When writing ‘Meet with Impact’ I included a tool which I called the ‘Knowledge Zone’. This is a place in your meeting room (or an online folder for a virtual meeting) where additional materials, reports and data can be placed for quick and easy reference in the meeting when required, rather than requiring your meeting participants to have read everything before the meeting. Sometimes it is just not possible to have read everything, but having it to hand can be just as effective.

In a physical meeting room the Knowledge Zone can also include products relevant to your work or organisation or other important items. In one meeting I facilitated the side of the room was adorned with plates of cat food (and forks!). This adds a kinestheic element (if not taste) to your meeting (more on that in the next post).

If you have the time to prepare them, infographics are an extremely effective way to help participants get right to the important information needed to hold productive conversations and make effective decisions (think of them as a visual exec summary). The combination of data and visuals should take the viewer’s eye right to the key facts, making it easy and quick to understand.

Over the last few weeks I have been perusing infographics online and came across this one, which of course I was looking at for a friend (ahem). I was tickled by the schoolboy error on this graphic which drew my eye immediately. I wonder if you can spot it.

Source: Amazon

My point is that infographics are a super tool which can be used both within the outside the meeting environment. Just make sure you get the data right, otherwise it is that, which will be remembered.

‘Meet with Impact – 40 visual tools for productive meetings and engaging workshops’, by Tom Russell, published by Pearson (2019) is available through the Inky Thinking shop (at a reduced price), Amazon, or your friendly local bookseller.

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Content taken from ‘The Visual Meeting Coach’ LinkedIn newsletter by Tom Russell. To subscribe to Tom’s newsletters visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasrussell/

About Tom…

Tom is a facilitator, graphic recorder and founder of Inky Thinking, a creative agency specialising in bespoke visual communication, enabling leaders and organisations to communicate effectively. Tom works with leaders and teams in global organisations to design and facilitate conferences, meetings and workshops. Inky Thinking are also a proud UK reseller of Neuland visual facilitation kit.