of Practice is best defined as a group of people who share common interests or concerns, i.e., they take part in ongoing interactions with objectives focusing on a set of problems, a specific industry, or a discipline. 

Why create a Community of Practice?

Although CoPs were first developed to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge, they have evolved to be more than that. A CoP provides an environment where professionals can share best practices and generate new answers, theories and learning. 

CoPs are now used as an effective tool to improve clinical and public health practices. But they are not only useful in the health industry. They are also helpful in several industries, including business, child welfare, and education. 

So, what are the purposes of a Community of Practice? 

1. To promote the standardization of practices for professionals. 
2. To initiate and manage a body of knowledge for members to draw on. 
3. To innovate and create new ideas, knowledge and practices. 

The Benefits of a Community of Practice

Increased Collaboration 

A Community of Practice (CoP) connects people and creates an avenue for people to interact, pool resources, and work in partnership. By organizing collaboration, a variety of people get to work and interact with each other. Without a CoP, these relationships may not have occurred otherwise. 

Exchange of Information and Knowledge

A CoP provides the context for people to communicate, share information and knowledge. It does this by creating an avenue for people to interact and share insights and stories improving awareness and comprehension around a body of thought.

Innovate and create new ideas/knowledge 

A Community of Practice (CoP) allows people to share experiences and create new ideas/knowledge. These valuable interactions generate learning pathways and develop new concepts and innovations.

Professional Development

CoPs encourage peer learning groups, educational workshops, and learning communities which helps professional development. This also helps to increase productivity and performance. 

Rapid Problem-Solving 

Communities of Practices provide a centralized place for communication and valuable information for solving organizational problems. CoPs foster expertise and rapid problem-solving skills within people. 

Conclusion 

A Community of Practices can be an excellent strategy for building a more open organization. It is also an effective way to get advanced solutions to complex problems. 

Communities of practice foster learning by connecting people and encouraging collaboration. This, in turn, creates a platform for creative problem-solving and innovation. 

Do you need help creating and facilitating your Community of Practice? Reach out to us at See in Colors for meeting design & facilitation. 

Make your presentation stand out

Forget the days of black text on a white background. Been there, done that. Adding images into the mix allows people to engage with the material shared. Looking at a screen with just text is dull and certainly doesn’t spark creativity. 

Encourages participation

If you are creating a presentation that includes feedback and discussion, make it time well spent with visual elements to get people talking. Using visuals takes your presentation to a more relaxed and comfortable set up as well. Don’t let your material be stiff and stale. 

Focus on the important stuff

Getting a presentation together can be intimidating and overwhelming, especially if you aren’t a fan of public speaking. Use visual thinking and graphic recording elements to take some of the pressure off of composing the right words for the slides, but let the images do the talking for you. 

Let visual thinking ignite action

Visual thinking gets the gears turning for your team and leads to motivation for putting those thoughts into action. If you have a more significant project or company goal, let visual thinking get your team ready to take it on and get things done efficiently with high spirits. 

Think about it! What could visual thinking do not just for you, but also your team? While we covered these techniques for a presentation and group setting, all of these ideas could also work on an individual level. Want to learn more about visual thinking and graphic recording? Visit our website!

While your audience may be closely paying attention to you, that secondary tab opened on their web browser may say otherwise! We have tips to share to keep your learners intrigued by your information! 

1. Add sketchnotes to your presentation. As you go from slide to slide, use your sketchnotes throughout the pages to share as you go along. You can import a scan of your sketchnotes or directly upload a photo to your presentation deck. 
2. Draw some sketches ahead of time. You can draw images before you log on and start the presentation on the back of index cards. Turn your webcam on and show note cards to introduce new sections of the training. This aspect of your presentation is unexpected and will surely keep your audience hooked in, and on the lookout for the next card, you will share! 
3. Use the polling feature of your software to ask questions and get participation. Ask your members to comment in the chat or select an option on their screen. This will allow them to contribute to the material but also ensure that they are paying attention. Strategically place these types of prompts during certain parts of your presentation to keep everyone engaged. 

Try out these ideas in your next presentation! The index card idea is my personal favorite and is a simple one to utilize for sure! Use technology to your advantage to enhance your audience’s experience with your work and allow them to retain the materials easier as well! 

When planning a staff retreat for your team there are so many options to consider, but all exciting things for sure! You may want to keep things more relaxed or keep things structured – either way being strategic about your agenda is key.

Use your staff retreat as a chance to show your team how much you appreciate all of their hard work. Recognize some key players, but acknowledge the team as a whole during your time together. Present certificates, awards, or gift cards to recognize behaviors and performance. Let them know how important they are to your company’s success. They will love the gesture, and it will increase team morale as well!

Another item to add to your agenda is a period of reflection of the past year. Create a safe space for each team member to be heard and allow your group to connect at a deeper level. Give each person time to share their thoughts.

To compile the discussion together – hire a graphic recorder to visualize and capture the input, ideas, and key points. Visual summaries tell a story and bring emotion to your meeting by incorporating colorful images to the activities. One of our clients recently held a staff retreat and shared with their team, “Your ideas are important to us, we want to hear you, that’s why we hired See In Colors to draw out what’s being said.” Let your team know you want to understand their point of view and allow each opinion to be valued.

Want to add graphic recording to your staff retreat? Learn more about our services here!

ACC’s Industry Advisory Forum

In this particular example, the American College of Cardiology used our visual summaries for their Industry Advisory Forum and their magazine. From membership statistics to governance, graphic recording was used to draw out the discussion at the meeting. We love their focus on learning,education and being inclusive.

