My 10-min in JAM!

On May 29th, I gave a 10-min presentation to JAMers about what triggered me to do this project, what I am going to do, and what I dream to do.
It's not that easy for me, and I would not say I am satisfied with my performance. It could be far more better. However, thanks to JAMers' kindness and generousness. They behaved less critical than I expected and gave me very constructive ideas. Then here are the presentation ...

There are four major elements in the presentation, which are 2 surprises, 1 question mark, and a dream. They formed the story why I am here in JAM doing my graduation project.

The first surprise will have to trace back to six months ago. I was in Venice to visit the Biennale Architecture exhibition. In the Japanese pavilion, It was a strong impact to me about the drawing power. When I stepped into the pavilion, it just looked like a new house with no furniture but only big, white walls. However, when I walked closer to the walls, I was surprised by the extremely detailed and delicate pencil drawings which covered all over the walls. To me, the drawings are calm but passionate, and quiet but powerful. They are naive but free all minds in the pavilion with their imagination. This was the first time I experienced such a direct and overwhelming power of hand drawings. (more about Japanese pavilion...)

About two weeks later, there were the second surprise waiting in the TUDelft IOB job market. That was where I met Dennis and had a very good impression of what JAM are doing. It surprised me that they conducted a business to help people communicate with their drawings. This impression just reminded me of the impact I had in the Japanese pavilion. This surprise gave me the idea to conduct a graduation project with them to know better of the drawing power and how to use it.

Fortunately, after several months, I am here in JAM now. However, the JAM are like a puzzle for me to decipher and read. But I do want to talk about my dream first instead of describing how to reach it. Since I can realize there are values of hand drawings through the research, I hope that I can make something to promote advantages of visual thinking in group communication. On the one hand, they could be an encyclopedia for people to explore the beauty of the drawing power in visual thinking. On the other hand, if it is set as an online website, it could not only influence other people but also receive suggestions and opinions. In this two-way interaction, it could therefore evolve themselves with time and prevent to be limited in certain presumption.

For the question mark, this is about how will I conduct the project in JAM. I think I will use another 10 mins to decribe them, but it would be in the next 10-min presentation. See you then...

Thanks to Dennis, he also filmed the presentation. You can see the video here.

Literature List - Draft!!

There will be four fields to study in the literature research.

- Visual thinking/ Graphic facilitation
- Shared understanding
- Review of facilitation results
- Contextmapping

Visual thinking/Graphic facilitation:
The literature in this field will refer to previous studies on aspects about the graphic facilitation. The aspects will range from "creative facilitation in group problem-solving" to "story-telling drawing techniques".

1. Jeffery, A.B., Maes, J.D., & Bratton-Jeffery M.F. (2005). Improving team decision-making performance with collaborative modeling. Team Performance Management, 11, 1/2, 40-50, DOI :10.1108/13527590510584311

2. Beers, P.J. (2005). Negotiating common ground: Tools for multidisciplinary teams. Maastricht: Open Universiteit Nederland.

3. Cohn, N. (2007). What is visual language? Retrieved August 21, 2008, from http://www.emaki.net/vislang.html.

4. Tyler, C., Valek, L., & Rowland R. (2005). Graphic Facilitation and Large-Scale Interventions: Supporting Dialogue Between Cultures at a Global, Multicultural, Interfaith Event. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 41, 139-152. DOI: 10.1177/0021886304272850

5. Santanen, E.L., Briggs R.O., & Gert-Jan de V.. (2004). Causal Relationships in Creative Problem Solving: Comparing Facilitation Interventions for Ideation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20(4), 167–197.

6. Forrester, J.W. (1994). Learning through system dynamics as preparation for the 21st century. Paper presented at Systems Thinking and Dynamic Modeling Conference for K-12 Education (Concord, MA, 27-29 June). Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://sysdyn.clexchange.org/sdep/papers/D-4434-3.pdf.

7. Horn, R.E., (2001). Visual language and converging technologies in the next 10-15 years (and beyond). Paper presented at National Science Foundation Conference on Converging Technologies (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno) for Improving Human Performance, December 3 – 4. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from http://www.precaution.org/files/document/Societal_Implications_of_Nanoscience_and_Nanot.pdf#page=138.

