Download the Flyer for the May 2013 Workshop in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (in English)

Download the Flyer for the May 2013 Workshop in Antwerpen, Belgium, (in Dutch)

Sign-up for the May 2013 Workshop

Experience the same training that we have also given in-house at e.g. the Royal Bank of Scotland and Knowmads Business School. Almost without exception participants feel empowered to make their current work highly visual after the training, or even start themselves as a visual practitioner.

You do not need to be an artist or have any experienced with visual techniques to join this training!

What do people say right after the training? How will they use the techniques? Find out:

In times of change and uncertainty it is crucial to have conversations about what really matters: to communicate ideas clearly, to plan inclusively, and to get everybody on the same page. With Visual Changemaking one can do this: create a shared language and collective memory.

Visual Changemaking is a two-day Visual Thinking workshop on Graphic Facilitation and Harvesting. Based on action learning we tailor the workshop to the needs of the group. Understand how to use visuals, graphics, and images in meetings. Participants will leave with the feeling ‘Yes I can’ – plus have the tools and confidence to start right-away.

For whom?

Are you a changemaker, rulebreaker, visionairy, or innovator? This workshop has proven to be very applicable for business consultants, coaches, leaders, high-stake decision-makers, participatory meeting planners, and group or meeting facilitators.

Learning outcomes

•    Get back in touch with your natural ability to say things with pictures

•    Increase and build your confidence with a pen and marker

•    Communicate ideas quickly with simple and powerful images

•    Improve the quality of your communication by using visuals

•    Create and use prepared templates on which to organize your information

•    Learn simple visual techniques to better collaborate with others

•    Use graphic facilitation to create more productive meetings and outcomes

•    Get to know the right graphic facilitation tool for the right business challenge

•    Practice hands-on story-telling, listening, neutral observing and reflecting

•    Develop your unique style of visual practice and learn how to help others

•    Learn tools, techniques and approaches that you can apply in your working practice today

Read here how a participant experienced the course in June 2012!

Program

DAY 1:

Beyond Words and Text

09:30 – 13:00

• Visual language and visual storytelling

• Tips and tricks for people, colour and more

• Experience and learn about the method

14:00-17:00

• Fun exercises for practice: Graphic Jam

• Build your own powerful toolbox and Icon Library

• Engaging Flipcharts: Enjoy your markers!

DAY 2:

Using Visuals With Group Processes

09:30 – 13:00

• The field of visual thinking

• Consolidation and mapping of complex issues

• Graphic harvesting: capture the meaning of conversations

14:00-17:00

• Graphic facilitation: using visuals for effective engagement

• Create your own templates

• Making your professional practice visual

Read here a participants reflections on the schedule!

Please note: this is not about Art with a capital “A”, it is about making ideas visual and helping people remember concepts, understand complexity, and decide what to do next!

Practical information

PROGRAM FEES:

Early bird fee:  € 695.- 21% VAT is not included (payed before April 9th 2013)

Regular fee:     € 795.- 21% VAT is not included

Fees include coffee-breaks, lunch, all materials, a starter toolkit, and our 40-page handout!

DATES, TIMES & LOCATIONS

for Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Workshop in English:

Dates: May 9 & 10, 2013 (FULLY BOOKED)

Time: 9am to 5pm

Location: The Hub Amsterdam, Westerstraat 187, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

for Antwerpen, Belgium, Workshop in Dutch, :

Dates: May 15 & 16 2013,

Time: 9am to 5pm

Location: Koetshuis de Brandt, Beukenlaan 12, 2020 Antwerpen

Click here to Sign-up for the Workshop!

Participant Testimonials

“Relaxed environment, fun and very good learning process. A new way of looking at visual aspects in learning and development.”

A. Thomson, Change Manager at Royal Bank of Scotland

 

 

“The best course we attended for a long time. Real, tangible, actionable learnings. excited to try more! Very recommended!”