AMCP Partnership Forum

One of the powers of visual communication is the ability to re-purpose and reuse. I had the pleasure of creating a visual summary real-time during their meeting. By re-purposing the digital image in their newsletter, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy was able to share their information to a broader audience. They covered industry updates and took time to examine “ways to best utilize and integrate medical and pharmacy data to improve health outcomes and lower costs.” 

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute  

The NHLBI gathered a group of organizations, whose mission is to conquer sickle cell disease. They shared stories of their experience with the disease and came together to collaborate on a new effort called “Cure Sickle Cell Initiative”. Through our graphic recording, the group discovered their intended audiences, high priority messages and covered who to partner with to spread the word even more. They wrapped up the session sharing their emotions and optimism about the day. NHLBI then re-purposed the images in a letter from the Director posted on their website.  What a wonderful way to show the ideas and voices of the participants!

These are just a few examples of how healthcare professionals are using graphic recording. This innovative visual practice can be used in your organization. Contact us today to learn more, click here!

Creating an environment that captures the attention of your students does not have to be as complicated. Through sketchnotes, you can refresh students’ minds and captivate them again!

Here are ways that sketchnotes can inspire your students:

1. It gives them a fresh way of notetaking. – You may have students that stick behind laptop screens or have notebook pages with scribbles all over. Have them put those materials aside and provide the perfect materials to introduce sketchnotes. Use budget-friendly computer paper and bring out the markers to bring some color into your lessons. *Quick note: When first introducing sketchnotes to your students, make sure the lesson you are covering that day is on the simpler side. You want to set them up for success by providing an “easy to follow” topic to start.
2. You can help them show off their creative side. – Using this new way of note-taking, students can show off their creativity. Let them also have fun through their color choices and doodles. This process will help students see another side of their studies.
3. Visual learning can increase their retention of information. – Our brains love visuals. Studies show that 90% of the information transmitted to our minds is visual, so utilizing a platform that can help with students understanding of materials is always a plus. Learn more about why our brain loves visuals here!
4. Encourage the class to share their creations. – At the end of your lecture, ask each student to stand up and provide a short presentation of what they created. Let them walk you and their classmates through their color choices, the images or icons they drew and what they loved about the processes. It can also inspire for the next time!

Get your supplies ready and have fun with your students through sketchnotes! Need more tips? Download our FREE Visual Note-Taking Tip Sheet.

Here’s why our brain loves visuals:

• They help us store information longer. Images and visuals are an effective way for our mind to save information into our long-term memory.
• Visuals allow for information to be communicated quicker. 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual. Using visuals can provide a quick and easy way to engage and grasp the attention of your audience. The average attention span of a person lasts around 8 seconds, so the quicker you can share your information the better!
• They help with comprehension. Visual representation of information can help audiences understand content more clearly. The visual accompanied by the presenter explaining the info can increase understanding of the report.
• Visuals ease the learning process. For difficult topics, visual can help ease participants through the learning process. No need for overwhelming paragraphs of text or extensive summaries. Visuals provide a great starting place as you get deeper into the information.
• They provide fun for your audience. A major important part of the engagement process of your presentation is the element of fun. Encourage your participants to enjoy themselves with the creative and fun visuals you incorporate into your time with them.

Convinced yet? Think about presentations that you have sat through in the past. Do you remember how boredom started to set in? Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Use visuals to break the cycle of boring meetings. Need some more inspiration? Check out some of our previous work here and let us help you create some visuals for your next presentation today! You can get a free quote for our services through our website here.

Lots and lots of drawing!

Attendees took a poll on 1 word that summarizes the future. When the results came on the screen, I drew this picture for the word INNOVATIVE.

Thanks for reading!  If you find this valuable, please share this with someone you know.

Are you or maybe someone you know planning a conference?  Keep the attendees engaged, they need to SEE the big picture.  Just contact me for a free consultation.  I’m happy to help (smile).

Maybe someone mentions a topic and another person jumps in to add their thoughts.  Before you know it, the entire group is now discussing something outside the scope of your meeting.  I have seen this happen time and time again.  And so have you right?  When I am supporting a facilitator with graphic recording, I always offer to create a Parking Lot for the meeting.

The Parking Lot is a placeholder for capturing ideas that should be followed up at a later date outside of the meeting.  It keeps your meeting on course and it shows the contributor that you acknowledge their idea/concern.

Here is a quick video that explains how to use the technique.

What’s your favorite method for keeping meetings on track?  I’d love to hear it.

Facilitating a meeting involves juggling a number of moving parts. We hope this technique will help you during your next meeting or workshop. Learn how we can support you with visual notes and meeting design, click here

It’s a full house! Educations Leaders ready to engage at #SURNLC2017

BIG Board for BIG Ideas! Title done, now I’m ready for capture.

Here is the after, Visual summary for the Opening Keynote all finished. Speaker: John Almarode

Concurrent Session: Speaker, John Almarode.  Love his presentation style, very active with music and audience participation.

Mike Schmoker was so engaging with the audience. He showed an example about tying shoe laces with his own shoes. Can you find the shoes in my chart? Double click to expand.

Closing session by Steven Staples was great. He shared facts and inspiration for leaders.

I had the honor of being a presenter this year.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching this workshop.  The participants jumped right in and were so creative.  They even shared their work on social media #SURNLC2017 to inspire others!

Teaching Sketchnotes for Beginners to a full class of 30 education leaders.

My final quote to the workshop participants.

This was such a positive and action oriented conference.  I am excited to see the plans for next year!

Thanks for reading!  If you find this valuable, please share this with someone you know.

If you want to use visual images for your next project, conference, or strategy session, just contact me for ideas.  I’m happy to help (smile).