8. Birnholtz, J.P., Finholt T.A., Horn D.B., Sung, J.B. (2005). Grounding Needs: Achieving Common Ground Via Lightweight Chat In Large, Distributed, Ad-Hoc Groups. CHI 2005, April 2–7, Portland, Oregon, USA., 21-30.

9. Pearse, C. (2007). Technique - Tools graphic facilitation - Putting your people in the picture. Journal of Engineering Management, 17(5), 12-15, ISSN: 0960-7919

10. Renk, J.M., Branch, R.C., & Chang, E. (1993). Visual information strategies in mental model development. In: D. Braden & J. Clark-Baca (Eds.), Visual literacy in the digital age: Selected readings of the 25th annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (25th, Rochester, New York, October 13-17). Retrieved April 9, 2009, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/14/16.pdf

11. Barner, R. (2008). The dark tower: Using visual metaphors to facilitate emotional expression during organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 21(1), 120-137. DOI: 10.1108/09534810810847075

12. Mccloud, S. (2006). Making Comics. Special Market Department, HarperCollins Publisher, New York.

13. Sharp, D.L.M., Bransford, J.D., Goldman, S.R., Risko, V.J., Kinzer, C.K., & Vye, N.J. (1995). Dynamic visual support for story comprehension and mental model building by young at-risk children. Educational Technology Research and Development, 43(4), 25-42. DOI: 10.1007/BF02300489

14. Tassoul, M. (2006). Creative Facilitation: a Delft approach. VCCD, Delft, the Netherlands.

15. VizThink (2008) Visual Language. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from http://wiki.vizthink.com/VisualLanguage.


Shared understanding:
The literature in this field will refer to previous studies about how shared understanding is being build up during a group meeting or a period of time while meditating in multidisciplinary team. The aspects of the field are "relationships between team mental models and performance", and "how a diverse group get shared understanding".

16. Cannon-Bowers, J.A. & Salas, E. (2001). Reflections on shared cognition. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 195-202. DOI: 10.1002/job.82

17. Carley, K.M. (1997). Extracting team mental models through textual analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18, 533-558. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199711)18:1+<533::aid-job906>3.0.CO;2-3

18. Chrispeels, J.H., Burke, P.H., Johnson, P., & Daly, A.J. (2008). Aligning mental models of district and school leadership teams for reform coherence. Education and Urban Society, 40(6), 730-750. DOI: 10.1177/0013124508319582

19. Eppler, M.J., & Burkhard R.A. (2007). Visual representations in knowledge management: framework and cases, JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, 11(4), 112-122, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270 DOI 10.1108/13673270710762756

20. Klimoski, R. & Mohammed, S. (1994). Team mental model: construct or metaphor?, Journal of Management, 20(2), 403-437. DOI: 10.1016/0149-2063(94)90021-3

21. Mulder, I. (2004). Understanding designers, designing for understanding. Enschede: Telematica Instituut and University of Twente. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from http://purl.org/utwente/41481.

22. Mulder, I., Henk, de P., Carla, V., Ruud, J., Marcel, B. (2006). An Information Overload study: Using design methods for understanding, OZCHI 2006, November 20-24, 2006, Sydney, Australia. 245-252.

23. Lardner, R. (1996). Effective shift handover, Health & Safety Executive. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/otopdf/1996/oto96003.pdf.

24. Lim, B.-C. & Klein, K.J. (2006). Team mental models and team performance: a field study of the effects of team mental models similarity and accuracy. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(4), 403-418. DOI: 10.1002/job.387

25. Lee, M.Y. (2007). Understanding changes in team-related and task-related mental models and their effects on team and individual performance. Department of Education Psychology and Learning Systems, The Florida State University. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses_1/available/etd-11122007-193205/unrestricted/Lee_MY_2.pdf.

26. Schwamb, K.B. (1990). Mental models: a survey. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.55.1155.

27. Westbrook, L. (2006). Mental models: a theoretical overview and preliminary study, Journal of Information Science, 32(6), 563-570. DOI: 10.1177/0165551506068134


Review of Facilitation Results:
This literature in this field will focus on assessment on outcomes of group facilitation. The aspects will be on methodologies and results of empirical studies.

