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Bring your questions. You call it a meeting, event, session, gathering - we call it a workshop. Our workshops and longer initiatives use a framework which integrates your needs with graphic facilitation, visual thinking, making art, complexity science and/or experiential education. We'll design and facilitate the kind of engaging workshop experience your participants crave.

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Engage and connect with your audience through illustration. Your ideas will crystalize for all to see, relate to and imagine! 

We'll catch the attention of your audience by highlighting the brilliance in your story for all to see and feel. 

PRODUCTS coming soon!

making complexity understandable with art

Do meetings differently. Do communication differently. Approach in a new way. Listen deeper and wider. Add drawings to your words. Make them matter.

photo of Amanda Lyons

Goodmorning!

I'm Amanda Lyons - artist, graphic facilitator, and experiential educator with a background in organization development working at the intersections of courage, creativity and productivity in traditional and non traditional work places. VISUALS for CHANGE was born in an intention to do small things differently and make big impacts - to draw while we communicate, to add movement to meetings, to create collaborations where teams further their mission, ultimately using art to create interactions that matter!

Reach out! amanda@visualsforchange.com

Forget boring. We do lively AND get stuff done.

our WHY story

We use art to understand the complexity of nearly all situations because it works. Because we've witnessed the SHIFT that happens in seeing, in listening, in trying to show up differently than expected - as the whole you (what Brene Brown calls 'wholeheartedly' or Courtney Martin calls 'an act of rebellion') in order to maybe understand. 

Organization A, a small business that once supported several employees until needs changed and people moved on, found itself operating with only one part-time employee and a meandering mission. Organization A was experiencing what felt like the ending of an era.

 

Current leadership was stepping down without a clear succession plan. Funds dwindled. Lots of unknowns brought up more questions than answers. Yet there was a sense of community alive. People found value in the organization. The exact value was hard to explain. There was a sense of belonging and deeply integrated belief that bringing people together around their particular content and context facilitated moments of insight and opportunity.

 

Phone calls, video calls, documents, presentations and emails circulated between a core group of 10 people who responded to a call to gather in order to define the organization's future. "How to revitalize? What to be? How to be?" People new and old to the Organization swapped questions, ideas, definitions, structures, and dreamt together. It felt like a new beginning. The group was elated. Yet with so many people and ideas it started to feel a bit chaotic. They struggled to clearly illuminate their mission. Amanda of VISUALS for CHANGE joined the group amongst these exploratory conversations. She found herself listening, asking questions and noticing gaps in understanding the Organization's culture and this group's mission. What did the whole situation actually look like?

 

At some point in the flurry of conversations, the group reached a 'wall' - ideas seemed to be stuck while ownership, action and accountability were trying to find a way to fit in and failing miserably. Conversations met with confused looks and next steps were not so clear. This is where we, as problem solving humans, need to embrace a new way of thinking together. In the flurry of conversations, spoken and written language were longer enough. Despite good intentions, individual and collective time and effort, the group had reached 'the point of repeat' where restating and rewording the same ideas brings befuddled expressions that say, 'Why am I still in this?' or 'Did he really just say that again?' or 'I'm not so sure we're headed where I thought we were.' or 'Oh dear. Did we just become dysfunctional or was it always so?'

After asking as many clarifying questions as she could and before having the entire clear picture, Amanda turned her limited understanding into drawings: 90% images with a few partnering words, written and spoken.

We use art to understand the complexity of nearly all situations because it works. Because we've witnessed the SHIFT that happens in seeing, in listening, in trying to show up differently than expected - as the whole you (what Brene Brown calls 'wholeheartedly' or Courtney Martin calls 'an act of rebellion') in order to maybe understand. 

Organization A, a small business that once supported several employees until needs changed and people moved on, found itself operating with only one part-time employee and a meandering mission. Organization A was experiencing what felt like the ending of an era.

 

Current leadership was stepping down without a clear succession plan. Funds dwindled. Lots of unknowns brought up more questions than answers. Yet there was a sense of community alive. People found value in the organization. The exact value was hard to explain. There was a sense of belonging and deeply integrated belief that bringing people together around their particular content and context facilitated moments of insight and opportunity.

 

Phone calls, video calls, documents, presentations and emails circulated between a core group of 10 people who responded to a call to gather in order to define the organization's future. "How to revitalize? What to be? How to be?" People new and old to the Organization swapped questions, ideas, definitions, structures, and dreamt together. It felt like a new beginning. The group was elated. Yet with so many people and ideas it started to feel a bit chaotic. They struggled to clearly illuminate their mission. Amanda of VISUALS for CHANGE joined the group amongst these exploratory conversations. She found herself listening, asking questions and noticing gaps in understanding the Organization's culture and this group's mission. What did the whole situation actually look like?

