Over 50 experts in Visual Facilitation have joined in co-authoring The Visual Facilitation Field Guide, Edited by Jeroen Blijsie, Rachel Smith, and Tim Hamons. The book is to be published and released by later this year, and will by funded through a Kickstarter which opened today[Full disclosure: Dean Meyers, publisher and managing editor of VizWorld.com, is one of the co-authors of this work] The book will be produced in both print and e-book versions, and there will be an extensive online compendium of additional materials and enriched content for purchasers of either/both versions of the book.

Starting from a concept initiated by Jeroen Blijsie (Netherlands), Rachel Smith (USA) and Tim Hamons (Singapore) joined him as co-editors and decided rather than writing a book on their own, they would  gather the expertise of professionals in the field of visual facilitation from around the world. The writing of the book was organized into “book sprints” with some co-authors writing together in physical hubs and others working independently,  joining the daily international  sprint check-ins throughout the course of the sprint week.

An online check-in of The Visual Facilitator Field Guide book sprint. The combined group in San Francisco can be seen on camera as well as many individual contributors.

An online check-in of The Visual Facilitation Field Guide book sprint. The combined group in San Francisco can be seen on camera as well as many individual contributors.

The book is organized to cover multiple perspectives of visual facilitation. On one side, there are the “how to” chapters of methods for facilitators or meeting leaders. The case studies cover the “why and what” for those who want to understand how visual facilitation can be applied to many business and professional uses. Much of the book is written in the first person, including tips to jump-start the practical use of a method or pitfalls to avoid, encouraging anyone new to the field or even just interested in trying out a particular activity to jump in. The book may also be seen as a go-to for design thinkers, people working in Human-Centered Design, Organization Design, Leadership Development, Agile Transformation, or simply interested getting better results from working with teams. Educators may also gather many new tools from this book as well, with methods that can be adapted for working with students at many levels.

The gamut of applying visual facilitation to improve, enhance and innovate business practices is covered, from working with familiar templates, such as the Business Model Canvas, Empathy Maps, and Customer Journey Maps to creating your own visual templates, to honing in on the listening skills you need to improve communication through the visual capture of content. Combined  formats, such as 3D kinesthetic/visuals and metaphor making through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, or using Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality drawing/modeling apps, are included in the book as well.

Finally, the future of the field is considered, again by highly experienced practitioners who are looking at the field and practice holistically, considering the types of individuals who want to pursue this work, and where the work will be found, either as a stand-alone capability or baked into other practices and work.

The reach of visual facilitation has become global, as can be seen by these successful practitioners in the map. Now it seems to be time to gather up what these people have learned and push a new wave forward in advancing the field, wider, and more deeply within common use, via a field guide for the occasional to the experienced visual facilitator.

The map of over 50 coauthors worldwide of The Visual Facilitation Field Guide

The map of over 50 coauthors worldwide of The Visual Facilitation Field Guide