28. Batini, C., Bertini, E., Comerio, M., Maurino, A., & Santucci, G. (2007). Visual languages and quality evaluation in multichannel adaptive information systems. Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 18, 515-522. DOI: 10.1016/j.jvlc.2007.08.001

29. Eby, L.T., Meade, A.W., Parisi, A.G., & Douthitt, S.S. (1999). The development of an individual-level teamwork expectations measure and the application of a within-group agreement statistic to assess shared expectations for teamwork. Organizational Research Methods, 2(4), 366-394. DOI: 10.1177/109442819924003

30. Isenberg, P, Zuk, T., Collins, C., & Carpendale S. (2008). Grounded Evaluation of Information Visualizations. BELIV ’08, April 5, 2008, Florence, Italy. ISBN: 978-1-60558-016-6

31. Mohammed, S. & Dumville, B.C. (2001). Team mental models in a team knowledge framework: Expanding theory and measurement across disciplinary boundaries. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22, 89-106. DOI: 10.1002/job.86

32. Mulder, I., Swaak, J., & Kessels, J. (2002). Assessing group learning and shared understanding in technology-mediated interaction. Educational Technology & Society, 5(1), 35-47. ISSN 1436-4522.

33. Pinto, M.B., Pinto, J.K. (1990). Project team communication and cross-functional cooperation in new program development. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 7, 200-212. DOI: 10.1016/0737-6782(90)90004-X

34. Rubin, R.B. (1984). Validity and reliability of the communication competency assessment instrument. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association (34th, San Francisco, CA, May 24-28). Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2e/8f/c3.pdf.


Contextmapping:
The literature here will be a preliminary study for the research methods in the following "Contextmapping phase".

35. Sleeswijk F.V. (2009). Bringing the everyday life of people into design, ID-StudioLab, The Delft University of Technology. Retrieved May 14, 2009, from http://studiolab.io.tudelft.nl/static/gems/sleeswijkvisser/sleeswijkthesis.pdf

Preliminary Exploration: Planning for Analysis phase

In the Analysis planning, I focus on three major aspects, literature research, previous projects study, and global trends, and they are also primary objectives in this phase. There are secondary objectives, such as reporting progress on blog regularly.

Primary objectives:
1. Literature research: There will be four fields to study in the literature research.
- Visual thinking/ Graphic facilitation
The literature in this field will refer to previous studies on aspects about the graphic facilitation. The aspects will range from "creative facilitation in group problem-solving" to "story-telling drawing techniques".

- Shared understanding
The literature in this field will refer to previous studies about how shared understanding is being build up during a group meeting or a period of time while meditating in multidisciplinary team. The aspects of the field are "relationships between team mental models and performance", and "how a diverse group get shared understanding".

- Review of facilitation results
This literature in this field will focus on assessment on outcomes of group facilitation. The aspects will be on methodologies and results of empirical studies.

- Contextmapping
The literature here will be a preliminary study for the research methods in the following "Contextmapping phase".

2. Previous projects study: Preliminary research in JAM's works and people.
- What are JAM
- Who are JAM
- Previous project categorization
- JAM's tool, environment, and stimuli

3. Global trends study: Look into some companies, conference, personal blogs, websites, and news about trends in visual thinking/ graphic facilitation.

Secondary objectives:
Reporting progress on the blog regularly.

A Journey to the summit: GP planning

For planning of Graduation Project, there will be five phases which are Analysis, Contextmapping, Conceptualization, Evaluation, Reporting & Presentation. I used a metaphor, climbing mountain, in the planning drawing to represent the process. To start from the bottom-left corner, there will be several checkpoints and milestones on the way to the peaks of the mountain. From May 11th to Oct 16th, the project will last for 23 weeks.


The major mission of the blog is actually born for reporting the progress of the Graduation Project. All the findings, insights, and even setbacks will be published here publicly.