 

At some point in the flurry of conversations, the group reached a 'wall' - ideas seemed to be stuck while ownership, action and accountability were trying to find a way to fit in and failing miserably. Conversations met with confused looks and next steps were not so clear. This is where we, as problem solving humans, need to embrace a new way of thinking together. In the flurry of conversations, spoken and written language were longer enough. Despite good intentions, individual and collective time and effort, the group had reached 'the point of repeat' where restating and rewording the same ideas brings befuddled expressions that say, 'Why am I still in this?' or 'Did he really just say that again?' or 'I'm not so sure we're headed where I thought we were.' or 'Oh dear. Did we just become dysfunctional or was it always so?'

After asking as many clarifying questions as she could and before having the entire clear picture, Amanda turned her limited understanding into drawings: 90% images with a few partnering words, written and spoken.

* images under construction! check back soon!

Words and images are fabulous partners. As the drawings were revealed in the next meeting, positive energy lightened the mood from serious heavy discussion to seriously fun communication. There were smiles and head nods throughout the unveiling of these slides. There were also confused looks, questions and suggestions, too. 'Huh?' and 'How does that relate to that?' and 'Wow. I don't see it that way. What if we....'

 

When we work with visuals, confusion about subject / context /everything in between, and a need to further clarify the visuals and their meaning, are the quintessential pieces that move us forward umpteen measures. Visuals provide a focal point, allowing people to simultaneously distance themselves from context that doesn't resonate and connect more deeply to that which does resonate. Visuals can level the power in a room by expanding our language and connection capabilities. This is where you clarify and better understand what it is you're fellow colleagues, clients, customers, and stakeholder community members see and understand. This is where the conversation SHIFTS from an audio track stuck on repeat to a jazz ensemble allowing the music to unfold as it emerges. The shift is to a space where one feels what's emerging and acts accordingly.

 

From this conversation with visuals, Organization A has been able to use visual modalities to further clarify and move forward - i.e. by adding visuals to their communication. New leadership stepped up and crucial decision making strategies became clear. Current funds and strategies for attaining future funds were put into place. Questions about the Organization's structure moving forward were answered and communication strategy for all stakeholders is currently being rolled out.

 

There are still tons of unknowns that will emerge in the future. Things will continue to change. They always do. Yet with individual and collective appreciation for the community, positive intentions for each to do their individual part while keeping the whole in mind, use and knowledge of how DRAWN VISUALS can expand and accelerate thinking, communication and understanding into ownership, action and accountability, those in Organization A are on their way!

 

This is our WHY - to gift the use of visuals to YOU and witness that shift where visuals catapult connectivity and productivity beyond what most office environments have ever known.

Words and images are fabulous partners. As the drawings were revealed in the next meeting, positive energy lightened the mood from serious heavy discussion to seriously fun communication. There were smiles and head nods throughout the unveiling of these slides. There were also confused looks, questions and suggestions, too. 'Huh?' and 'How does that relate to that?' and 'Wow. I don't see it that way. What if we....'

 

When we work with visuals, confusion about subject / context /everything in between, and a need to further clarify the visuals and their meaning, are the quintessential pieces that move us forward umpteen measures. Visuals provide a focal point, allowing people to simultaneously distance themselves from context that doesn't resonate and connect more deeply to that which does resonate. Visuals can level the power in a room by expanding our language and connection capabilities. This is where you clarify and better understand what it is you're fellow colleagues, clients, customers, and stakeholder community members see and understand. This is where the conversation SHIFTS from an audio track stuck on repeat to a jazz ensemble allowing the music to unfold as it emerges. The shift is to a space where one feels what's emerging and acts accordingly.

 

From this conversation with visuals, Organization A has been able to use visual modalities to further clarify and move forward - i.e. by adding visuals to their communication. New leadership stepped up and crucial decision making strategies became clear. Current funds and strategies for attaining future funds were put into place. Questions about the Organization's structure moving forward were answered and communication strategy for all stakeholders is currently being rolled out.

 

There are still tons of unknowns that will emerge in the future. Things will continue to change. They always do. Yet with individual and collective appreciation for the community, positive intentions for each to do their individual part while keeping the whole in mind, use and knowledge of how DRAWN VISUALS can expand and accelerate thinking, communication and understanding into ownership, action and accountability, those in Organization A are on their way!

 

This is our WHY - to gift the use of visuals to YOU and witness that shift where visuals catapult connectivity and productivity beyond what most office environments have ever known.

drawing. seeing. listening. painting. wondering. changing. learning. creating. questioning. making. challenging. collaborating. & having fun!

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