Small business owners and entrepreneurs rarely, if ever, get a “time-out” for thinking about the big picture of their life and business. The go-go-go habit is quite addictive, involving all sorts of factors like adrenaline, drive, ambition, fear, passion… the list goes on. These are all GOOD things except sometimes we can start to feel like we’re running ragged, not quite sure if what we’re putting our efforts into is going to come together in the end. I experience this all the time as an entrepreneur and independent consultant and I’ve found in six years of business that it helps a lot to set aside one day every six months or so to think deeply about my direction.
Visual Business Planning is a structured framework for the entrepreneur’s “time-out”. It supports an entrepreneur in thinking deeply about his or her business plan, marketing, life/work balance – whatever issues are uppermost, creating a need to step back and reflect. Here’s how it works:
- An entrepreneur (or a two-person team) contacts me with an interest in doing a session. I ask a few questions to find out what is going on, both in the business and life, and provide information (like what’s in this blog post) about what to expect. We decide if the entrepreneur is able to set aside a full day for the session, or just a half day. So far I’ve found a half-day session is enough to give a client plenty to think about without overloading.
- Before the Visual Business Planning session I send a list of questions to the client. These are customized to reflect the client’s situation and can focus on business direction, marketing, team-building, work/life balance… these are the most common areas. If the session is going to deal with strategic planning or work/life balance issues, I also send a list of Values Words and invite the client to reflect on what things are most important to him/her. The client’s response helps me structure a customized agenda for the session.
- During the session, we use big paper (4′ x 8′) on my studio wall to literally draw out the problems facing the client. For a marketing-focused session like this one, the charts showed things like the client’s primary target markets, what he offered those customers, etc. For sessions that focus on business and life planning like this one, we may do a strengths-weaknesses analysis and some long-range visioning.
- The real crux of the session is not the pictures: it’s the dialogue and reflection that takes place. My job as a facilitator is to help my clients make their own discoveries by asking perceptive questions. Having an objective, caring person ask you to explain your own decisions and ambitions helps you to clarify them in a way almost impossible to achieve on your own.
- At the end of the session I reserve time to help the client make an achievable action list of things they will do to follow up on the session in the next month. These actions will push the client slightly outside their comfort zone, but not so much that the resistance will lead to inertia. It’s up to the client to follow through with these things but I don’t want anyone to set themselves up for failure.
- After the session, if the client wishes, I’ll add color and graphics to the existing charts, and perhaps fine-tune some of the messages. I do this almost immediately after the client leaves so conversations are fresh in my mind. Then I digitally photograph the charts and send a JPG to the client. I also find a time to return the full-sized charts to the client.
That’s it! It’s a mini-retreat for an entrepreneur, supported by an objective, caring third party who just happens to be creating a visual record of the retreat as it occurs. Because it’s supported with an agenda and you have a concrete action plan in place for afterwards, it’s much more effective than just taking a morning to sit in a coffee shop with your journal. Oh yes – I also provide yummy coffee and baked treats for a mid-session snack.
Game to try it? Here’s a little gimmick to make you jump on the bandwagon before the year is out: everybody who does a Visual Business Planning session with me between now and January 31, 2010 will be entered in a draw for a Nikon Coolpix digital camera. Just in time for snapshots of the 2010 Olympics – or whatever you’re doing to avoid the Olympics!
Tags: visual planning
Last Thursday and Friday I was in Vancouver at UBC, attending the IAF Canada Tour Workshops. (IAF stands for International Association of Facilitators). Below the cut there are reviews of the workshops and scans of my graphic notes from the sessions. Both sets of graphic notes are merely the “highlights” of the workshop since much of the content was captured in the books the workshops were planned around. (It’s kind of one of those “you had to be there” sort of things – sorry for being exclusionary). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Graphic Facilitation, IAF, training
After the first full week-and-a-bit of November I must confess I think I’m falling behind on my tasks. Here’s what I’ve accomplished so far:
- Define up to three target niches, and what specific offer to make to them. (I defined two niches to focus on, and reserve the third slot for a later brainwave).
- Half-done: Complete a customer analysis for each of the target markets, identifying areas where I need more information.
- Attend training session for facilitators and hand out cards, promoting graphic recording services. (That took me two and a half days – I’ll blog about it in a separate post).
- Complete transition of Directis website from Joomla to WordPress
I also re-wrote my professional bio, which wasn’t on the task list but needed to be done. Much harder than I expected! Read the rest of this entry »
David Cooperrider is one of the founders of the Appreciative Inquiry school of change, if that’s what I may call it. This morning he gave a conference call on MaestroConference to discuss where AI is going now. The major theme was that AI is moving towards empowering/enabling change “on the scale of the whole”. He felt that Appreciative Inquiry allows people to build strengths from strengths, begin with hope and move towards greater hope, and this is riding a wave of global change.
Here’s my graphic recording of the session. This was done on a 4×6 mural with markers and pastels – compare that to Wednesday’s graphic note-taking of Harrison Owen’s talk.