In Analysis phase, I will focus on three aspects which are literature research, JAM's previous project categoriztion, and Global trends in Visual thinking/Graphic facilitation. I will try to look for diverse angels about the topic, such as visual thinking/graphic facilitation, shared understanding, contextmapping thecnique, facilitation theory. In the checkpoint of this phase, I will hand out an analysis report. From May 11 to June 5, It will take 4 weeks to finish.

In the Contextingmapping phase, there will be two major aspects which are internal research and external research. They could be conducted parallel. In the internal research, I will first analyze outcome of the previous projects. For further insights about people in JAM, I will first do individual interviews about their own experience, limitations and dreams, and then hold a group session later on. In external research, I will do some case study and ask client's opinions and partner's experience. In the end of the phase, I will hand out a contextmapping report. From June 8 to July 31, it will take 8 weeks to finish.

In Conceptualization phase, I will conceptualize proper tollkits for visual thinkers based on Analysis. I will hand out a conceptualization report. From Aug 3 to Aug 28, it will take 4 weeks to finish.

In Evaluation phase, I will do a concept evaluation in the real parctice, and choose and refine concepts. From Aug 31 to Sep 25, it will take 4 weeks.

In the final phase of the GP, a thesis, and a poster will be finalized contenting the evaluation of project and process. There will be a final oral presentation. This phase will take 3 weeks from Sep 28 to Oct 16.

What is the "Magic" in the black box?

JAM have clients with diverse backgrounds, like financial, engineering, human resource, manufacturing, industrial design, governmental officers, etc. In a given assignment, JAM help their clients build up shared understandings in a one-day or multi-day workshop. Purposes of these workshops would be to use graphics to bridge gaps between diverse participants, and help to forge shared understandings for new ideas, solutions or visions, depending on types of assignments. JAM especially focus on interpreting all the information of the diverse groups and translating them into convincing graphics which reach mutual expectations. In JAM, they already accumulated abundant experience in their practice and want to contribute their knowledge in visual/graphic facilitation to a promising future.

However, due to busy schedule and demanding daily work in JAM, people in JAM could not share their knowledge at work. So, what happened in the process of workshops is like a black box, which is never deciphered with a thorough research. Based on a thorough research, we can unveil the magic of the graphic power and develop toolkits and guidelines for visual thinker without jeopardizing the magic leading to unlimited creativity and free communication. These toolkits and guidelines can help to improve the process in future workshops, and also serve to form a framework to document the workshop in a systematic way.

So the assignment of the graduation project is:

to decipher the “Magic” of graphic power in facilitation workshops and develop toolkits for Visual thinkers. The first half of the project will be contextmapping on the graphic facilitation experience in JAM. The second half of the project will be conceptualization and evaluation, which will lead to recommendations to the future development of graphic facilitation.

An Unexpected Sparkle in a Job Market

The very beginning idea of the graduation project is in a job market, which called IOB, where I met Dennis there. We had a very interesting discussion there. I thought that the way JAM is doing now is something I would like to do in the future. I meant that it is so relevant to help people to across the barriers of misunderstandings and build up shared understandings, especially in a "globalizing" world.

Nowadays, people have less time to communicate but have to deal with more issues in more diverse groups, i.e. cultural difference, professional background, religious difference, etc. Using a hand drawing skill to cope with the problems is a powerful idea to eliminate gaps in diverse groups. As a basic "language" or "platform" for an efficient meeting, hand drawings are naive and unfinished, compared to computer graphics, but open to interpret.

JAM help people to speak out-loud and to use their imagination freely with the hand drawings. People will not be afraid of offending others or embarrassing themselves, and that is just an ideal start of an efficient meeting.

It is also interesting for me to know how they turn a personal interest into a real business. So I just started to try out to do a graduation project in JAM. And, fortunately, I got the chance to give it a try and dedicate myself in this field.

Viz Up the World!

The blog is set for a reason that I want to hear from anyone who are interested in the field of visual thinking/graphic facilitation. From now on, I am going to conduct a 6-month Graduation Project in JAM, a company featured with its visual thinking/ graphic facilitation techniques. You can visit their website and blog to get further information, or stay tune with the blog updating. I will keep uploading the findings through the process.

I am really looking forward to your comments later on!

I believe that will be much more interesting to see your responses... whether how crazy they would be!! :D

See you later!!