Visual Collaboration: A Powerful Toolkit for Improving Meetings, Projects, and Processes

by Ole Qvist-Sorensen, Ole Qvist-Sorensen

Drawing and sketching ideas in groups is a smarter way of thinking, communicating, and working. The core method of the book, FIVE DESIGNLOOPS, gives leaders simple drawing tools, techniques and examples of visual collaboration, that can be implemented, in any context, including meetings, strategy sessions, project planning, innovating, business plans, etc. For example, draw your strategy and hang it in the lunch room or next to the coffee machine. A good drawing is a catalyst for good dialog. It can drive engagement and ownership.

Visual Collaboration offers business leaders, entrepreneurs, facilitators, designers and change agents a method and tools

- develop visual languages for any context

visualize any process and project

- formulate engaging questions

- develop templates for any situation, presentation or important conversation

- mapping skills and setting improvement targets

Since many people haven't done any drawing since they were children, the authors have developed a simple and practical method by which ANYONE will be able to draw almost anything.

We need to be agile, robust, and sustainable- but what exactly does it look like when we are? Can you draw it? Drawing forces us to be specific. When we draw together, we learn together, and with a world in constant change, our ability to learn together is an absolute necessity for success.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design, Collections, Management

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2019

Reviews

[Anne Skare · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important skills of the future will be 'synthesis': Being able to create an overview, see how things fit together, find meaning in complexity, and convey it - and what better way than drawing it. Those who can feel the new connections in the world, and get others to "see" are the heroes of the future. Any idiot can point out a problem. We must learn to think in - and visualize - hundreds of possible solutions that can be put together in a million ways. This book shows the way. It's fun, it's hands-on, it's the perfect gift for yourself, for your boss, co-workers, or kids. It would make my life and work as a futurist so much easier if more people mastered the art of visualization. And the world will be better for it.

[Anne-Mathilde Bilodeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book convinced me that being able to communicate visually was a valuable set of skills to have, both personally and professionally, and that developing a visual language was not as difficult as than I thought. Drawing a project or a process made my mind work in a different way somehow, and brought out new perspectives, new insights that were easy to share with others. I liked the straight-forward step by step method, and the working templates you can use for meetings, roadmaps, planning, innovating, etc. You’ll be missing out if you don’t read this book.

[Jacek Czarnecki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical - more about facilitation, less about drawing. Perfect for visual practicioners. Full of complicated sentences, hard to read for me as non English native.

[Wilhelm van der Merwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas for collaboration, however not for everyone.

I enjoyed the book and I tried hard to practice a few visualisations. That part just didn't work for me. However, I kept reading and picked up some really valuable collaboration and facilitation pointers.

I used Kindle on a tablet to read this book, and found it a little difficult to keep coherence because of the layout of the pages as they didn't appear to fold nicely over the page. A lot of headings were cut from the following text, and when reading a more technical piece, that makes things a little difficult.

That said, I would recommend this as a read for anybody working with groups of people and facilitation exercises.

[Puty · Rating 4 out of 5]

As mentioned, this book is a toolkit. It explains how drawings can come handy to communicate and collaborate with the team. In a way, as illustrator, I agree and I like this book. It tells from the basic of drawing simple pictures for icons, how to create template, how to ask the 'right' questions, creating playbook to the technical stuff like what kind of markers do you need if you want to 'make the meeting visually engaging'. It's quite specific, but if you're especially interested in graphic recording, you'll find it useful.

Again, this is more like a toolkit so if you only plan to read, it won't take that long and pretty enjoyable.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always made sense of work (or new learning) by drawing, using arrows to connect topics, systems, or processes, and doing it over and over again until it made sense to me. So, when someone recommended this book, I was all in. I wasn’t disappointed.

We are all visual learners. Using these concepts has helped me simplify messages and provide more clarity to those I teach and work with. I haven’t tried it for team collaboration yet. But building a visual vocabulary/language is a useful skill. Oh, by the way, I can’t really draw that well but you learn drawing tips in the book!

[Nia Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read that drives home the importance and value of visuals in a text-heavy world. I was hoping for more practical tips, however, for using visuals to facilitate meetings. The templates were not particularly relevant to my work, and several of them seem to involve more work than they're worth.

[Laura McCabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d like to make this a 3.5 star review. There are so many tools and ideas packed into this book. The theory stuff can slow you down but there’s a lot of value here. I may improve the rating if I start applying the ideas to my work. Thanks!

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ MAR 2021

Good addition to the genre of visual facilitation literature. This one is especially helpful for anyone looking to design a specific collaboration process.

[K. Tracy Bourgoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done! Great examples and just enough theory and practical.

[Igor Đukić · Rating 4 out of 5]

How rich communication you could use? It goes like this: wiki like CMS, email, slack, phone, video call, face 2 face, face 2 face and drawing :) So learn to use visual language to even more improve your communication.

Favorite quote
“Knowledge is valuable when it is applicable. Knowledge and experience do not necessarily guarantee survival in a changing world. The ability to continuously increase one's own knowledge and bring new knowledge into use does. This applies to individuals, groups, and organizations alike.”

[Og Maciel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the concept of using drawings and pictures to drive and spark conversations/discussions, as well as to facilitate the communication and clarification of thoughts, ideas, and processes something so simple and yet, so powerful, that I want to start using it myself.