Idea Mapping, Brainstorming, Problem Solving, and Action Planning
Have you ever had a great idea you just couldn’t articulate to others or figure out how to make it happen? Are you completely overwhelmed by ideas, options, or information? Do you struggle to connect the dots or make decisions? Do you need to get a group of people on the same page or perhaps define or capture a process or procedure? Do you need to solve a problem or generate ideas?
Visual mapping will help!
Whether we’re trying to solve a problem, make a decision, plan for the future, start a new business or non-profit, or bring an idea to life, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the mass of information we’re trying to mentally manage. As long as the information lives in our minds, we can’t see all of the details together, in one place. They remain ambiguous and disconnected, which creates uncertainty and confusion. As a result, we often find ourselves in analysis paralysis, “stuck” and unable to move forward.
Visual mapping helps you get unstuck and take action. I believe most of us already have the answers we’re looking for, we just can’t see them. Using visuals and visual thinking, I help you uncover these answers.
During a visual mapping session, I help you get the information out of your head and onto paper. Serving as part facilitator, part thought partner, and part scribe, I harvest your ideas and translate them into a visual format, literally drawing a representation of your thoughts. During this interactive process, I help you think – visually – and figure things out. I meet you where you are, and together we figure where you want to go and how to get there. Throughout the process, I ask clarifying questions to guide the process and further define and refine the content.
With the mass of information out of your head and in a tangible, visible form, the clutter that once filled your brain becomes far less overwhelming and much more manageable. This process allows you to see the big picture AND the details together, in one place, which creates clarity and allows you to make informed decisions. You will leave our session with a detailed action plan so you can immediately begin to take action and move toward your goal.
Interactive visual mapping, sometimes referred to as graphic facilitation, is perfect for individuals, groups, and organizations, and lends itself very well to idea generation, problem solving / decision making, visual strategy and business planning activities, process mapping, and personal and professional goal setting and action planning. Organizational visual mapping often leads to to development of one or more strategic illustrations, including digital illustrations and infographics, visual bios, large-scale strategic illustrations, live visual summaries, visual templates and learning tools, and animated explainer videos.
Organizational visual mapping is ideal for:
- Innovative thinking and brainstorming, storyboarding and idea mapping
- Generating, expanding, and refining ideas
- Strategic planning and visioning
- Problem solving and decision making
- Goal setting and action planning
- Collecting and organizing information
- Planning and managing projects and meetings
- Creating pitches and presentations
- Process and procedure mapping
- Customer journey and experience mapping
- Business model generation and business planning activities
- Project debriefs, lessons learned and postmortems
- Curriculum design, training sessions, and workshops
Without judgment she sorted, recorded, and made things beautifully visible outside my head and heart. The clean, lovely way she represented them on paper created a roadmap that stayed on my office wall for several years, allowing me to be my own navigator, my own reality-checker.
Dani Black, Owner & Consultant, Bigger Tables Culinary and Service Consulting
Check out some of my visual maps below:
Organizational Visual Mapping
What Our Clients Are Saying
Working with Christy was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. The depth of her listening was a wonderful gift, allowing me to pull out and examine all the flying threads of intention, ambition, dreams. Without judgment she sorted, recorded, and made things beautifully visible outside my head and heart. The clean, lovely way she represented them on paper created a roadmap that stayed on my office wall for several years, allowing me to be my own navigator, my own reality-checker. Now I have it memorized. When I struggle with direction, or need inspiration, it’s right in front of me, in all its complexity… and simplicity. I’m still working on my dreams and building my practice with the intention she helped clarify.
Dani Black, Owner & Consultant, Bigger Tables Culinary and Service Consulting
As soon as I saw one of Christy’s visuals I knew this was something I wanted to experience! The visual aspect kept me engaged and helped facilitate my thought process but Christy was the tool that pulled the information out of me. The whole process was a facilitation of communication that put our firm on a journey of growth. By seeing it being written / drawn / diagrammed in real time I literally had my ideas visualized so the team could work through good ideas, bad ideas and evolving changes to make them all great in execution. It’s some of the most worthwhile time and money we have spent.
Lauren Erickson, LAUREN ERICKSON, CFP® CSRIC™, Erickson Advisors
Starting up a new venture is hard enough – but when it’s a brand new idea that’s never been created, it brings the mental chaos to a whole new level. I am SO glad that I was introduced to Christy and VizualWorx when I was just beginning the journey! With her insightful questions and gentle prompts, Christy was able to reach into my brain and magically untangle everything into a beautiful, vivid image of what our path forward could and should look like. By the end of our session, I’d made decisions that have shaped everything we have created since – and I am forever grateful!
Nora El-Khouri Spencer, MSW, Founder & CEO, Hope Renovations
During my first year in the role of Executive Director, Christy walked me through the creation of a visual mind map to capture all of Meals on Wheels services, workflow, and potential pathways to growth, illustrating the interconnectedness of our work, while highlighting information gaps and actions needed to enable us to strengthen and grow as an organization.
Rachel Bearman, Executive Director, Meals on Wheels Orange County , NC
Meeting with Christy helped me to give voice to my dream. Since she wasn’t familiar with me or my plans, I had to articulate and clarify in a way that someone completely outside of my circle of influence could understand and translate to paper in a beautiful way. It was fun to see it come to life and I’d recommend anyone to have Christy help them get what’s in their head onto paper.
Kristin Bulpitt, Farmer & Founder, Copeland Springs Farm & Kitchen
Collaborating with Christy Gharbo to create environments where people engage and organizations thrive gives new meaning to the word synergy. She has the ability to generate solutions from the creativity she sparks as she “draws” information out of all process participants.
Danielle Oakley, Ph.D., Founder, Oakley & Associates Consulting
Ready to get that information out of your head and figure things out?
Let’s connect!