A. Golden, Change Manager at Royal Bank of Scotland

 

“I exercised the learned techniques during a coaching session, it worked wonders, my clients didn’t want a report of any sort, just the two A3’s with the visualizations of our session!”

Greet Westerbeek, WorkWise Change Company

“Awesome and mind-blowing! Do it because its fun, challenging and useful!”

Participant Public Visualchangemaking Training 2012

 

 Do you want to have a preview on what will be covered during this workshop? Then you might want to download our Guide to Visual and Model Thinking!

About the Trainers

Martine Vanremoortele is expert at 21 Lobsterstreet. After more than 15 years experience in communication and marketing, she shifted her career path to quality management and later added coaching and creative thinking to that. Now she has found a way to combine management experience, creative thinking and love for colours & drawing. She specializes in Visual Harvesting, aka graphic recording. Her aim is to amplify how well people work together, and to support and boost people in their thinking, so they can accomplish their goals. www.visualharvesting.com

Manuel Sturm is the co-founder of ModelMinds. With his Swiss discipline, and experience as a graphic facilitator, he focuses on helping groups break through their patterns. The entrepreneurial education at Knowmads makes him bring a creative, young, and meaningful twist to your challenge. He specializes in group dynamics – how to guide and coach with help of visual thinking. www.modelminds.nl

This program is also available for in company training in English, Dutch and German. Contact us for details and/or tailor made solutions.

ModelMinds organized a unique event together with Manuel Bollue: With 7 Authors and 2 Supporters, we gave us the challenge to write a good-looking visual toolbook in 12 hours. The process did take very careful planning – and took in the end 14hrs. But it was worth it: We came up with 40+ tools, had over 50 years of innovation experience in the room, wrote over 50 pages. Now we would like to share the results.

The Visual Innovation Accelerator is a visual book with 40+ tools created in a 12 hours jam, using over 50 years of experience.
Innovators, change makers, entrepreneurs, and managers can put it to use in their everyday professional challenges.
Use the visual tools to design more meaningful, creative, and engaging get-togethers, improve team dynamics and product and service innovation processes, while reaching your own and team’s targets. Let us know what you think about it and if you have further suggestions – And don’t forget to share it.

One of the 40+ tools – Preview

Video: How to write a book in 12 hours?

You have no Twitter or Facebook, or dont want to be forced to share before you read? Here is your alternative option to request the download link:

[contact-form-7]

To download the 2nd Press Release here: Press Release ModelMinds Visual Innovation Accelerator

ModelMinds 12 Hours Book Project Press Release No1

Also see  the previous invitation to this event here:

http://blog.modelminds.nl/?p=7407

Up for a challenge? Then join us for the Visual Innovation Accellerator! The plan? To write a book, from scratch, to final product, within 12 hours. Uh, what? We want to create the most significant toolbook on Visual Management Techniques. When? January 30th, 8am-10pm. Where? It will take place at our office (Willem de Zwijgerlaan 350, Amsterdam).

Next to the awesome team we selected, are you…?

(A) a super-fun-designer (Layout, makes the book look professionally)

(B) a faster-than-light copywriter (English, has the final say on the text)

(C) a social-media tiger (engages with our community during the event)

Then signup for an invitation at . Awesome!

Visual Innovation Accellerator: Toolbook Creation Jam ModelMinds

This is made possible by ModelMinds (Oscar Westra van Holthe, Manuel Sturm, Marco de Cuyper, Wytze Veenstra), PlayforChange (Floris Koot), Manuel Bollue (from Belgium), and many more!

Curious? We will keep you posted! Or give us a call. It is only, yes, right, one phone call away: +31(0)624643336 (NL). A short e-mail to Oscar will btw also do: .

Modeling as we see it is a fast an communicative way to visualize some key aspects of an idea or concept. A model shows the holes in a theory, what happens when, or why some requirements have to be met before you can move on. Well, actually a model can show about anything.

