Have you ever left a brainstorming session feeling as if something held back the flow of ideas?

Where would you meet me if all I said was, "Meet me in Paris?" This seemingly simple question can unmask the intricate layers of group decision-making dynamics. Interestingly, most people would answer "The Eiffel Tower." But why?

In late 2019, the FasterCures team within Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think focused on accelerating measurable progress on a path to a meaningful life, hired Lizard Brain for visual notetaking at their annual Future of Health Summit. FasterCures leads a network of patient organizations focused on advancing research into diseases that sometimes fly below the radar of the big pharma companies and the disease research industry.

Visual facilitation is making waves in various industries. Imagine transforming your meetings and workshops into dynamic, engaging sessions where everyone is on the same page. This blog will guide you through the benefits of visual facilitation and explain how it can be a game-changer for professionals in business, education, and team facilitation. Let's explore who can benefit the most from this approach and how it can revolutionize your next session.

Meetings often get a bad rap for being dull and unproductive. But what if we told you there’s a game-changing technique that can turn mundane gatherings into dynamic, collaborative experiences? Enter visual facilitation—a cutting-edge approach backed by science that significantly boosts engagement and drives impactful results.

Lizard Brain provides a dynamic and interactive visual facilitation approach that keeps teams engaged and energized. Experience working with tech startups and understanding the unique challenges of this industry.

With the world in a constant state of uncertainty, it is hard to find things we can control. How we spend and share time in class is something that can be shaped. Applying the HIIT formula to virtual classes is one way of finding our balance, focusing, and performing at our best with the tools and resources we have.

I want to introduce you to Sarah. She's a healthcare executive struggling to keep large meetings focused and productive. Sarah needs to find a way to ensure everyone is on the same page with complex policy discussions. Stakeholders often have difficulty retaining information from lengthy presentations.

Executive leadership is a fast-paced role. Maintaining focus and productivity in large meetings can be a Herculean task. Complex policy discussions often leave stakeholders struggling to stay on the same page, and lengthy presentations can overwhelm even the most attentive participants.

Finding moments of calm amidst the chaos can seem like a daunting task. However, integrating simple breathing exercises and techniques into your daily routine can be a game-changer for promoting mindfulness, wellness, and supporting mental health. By pausing, returning to the present, and finding your center, you can unlock many benefits that extend far beyond the physical realm.

Disruptions are par for the course when conducting group facilitation. They come in various shapes and sizes, each challenging the collaborative process.

If you can do it in a room, you can do it online. Here are some best practices for you and your participants to make virtual meetings flow easier.

I love discovery meetings, those initial discussions with prospective clients that answer the basic questions of a project. I love introducing new people to all that I have to offer as a visual practitioner. I love how their faces light up when we work together to make a good meeting extraordinary.

A vision map can serve as a powerful tool for stakeholder engagement and buy-in.

When it comes to persuasion, there's an unseen force at work that often goes unnoticed—the lizard brain.

Picture this: you're sitting in a cozy café, savoring your favorite brew, when suddenly, a friend whispers a word across the table. But wait, did they really say what you think they said? Enter the McGurk Effect, a mind-bending phenomenon that'll leave you questioning the very fabric of reality.

I always like to ask this question and see how many hands go up. 

I FINALLY found the original study that speaks to the effectiveness of using visuals. 

Even after the fifteen years since I took the Grove's Principles of Graphic Facilitation workshop and first learned how to facilitate using visuals, my heart still sinks a little bit when a potential client doesn't automatically and intuitively "get it."

Brian Tarallo, managing director of Lizard Brain, and his colleague Lauren Green orchestrated a one-day Open Space-style conference. Open Space is a meeting format that allows participants to select the topics of discussion based on their interests. It allowed diverse topics to emerge.