I’m a very lucky person.

I got to spend the morning yesterday working with Gary Ockenden and the Kootenay Career Development Society as part of their strategic planning processes.

 

 

This graphic recording thing is always an interesting gig, really. I get to meet so many different people, see many different ways that groups interact (both positively and negatively) and was impressed by how excited the people yesterday were about their work, how engaged they were in their process. This group had not had the experience of a graphic recorder in previous meetings and were really enthusiastic! I forget how powerful it can be to have this as part of a meeting for the first time – and was privileged to be in the room. 

We worked with a few different visual metaphors, but the overarching one was of being like Sherpas on Mount Everest – facilitating the climb of others to reach their goals, to reach their definition of excellence. What an amazing way for a group of people to identify themselves, wouldn’t you say? Humble and strong. 

Besides, they’ve rolled out some cool colours in their new branding, making it easy to pick interesting colours to work with on the chart. 

The walls in this room were a bit of a challenge, so I brought along my portable wall. It’s two pieces of reasonably thin plywood hinged at on side (made for me by a dear friend several years ago) that can be propped on two chairs. It measures 3′ X 4′ when folded – perfect size to fit into the back seat of my Echo – and 6′ X 4′ when opened out. It’s sturdy and smooth and works like a charm in most instances. The biggest drawback about it is how heavy it is. The biggest strength of it is how perfectly stiff and smooth it is to work on. I’ve worked on foam core portable walls before and found them a bit flimsy…maybe I’m too forceful with my markers?  Hard to say. Currently I’m looking for other options, but am in no hurry. This works well, but let me know if you have ideas of what works better.

Well, once again thrilled to have flexed those recording muscles as so much of my drawing work lately has been illustration-based. I’m looking forward to some additional meaningful work next month, also reasonably local. I realized the other day that although I’ve been doing this (officially as a business) since 2011, it’s still pretty rare to work in my home and local communities. It’s a real gift when I get to do this at home for groups that do such profound and far reaching work. 

Yep, feeling pretty lucky.

Until next time,

Lisa