In this workshop we will facilitate the opportunity for you to visualize your product idea or concept.
By visualizing your concept you will be able to communicate and pitch it clearly.
Where words might take up a lot of space and time, a visual shares the key message at a glance.

So, if you have an important pitch coming up, a wordy meeting next week, or you just want a nice visual of your idea that will change the world? Come join our modeling workshop on wednesday January 16th 2013 from 6 till 8.30 pm.

When: Wednesday January 16th, 6-8.30 pm

Where: ModelMinds Office, Willem De Zwijgerlaan 350

Fee: €30 (ex VAT), including some small snacks and drinks

Signup: please email marco@modelminds.nl or through this link (about 10 spots available)

This evening will be about getting to know some basic tools and tricks, and trying them out together. Please feel free to RSVP or share here.

This guide explains the why behind Visual Thinking, shows who or what you can draw, how to create context, how to create flow, how to use Icons and Labels, how to organize information and bring it all together, as well as drawing more complex ideas or concepts.

All summarized in a A4 that you can print out! Enjoy! Click the image to download the PDF:

Experience tells us that designing, leading, and facilitating meetings successfully is not easy.

Especially if you are a manager or employee…

…who cares about deciding together with the full support of your team.

…who does not only want to embed a decision that has already been made, like 80% believe meetings are for.

The more complex, emotionally charged, and important a meeting gets, the more crucial neutral facilitation becomes. Curious for some facts?

 PS If you do not want to belong to the 59% of all meeting leaders that are hated for not guiding the meeting, there are three principles that can help you making your meetings more effective, efficient, creative and fun.

Feel free to share this visual on facebook, twitter, and the like! And share your thoughts with us!

Great! You made it. You are one of the 98% of the people who is exploring how to avoid boring meetings. We share three key insights of our practice.

Let us start with sharing a model we use to consult organizations to change their meeting culture and work more effectively. Think of a meeting as a spider web with three dimensions. Why do you meet? How visually stimulating is your meeting? How interactive is it really? Are you making full use of the brains in the room?

Is your spiderweb big enough to capture all ideas and potential of the group?

________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Start with the PURPOSE of meeting

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Meeting by default? Not any longer! End the meeting-culture in your organization by raising awareness to the need or nonsense of meeting.

• Do I and the people that are here need to meet (at all)?

• What is the purpose/goal of the meeting or gathering?

• Are there other ways to reach the goal (of the meeting)?

Next time you are planning a meeting, you can use this template:

(1) Why are you meeting? What is the purpose of coming together?

(2) What should be the outcomes? Is it a draft text? The outlines of a new strategy?

(3) Who is needed to get the wanted results from this meeting?

(4) What process fits the purpose, outcomes, and people?

And, of course you need to be prepared to practically make it happen (place, time) but that should never be the starting point.

________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Use VISUALS to use the FULL potential of people

________________________________________________________________________________________

People falling asleep? Wake up and stimulate the other (visual) half of people’s brains. And make the meeting more creative and fun.

• How can I prepare the agenda so that people get the bigger picture?
• How can I keep people’s attention with me while I am talking?
• How can I make notes that people DO actually read afterwards?

Next time you are in a meeting, experiment with graphic facilitation. For example, make the agenda a pie-chart. With just looking at it everyone instantly knows what topic is a priority or takes the most time. Bored? Try making notes in a visual way. For example, find a metaphor for the meeting. Is it a journey? Or perhaps crossing a bridge between two departments?

You can learn more on how to apply visual thinking to your meetings in our upcoming trainings. Or check this great wiki resource.

________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Make GROUP DYNAMICS work for you

________________________________________________________________________________________

There you are. Annoyed you listen to your colleague. ‘Not the same point again!’ you are thinking. ‘There we go again’. Next powerpoint! Get rid of endless bullet points and think of how you can have all contribute to finding a solution constructively, rather than debating each other!

