Personal Mapping for Meeting Others and meaning Making

Innovation consultant Tanveer Fatma Chaudhary invited me to present to the Houston Design Thinking & Innovation Meetup Group in Houston.

Alphachimp founder Peter Durand showed up, plunged the group directly into visual thinking, and invited them to share their personal journeys, answering the question:

“How did I get here?“

We usually kick off most visual thinking workshops with some version of a personal mapping exercise.

In 20 short minutes the exercise moves participants through a series of learning modalities:

1. Intrapersonal — internal processing thinking & feeling

2. Visual Thinking — physical drawing to describe an inner thought process

3. Interpersonal — meeting & sharing the results with others

4. Storytelling — choosing narrative details to guide the audience

5. Active Listening — to other people’s story

6. Visual Processing — looking at another's visual map while egaged in active listening

7. Social-Emotional Intelligence — forming a group; acknowledging and encouraging others

8. Networking — making connections, turning strangers into connections!

It is a fast method to get people thinking, feeling, making, sharing, laughing, and connecting — essential activities for group facilitation, collaborative design, and jumpstarting the innovation process. 💫

PHOTO: Four participants share their personal maps drawn to show “How Did I Get Here?“ as part of the Design Thinking & Innovation networking event.

PLEASE steal and use this in your meetings and meet-ups!! The business term, I believe, would be: “Please leverage this content.“

PS. Want to see more research and insight on how visual facilitation drives innovation? Read this.