[Workshop Report] Graphic Facilitation (Session 2)

■Overview: A warm-up activity to develop a sense of visual communication by playing Shiritori using only drawings.
■Details: We played a version of Shiritori (a Japanese word game) where each person drew a picture starting with the last sound of the previous word, but without using any words—only drawings. We aimed to keep the game going for at least three full rounds. Through this activity, we experienced both the difficulty and the fun of communicating ideas using only pictures. It helped us realize the importance of observation skills to understand others’ intentions, as well as expressive skills to convey our own ideas visually. During the answer-checking phase, we noticed clear gaps between what was understood and what wasn’t, which gave us insights into how to make visual communication easier to understand.

■Overview: A workshop to extract key points of “structuring” from existing materials and apply them to visual graphics.
■Details: Each group received several sample graphic recordings created by the instructor, which skillfully incorporated visual graphic elements. Participants discussed what techniques or principles were used to structure the information effectively. Topics included the use of color combinations, consistent textures, grouping and categorization, the law of proximity, the use of invisible guiding lines, and ways to create contrast. After the discussion, one participant took on the role of facilitator and tried graphic recording in real time. By asking questions and organizing the groups’ ideas on the spot, the facilitator learned how to visually structure information shared by multiple groups. This hands-on activity helped all participants get a better sense of how to organize and present complex ideas clearly and visually.

■Overview: A workshop to develop the ability to create your own frameworks for organizing and visualizing information.
■Details: Participants worked on four themes: “a person’s future,” “business planning,” “a company’s history,” and “a vision for the next 10 years.” For each theme, teams created their own structural frameworks from scratch. There were no right answers, so we first thought individually, then looked at other groups’ ideas to refine and build our own visual frameworks. Through this process, we learned how to take abstract thoughts and shape them into visible, organized forms. In the end, we realized the importance of flexibly adopting ideas that we found valuable, and we gained a deeper appreciation for the diversity and creativity possible in visual expression.

■Overview: A workshop to practice organizing the elements of a text and expressing them visually.
■Details: We read a passage about a city of the future and extracted key points that left an impression on us. Then, we worked on organizing and structuring those elements visually. Through the process of selecting important information and thinking carefully about layout, we practiced transforming written information into graphic form. By focusing on making the visuals easy to understand, we not only deepened our comprehension of the passage but also experienced how visual summaries make it easier to share information with others.

■Overview: A workshop where participants used dialogue to draw out personal stories and organized them visually using graphics.
■Details: In each group, one person talked about their career path, while the other two listened actively and asked questions using different approaches such as empathetic listening, inquiry, and exploratory dialogue. Based on the conversation, they organized the speaker’s story and visualized it as a structured graphic. Through this activity, we learned that drawing out someone’s thoughts and experiences requires more than just listening—it takes an open and engaged attitude. While creating the graphic, we also had to think carefully about how to express the importance and relationships between different pieces of information in a clear and meaningful way.

■Overview: In groups of six people, we brainstormed ideas for a school festival booth under specific conditions: a budget of 30,000 yen, no food or drinks allowed, activities must take place inside a classroom, and both participants and visitors should enjoy the experience. Each group chose one person to act as a facilitator, who was in charge of organizing the discussion and creating a visual structure of ideas. Through this activity, we experienced the fun of expanding ideas through discussion and saw how turning ideas into graphics helped deepen understanding and clarify the group’s direction.