• How can I turn the meeting away from one-way communication towards more interaction?
• How can I optimally use the space and people’s movement?
• How can I more trust people and build on their strenghts?

One way to see an issue from different perspectives is using De Bono’s thinking hats. Change roles and have fun thinking along. What hat do you normally have on? Can you perhaps try another one next time you are in a meeting?

________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact us through info@modelminds.nl or on +31(0)624643336 for a modelling session or an upcoming strategic meeting you want to have prepared well. Or check our pages on visual services, visual thinking trainings, and group process consulting.

Interested in numbers? See our infographic on Facts and Figures of the Dutch Meeting Culture.

Whiteboards are present everywhere these days. And they are an amazing communication tool. Or should I better say: They have the potential for it?

IdeaPaint Inc., producer of a paint that can turn almost any surface into a whiteboard, says it has increased its sales of the special paint annually by 100% since the product was introduced in 2008.

With whiteboards having such an increased popularity, it is sad to see that most people still use whiteboards (or even their whiteboard walls) only for writing words. And numbers.

Why is this problematic?

Numbers, (especially high ones) are an extremely abstract substance that the human brain has difficulties processing.
Feelings, e.g. how a product feels, written in words, is extremely difficult to share convincingly with others.
Positions, e.g. in the market, defined in words, give everyone reading it a headache.

Let me show an example: Above I mentioned some numbers about the sales of IdeaPaint Inc. Remember? Had to read it twice? Visually, this information could be presented like this:

As you can see, the whiteboard  helps us to simplify complexity with use of pictures that were instantly thought of. We came up with one acronym that will remind you of the feeling you will get in your meetings if you use visuals on whiteboards: FRIS (Dutch for fresh).

(keep it) F.R.I.S. (fresh)
Fast, Realtime, Imperfect, Simple.

Around these four principles, I have put together a small evening introduction workshop. We are going to host it in our office on the 29th of this month. For a one-time introduction price of 40EUR (ex Vat), including dinner by our favourite caterer (with the most delicious and sustainable food).

Join in for an evening course on whiteboard modelling and facilitation. From 18-22hrs we will give a hands on training in our office. In this introductory course we will focus on:

- The key challenges experienced when working with whiteboards
- Materials, Techniques
- Drawing basic models, people, shapes and icons
- Smart use of the basic colours
- Model- and facilitation exercises to engage groups

WHEN: August 29th, 2012 (6-10PM)
WHERE: ModelMinds, Vijzelstraat 72, Amsterdam
FEE: 40EUR ex. btw (including all materials & dinner)
SIGNUP: Email manuel@modelminds.nl (Maximum 8 People)

You are supposed to be or host meetings -draining others with powerpoints and presentations?

In an Exploration Session we detect with you what your real question is. The issue beyond.

Is the workflow really the issue? Or is it a lack of focus with your team? Or perhaps a lack of tools to make it fun? Or maybe a lack of motivation?

We reach a common understanding of the issues and opportunities you are faced with.

We also identify the first steps, and prepare a session where we invite (in/external) stakeholders.

In the Navigation Session we involve your key stakeholders for redesigning your workflows.

Once we have aligned all towards the change you envision to happen, we brainstorm on solutions.

And we make a plan of approach, so that the new way of working can be implemented straight-away.

Contact us for more information, download our portfolio or read a case study:

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IMPACT MAPPING SESSION

Client: AgentschapNL

Industry: Public Government & Change

Aim: Identifying Impacts of Upcoming Organizational Reorganization

Action: Interactive Workshop

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EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SESSION

Client: PostNL

Industry: Transportation & Distribution

Aim: Deepening Research with Team Experiences

Action: Interactive Workshop combined with Visual Recording

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SYSTEMIC PROBLEM-SOLVING SESSION

Client: AIM (Amsterdamse Innovatie Motor)

Industry: Food and Consumer Goods

Aim: Identifying Needs of City Farmers

Action: Interactive Dialogue and Visuals

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