I’m running like a maniac today, but this post from Eugene Eric Kim is to spot on to pass by. My highlights are the attention to online meeting design, shared visuals and slowing down to really notice what is going on. I hope that makes you want to click in and read. Image from the blog post by Amy Wu. Click to see the whole thing!
Thanks for sharing, Nancy! I don’t know if the participants realized how good they had it from a process perspective. The design, the actual online facilitation, and the visual capture were all really well done. I wish I had video clips so I could share some of the specific things I thought they did rather skillfully. Maybe next time!
Well I can attest that at least SOME of the participants knew how good we had it : ) We had all been in endless conference calls before that felt like they were going nowhere or had those black hole silences that just drain the energy from the group. This was entirely different and as you called out Eugene, it’s because we designed the virtual space with as much intentionality as we would for in-person meetings. Starting with a fun around-the-horn check-in each call, with everyone’s picture displayed was an easy way to incorporate this concept each call. And then the fact that we could breakout and have smaller conversations was fantastic. But probably most important was the dialogue mapping that allowed people to follow a thread of conversation. A shared display that kept us all focused on the present point in the conversation.
Another thing to mention is that these virtual conversations over the course of two months totally fast-forwarded our relationship-building, trust, and problem analysis so that when we got together in person, we could hit the ground running instead of breaking the ice for several hours. In Phase 2 we’re trying this again, with most of our interaction being virtual until a day in-person at the end of the year. I’ll be intrigued to see if this theory holds again!
Oh and also in Phase 2 we will be working in real time with Amy Wu so that her thoughtful graphics can inform us as we go through the work, not just at the end. Yay!
Thanks for the post. It’s great to share this work more broadly and see that there is broad interest in this kind of experimentation and learning!
Renee, I’m just saying “AMEN!” I want to dig in more on how the dialog mapping happened online. Sounds fabulous.
Thanks for sharing! Working with the dialogue maps in this way was very much an experiment—I loved feeling my way through the conversations, a sort of forensic experience. My hope is always to help with meaning making over the long arc, trying to lift up the story (Renee’s language, which I loved) for the group first and foremost; that there could be a wider audience is a stretch goal and it’s wonderful to see it happen here!
Amy, your work is wonderful. I just shared it w/ my graphicos group on Facebook (rosviz10 if you are interested). I was talking w/ June Holley today about her research in networked leadership and the three of us in the convo (w/ John Smith) all resonated with the importance of a shared visual – from metaphors that start us out, to visuals for sense making and memory. I think so many of us are grappling with this stuff. It makes me smile to find kindred spirits!
Nancy, if you ever want a walkthrough of Dialogue Mapping online, I’d be happy to do one for you, and I’m sure Rebecca would be willing as well. We should get a group of folks together and pick a real topic, then have a geeky debrief afterward.
Thanks Nancy for the post! I am excited to connect with more like minded folks about this work and build some more bridges to our progressive civic engagement funding world. We have so much to learn!
Mary, glad to connect!