Get the big picture – draw a rich picture

A blog post from Jim Woodhill that outlined the process for creating Rich Pictures, which enable groups to draw a picture of a situation they are trying to understand.

This blog post is no longer available online, but the excerpt below may still be of some interest.

"The method involves a group of up to about 10 people working together to all add their ideas to the picture. It is a fascinating dynamic to watch. At first people are often a little hesitant and shy about their drawing abilities. With just a little guidance and encouragement groups usually get into it quite quickly. Once they do the picture becomes the focus of their discussion. You see people pointing to what others have added and explaining their ideas in relation to others contributions. This is powerful. Often in group discussions ideas go off in many different directions and the linkages between different ideas and threads of discussion get lost. The rich picturing process enables a level of synthesis and analysis that is otherwise just not possible. And people mostly end up loving it even if they started off a bit lukewarm to the idea." (Woodhill, 2012)