Now we’re talking. Themes are great for unifying an event and getting people off the sidelines and into the action. Develop a comprehensive theme that lends itself well to teams, events, activities, and competitions. A retro theme offers opportunities for costumes, old-school music, and nostalgic TV quizzes. A sports theme brings out people’s natural competitiveness, and can be plenty of fun if you opt for less conventional sports. A theme is great for setting the intention of your time together, while also encouraging participation and good-natured competition. Choose one that’s inclusive and that will resonate with your team. 

Too often in day-to-day life, we fail to celebrate the wins – big and small. A virtual staff retreat is the ideal time to cheer on team members who have made a difference, met milestones, or who have done great things within (or outside of) the company. Schedule an award ceremony (formal attire recommended) to cap off your event, as well as daily “awards” to help start each day off on the right note. These can be serious or silly, or a mix of both. By the way – just because the event is virtual doesn’t mean the awards have to be. Arrange to have a small gift or novelty trophy sent to each team member’s address with details of their award.

Sure, staff retreats are a place to come together and do business, but you can’t be all business, all the time! Book entertainers from all walks of life to entertain your team, keep them engaged, or help them tap into their creativity and communication skills. Turns out fun and professional growth go hand in hand! At See in Colors we’ve seen  great results including magicians, improv coaches, mindfulness instructors, wellness coaches, and even book authors. These all offer a refreshing perspective that can help your team feel re-energized and excited about how they approach their work.

Meetings are complex and organic, with many moving parts. A great meeting facilitator has proven processes and procedures in place to meet identified outcomes, keep the meeting focused, and adhere to the schedule. Working these things out on the fly is never recommended – a good facilitator will know when and how to step in to maximize productivity, communication, and impact.

Meetings are like symphonies: they ebb and flow in terms of speed, energy, and presentation techniques. An experienced meeting facilitator will be able to match the energy of the presentation and dial things up or down in order to keep the meeting moving along comfortably and naturally. They won’t force a pace or a tone – their goal is to work from the sidelines to guide things along and ensure smooth transitions.

It’s all too common for one or two voices to dominate the floor in a meeting. A good facilitator will be mindful of giving everyone equal opportunity to participate, and will create space for people to do so (especially if the boss is in the room.) They might invite questions, lead a discussion, or monitor the group chat for key talking points. Their presence also provides more opportunity for managers to chime in: having a facilitator overseeing the meeting takes that task off the plate of your senior staff.  

A facilitator is a guide, not a keynote speaker. They don’t take center stage, but rather lead from the back of the room. An experienced facilitator will lead with a light touch, giving presenters and participants the spotlight. At See in Colors part of the meeting facilitation our clients often leverage is our graphic recording services. This type of visual meeting notes and minutes allow us to capture questions, action items and aha! moments throughout the event. It’s active listening made visual and holds the attention of the room long term. 

Meeting facilitators are a neutral party there to help a meeting succeed – not to put their own stamp on it. Their job is to build trust, create a communal space, and make sure the meeting addresses the points and goals outlined in its schedule. They might diffuse a situation or help a meeting move past a roadblock, but they’re an impartial spectator, not someone there to push an agenda.

Sending out an agenda before your meeting improves attendance and also helps you manage expectations. You don’t want to start a session and have the first question be “so why are we here?” Try to give attendees at least 48 hours notice so that they can plan around their schedules and prepare any materials or questions. Your agenda should cover the goals, topics, and discussion points you plan to address in your meeting. It can be formal or informal, depending on your meeting, and can be as in-depth or high level as you need. Allow time for other speakers or key participants to add their own thoughts or feedback before sharing the agenda.

The only thing more awkward than a Zoom meeting sign-off is a Zoom meeting start. People are arriving at different times, fumbling with their technology, and trying to figure out whether the event is already in full swing. Have a simple icebreaker ready to go in your chat sidebar to engage people and keep them focused on the meeting instead of on the other attendees fiddling with their cameras or microphones. Icebreakers might include sharing their city or location, naming the song they last played, a “this or that” vote, or a show and tell with pets or their office view. Tailor the icebreaker to your company culture and the type of meeting that’s in progress – not all icebreakers are ideal for all situations. 

One of the worst things a meeting facilitator can do is fail to track time or hold speakers to a schedule. Honoring and respecting your attendees’ time is vital to a good meeting outcome. Arrive early so that you can let people join the waiting room or participate in the icebreaker you’ve prepared. By showing up early you can actually begin at the scheduled time, not five or ten minutes after. Track time throughout, keep people on point, and help transition from speaker to speaker or topic to topic. Update speakers with the event progress, and for virtual meetings monitor the chat for questions and comments that can be answered offline or in the chat rather than on-screen by the speakers. Try your best to make your scheduled finish time a “hard stop,” and start wrapping up a few minutes before so that you can end when promised.  If it looks like you are going to end early, then give back the gift of time by saying “We’re ending early, so I’m giving everyone 5 minutes back”.

Setting expectations is key to a positive meeting outcome. Build a few minutes into your meeting schedule to let people know who’s who, whether microphones will be on or off, what will be covered, when and how questions will be taken, whether you’re recording the session, and when the recording or supporting documentation will be available. This helps eliminate any chaos and confusion, and lets people know what to expect regarding their participation and feedback. You can share your housekeeping information verbally, or using pre-prepared slides that walk people through basic functions.