Thanks to the people at MaestroConference for putting on this event, and thanks to David Cooperrider for an inspiring talk.
David Cooperrider, October 30 - Appreciative Inquiry Conference Call. Graphic Recording by Susan Low
As I blogged yesterday, I’m going to make November my month to complete 30 Days of Marketing Strategy. Except I’ve changed the name, because I already do have a marketing strategy so it’s not like I need to make up a new one. I just need to get back in touch with it; since July I’ve been sort of coasting on autopilot because I knew I’d be away most of October, and frankly my energies were fully engaged in preparing for that big event!
So, here is my plan for 30 Days of Marketing Effort. Sure I make marketing effort all the time, but this is a blitz to see if I can get over my distaste for regimented programs.
I pledge to complete at least one of these tasks each day in November. Some of them are obviously sequential or at least depend on other tasks, whereas others can be completed at any time throughout the month. Some are repeated because I’m realistic about what I can do in a given day, and I need to break down some volume (or, as in the case of blogging, I need to do it repeatedly!).
I don’t want to bore you entirely with daily reports so beginning Nov 9, I will make weekly reports with the tag “30 Days of Marketing Effort.”
This morning I participated in a teleconference call hosted on Maestro Conference, a very nifty telephone and web technology that allows for very large-scale groups to come together for presentations and discussions. I’ll let you head on over to their website to check it out in detail, but in a nutshell you can use a web-based interface to manage your conference call including breaking people up into small groups then reconvening, all while attendees are connected to just one phone number. I called in on Skype and so had the call streaming through my computer speakers at first, then switched to my headset because MUCH to my surprise, in the middle of this global conference presentation, I was actually placed in a one-on-one conversation with another attendee from Toronto! (Hi Tanya).
The conference call was a presentation and Q&A session with Harrison Owen, “father” (although he’d refute that title) of the Open Space Technology. His topic was “Waveriding: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World.” The two main ideas I took from the call were 1) leaders often think they are control, but seldom truly are and 2) to be most effective, you need to be who you are, in the moment, and your contribution to the group will come inherently though that authenticity.
I took graphic notes of the call. I distinguish this from graphic recording because I wasn’t using mural-sized paper, just a notebook in front of me, and whereas in graphic recording I would have been more careful to record a balanced, even representation of all questions and answers, in note-taking I focused on what was of most relevance to me personally, since nobody was watching or looking at the work.
Here are the notes! Please feel free to download and save a copy for your own personal use, but if you’re going to post this elsewhere on the web I simply ask that you provide a link back to this post, and maybe drop me a comment or email if your site doesn’t automatically do pingbacks. Thanks!
Graphic notes of Harrison Owen's presentation/Q&A session, October 27 2009
Tags: Portfolio
Thanks for the well-wishes via email on my last post. Our trip was wonderful in pretty much every imaginable way. My toddler slept most of the way there and back, our accommodations were simple but covered all our needs, and the people of Australia are incredibly welcoming and friendly. I loved every minute of it!
Coming back to the office is a bit anti-climatic after all the planning and anticipation for this trip, but I am trying to turn that around and use this as an opportunity to look forward and set some new goals. While I’m certainly planning to go to the 2013 World Masters Games in Torino, Italy (and make it to finals in my single scull this time!), there are four years before that, and a life to lead.
I’m pursuing further training in facilitation through the International Association of Facilitators, beginning with workshops Nov 5-6 in Vancouver. After that I will decide if I’m going to attempt to get accredited as a Certified Facilitator through the IAF. That will be an acknowledgement of a certain level of skill and experience documented and proven in facilitation work. I am also going to develop my graphic skills to a greater extent.
The question facing me now is, since I no longer have any significant trips coming up to interfere with marketing: how do I want to market my services? I will be working on developing a new marketing plan in the next month. In fact, just to keep me moving and accountable, I’m going to declare right now that in November, I will complete 30 Days Of Marketing Strategy. I will figure out what the program is going to be this afternoon, and post it tomorrow so people can follow along if they like. Blogging it will keep me honest – I’m not usually good with day-by-day programs but we all have to try new things! Like my mother used to say about brussel sprouts at Thanksgiving – try them again every year. You don’t have to like them, but keep trying. And guess what? After 33 years, I finally like brussel sprouts!
It’s Friday afternoon, and next Tuesday afternoon I’ll be boarding a United airbus to take me to San Francisco, and from there onwards to Sydney, Australia. I will be gone October 6-23. But first let me tell you the story of a dream coming true.
I’m going because four years and three months ago, I made myself a promise. I had just started rowing in 2004 (after the Athens Olympics) and missed participating in the World Masters Games in Edmonton in July 2005 because I was a novice. A number of my fellow club members at the Vancouver Rowing Club had gone and had a wonderful time. I promised myself then that I would go to Sydney for the 2009 World Masters Games, and I would row in the single scull there at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, home of the 2000 Olympic regatta.