Animated video is ideal for communicating ideas, stories, and information in a visually compelling way. See In Colors can help you develop an on-brand, high-impact video that clearly and granularly communicates how you’re using grant money achieving your deliverables. For example, we created this video with the University of Michigan as part of the Adaptive Sports & Inclusive Recreation Initiative. Although one piece of a larger initiative, this video is a great example of how a team can show progress in a tangible way, while also being powerfully intentional about your message and image.

Graphic recording creates a large-scale, real-time visual record of what’s being verbally presented. It allows you to highlight and connect key concepts and ideas so that your audience doesn’t miss critical points during your presentation. Take this photo from the Education Development Center as an example. 

The large document in the background was the result of a graphic recording session run as part of a kick-off meeting for a multi-stakeholder initiative built around a framework called “collective impact.” The session brought people together around a physical artifact that succinctly and powerfully highlighted the shared vision and messaging being discussed and developed. Graphic recording is a simple, concrete way to anchor relationships, with people leaving the meeting thinking: “we made this.”

Virtual graphic recording happens on screen in a virtual environment such as Zoom. It’s a powerful way to visually show the funding source in real-time what you’re working on, while also capturing genuine reactions from participants, something that can be vital for fostering communication and relationship building. An example is this virtual graphic recording session we put together for the University of North Carolina, who used grant funding to host a two-day maternal health equity symposium. This session helped funders, stakeholders and other organizations see first-hand how that funding was being used. 

A storyboard is a visual outline of your script. It outlines your proposed video scene by scene, or in this case, drawing-by-drawing, including notes such as visual elements, special effects, transitions, voiceover and music additions. A storyboard helps you explain your idea to your stakeholders or production team so that others can understand your goals, vision, and intended narrative flow before beginning production.

A storyboard might look rough, but that’s on purpose. It’s not meant to be a polished final draft: it’s there to help you visualize and validate your idea, confirm whether your script works, and to see if there are any gaps, inconsistencies or tangents. It’s also an opportunity for your team to identify a production direction and flag any elements that might result in longer timelines or greater expenses. 

Once your storyboard has been approved, your animation artists and production team can refer to it often – ensuring that your final product is aligned with your vision.

A storyboard is a linear, visual interpretation of your animation video script that breaks down your story into bite-sized chunks. A good storyboard is one that tells a good story – but also tells it in a way that gets across the information or emotion that’s at the heart of your idea in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

Remember, your animation video is probably about 90 seconds long, so every drawing, line, and transition matters. Storyboarding helps you zoom out from your script and see it from a fresh perspective without distractions, while also giving you opportunities to ensure that you’re leveraging the visual format to the max. Because storyboards use a thumbnail-style visual approach, you can easily add, remove or move panels around to try out different ways of communicating your story. Unlike video editing, drafting, and redrafting a storyboard is simple – so keep working until you have the perfect basis for your animated video. That’s where we come in. Our specialty is helping you organize the storyboard and align the visual elements with the message you’re trying to share effectively. We serve as experts who specialize in seeing the big picture and making it happen. We did that within a few of our recent projects like the one below.

We understand the instinct to send your script straight to production, bypassing the storyboarding step. Your script is clear, and you’ve communicated your ideas to your production team, right? But adapting a text-based script into a video animation is an act of translation, and things do get lost in translation. A storyboard is a failsafe that not only ensures that you’re telling your story in the best possible way, but that your production company knows exactly what’s expected of them. It takes the guesswork out of the creative process. 

Sure, creating a storyboard might take a little extra time upfront, but it’s time well spent. Without this critical visual roadmap, it’s easy for everyone to get lost in the weeds – and getting back on track can be time-consuming and costly. If your creative or production team wants to move ahead without a storyboard, be sure to hit the brakes, and introduce them to this concept first! It will save you a ton of time, headaches, and resources. 

At See in Colors, we consult with clients throughout the animation video process including  the storyboarding stage. We’ll make sure that you’re getting the most of your visual medium, while also effectively communicating your story and message. 

Temporary remote working has given way to long-term hybrid working arrangements. Building an inclusive culture that gives the same consideration and weight to off-site workers as to in-office ones is vital. To retain a robust culture of engagement, focus on keeping communication channels open and remote workers actively involved.   

The past two years have carried a huge emotional weight for staff at all levels, and team members have expectations around an organization’s responsibilities regarding their wellbeing. Investing in organizational wellness through increased benefits, flexibility around leave and work hours, and health-forward programs will improve organizational outcomes – and reduce burnout and attrition.  

Increases in automation and career precarity have created fear around the future of work. Allay team members’ concerns by investing in development initiatives including upskilling, job rotations, expanded responsibilities, coaching, and mentoring. These will not only increase organizational capacity, but will foster team buy-in and engagement. 

Actionable, outcome-based Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are critical in today’s workplace. Work to ensure that responsibilities are equally shared, that growth is present, and that traditionally underrepresented groups are given opportunities to speak up and take the floor – and are supported at all levels of their career. 

Burnout is one of the biggest challenges currently facing organizations. The erosion of work-life boundaries in a remote or hybrid environment coupled with staffing changes and the demands of caregiving have placed extra demands on team members. Embracing flexible work hours and working arrangements, including fully remote or hybrid options, will help reduce burnout and foster an improved working environment.

The ability to acknowledge and adjust to change is more vital than ever. Leaders will need to quickly react to market shifts, rapidly synthesize data and course correct accordingly. This requires keeping communication channels open and soliciting input and feedback from a variety of sources – as well as being bold when it comes to decision-making.

While having an agile mindset is vital for navigating the inevitable changes the coming year will bring, so too is being able to maintain organizational consistency. Too much change can create friction and instability, so finding ways to sit tight and keep moving forward will be critical in 2022.