In July 2005 I had no idea what life would have in store for me in the four years ahead. I set my sights on Sydney. In October 2005, I told my husband that we’d better hurry up and get on with making a baby in the next year, so I could have the child in 2007, be back in training by 2008 and be ready to go in 2009. People actually laughed and told me that planning to have a family doesn’t go that way. It doesn’t?
In spring 2006 when I was suffering from depression I didn’t give up on Sydney – I found out I was suffering from a thyroid condition and got treated, and also did a lot of self-therapy and soul-searching, and kept rowing so I could stay fit and sane. In fall 2006 when my rowing career suffered a roadblock (back injury) I cried because it meant I might not get to Sydney. In summer 2007 when I gave birth to my son, I told myself that labour was great training for rowing, because I could pretty much guarantee that NO rowing race could be quite as painful as giving birth, and I knew most of the other women in my age division probably wouldn’t have that kind of experience to draw on in Sydney (it’s true – most other female rowers in the 27-35 age category are childless). In fall 2007, six weeks to the day after delivering my baby, I attended my first rowing practice, so that I could get in shape and go to Sydney.
In 2008 when I moved to Victoria and suffered the agony of post-partum depression, it was my desire to row in Sydney that forced me back out into a rowing shell, and it was the exercise and achievement I enjoyed in rowing that helped to make me whole again. Through 2009 it’s been hard to believe that the year is actually here… we have booked our travel and hotel arrangements in Sydney with an air of disbelief. I’ve competed at other regattas as “practice runs” and faced the reality that being “on the podium” in Sydney is not as possible, and not as important, as I originally thought in 2005. Balancing working, family life and rowing means I’m a better person overall but not necessarily a better rower. However, I’m going to go there and compete, not for the sake of winning, but for the glory of the sport and because I made a promise to myself, and I keep my promises. As Baron de Coubertin said, “The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well.”
So now it’s 8 days until the start of competition. It’s actually 7 days for me, considering I will lose a day crossing the International Date Line. I’m going to be there, rowing the single scull as well as in four other racing crews, any of which have a good chance of winning or placing if it’s a good day and we have a good start. I’m going to soak up the atmosphere of an Olympic sporting venue, and enjoy the camaraderie of over 2500 other Masters rowers who all row for the love of the sport, not for money or fame or even always the appreciation of their families (5am wakeup calls annoy the most patient of spouses). I’m going to see through this crazy promise. Then I’ll come back – and make another one!
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I just wanted to share this with you all because I’m SO excited about it. I’m actually going to work on a visual depiction of my journey to the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games and I’ll post it here if/when I get it done… it’s one of those “nice to have” items which might get knocked off my priority list this weekend while I’m packing.
Wish me luck!
I had a rowing coach a few years ago whose favorite word was “RELAX.” His crews actually made him a t-shirt with the word “RELAX” written across the front. The funny thing is, he would call it out when the boat was feeling pretty tense, and half the people would inevitably do the OPPOSITE of relax because being yelled at to “relax” is not the most relaxing thing in the universe.
Ergo when I read this funny blog post (“Your anus is too tight“) about the need to just relax about social media in order to get good at it, I had a bit of a cynical chuckle. For the people most likely to be tense and uptight about what to post on Twitter or the rules of blogging are the least likely to be able to follow the instruction to relax. Still, it is good advice!
And then there’s the question that still lingers for me: is this social media thing really that big of a deal? It’s brought me some new friends, a fantastic sense of community, but as some of my finance-geek friends would like to remind me, WHERE’S THE ROI? Oh I know, I know, I should be looking at the ROI of building my brand and developing relationships, etc. I guess that’s where the value is, and nobody should confuse social media with a real sales funnel. This is NOT a way to get new customers. Oh that may happen, almost by accident, but if you’re on Twitter or Facebook or anything else looking to “land a sale” you will not only disappoint yourself, but you may turn others off. Personally I can catch a whiff of desperation from several IP addresses away.
So onward I go… I will continue attending the occasional social media event here in town, and blather on about the pros and cons of social media, probably until the next “big thing” hits us. If you’ll come and keep me company, maybe I can get to know you and send a few referrals your way. *ding*
Tags: social media
On Tuesday I led a brainstorming session for a group of store managers of a travel agency company. It was part of their monthly “team leaders” meeting, held at the area manager’s house.
Here are the charts… this demonstrates how a simple graphic exercise can help a group with “divergent” work – coming up with lots of new ideas – and “convergent” work – developing some of those ideas in more detail.
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- Brainstorm of ideas – I provided the central themes and they created ideas around them.
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- Action plan – putting details around two ideas that were voted on by the group.
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- Craziest meeting venue so far in my graphic facilitation career!
Bless their hearts, they had booked a community meeting room at a local venue but had been bumped, and the only place available for doing graphic facilitation was on his deck. He didn’t get much chance to clean it up. (And yes, he did give me permission to share this photo).
Tags: brainstorming, meeting venues, Portfolio, visual planning
