I knew that the JRC, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission that I joined only a few months ago, is a furnace of ideas and projects, and that the colleagues who work there are incredible people. I can see now how much I underestimated both things after I participated in the JRC Science Summit.
During 3 days, JRC colleagues offered sessions and workshops on the subjects that fascinate them, on which they work, all related to the present and future of the centre. As a graphic recorder, this was my task during the 3 days, I was amazed by the enthusiasm, the quality of the research, and maybe I didn’t understand everything either.
I was inspired by the visual identity of the event for my visual notes. I reused the color code to distinguish each of the 3 days while marking the continuity between them. Prior to the event, I created a separate canvas on my iPad for each of the 3 days, which I completed live during the event. Here is the result of the 3 canvases assembled to each other and the 3 taken separately:
The 3 canvases assembled to each other
Canvas for Day 1
Canvas for Day 2
Canvas for Day 3
Below is a small Prezi animation that goes into even more detail:
I want to thank my colleagues in the JRC who organised this event for giving me the opportunity to capture it visually, and especially Elke Hanssens for helping me put the material together.
Three drawings to illustrate in an offbeat way, and probably memorable way, the participants’ conversations during a session on knowledge management.
The session hosted by Huy-Hien Bui and Fania Pallikarakis, whose full title is “Knowledge Management and Collaboration in international organisations: Edge or Curse?”, was held as part of the Friends of Career Development Roundtable (FoCDR) workshop in Brussels on 17 June 2022.
I’d the privilege to visually harvest the first ever meeting of 2 communities in the EU institutions that are close to my heart, the data visualisation and the graphic designers communities.
As mentioned and repeated by the Directors-general of DG COMM, JRC and the EU publications office, these visual thinkers are crucial for the EU communication. With their visuals, communication is more impactful, clear, transparent, meaningful.
As communities, they expressed the same main needs: more sharing among members and communities, and peer support. Wishing them to work more together in collaboration with scientists, communicators, and policymakers.
A tribute to these colleagues who think and work visually:
I discovered after that my graphic recording app, Procreate, records in time lapse my work (all mistakes, attempts, modifications, corrections, etc included). You can watch in less than 5 minutes how I captured live the whole event that lasted a few hours. Interesting, instructive, isn’t it?
Conflict and tension are part of (work) life and can become toxic if ignored. If we address them with care, wisdom can emerge and we can foster safety and trust in our teams.
Based on non-violent communication (NVC) and Theory U, Raffaella Toticchi explained us the 4+1 steps to have the needed conversations in our teams to finally resolve the tension:
Clarify the tension, perceptions and observations
Invite (with care) to have a conversation
Bring out the elephant (in the room)
Go deeper in the di-alogue and sense-making
Resolve the tension and look at further agreements and actions
The talk was part of the “Coffee and Learn” initiative organised by the One-Stop-shop in DG JRC, European Commission.
To best support the EC’s new HR strategy, announced by Gertrud Ingestad Director-General for Human Resources at European Commission, a community of HR professionals has been constituted.
I had the privilege of attending their first meetings where they discussed how to translate their vision into practical ways of convening, collaborating and being user centric. A solid team of expert colleagues guides the first steps of this community of practice.
It’s an emotion to announce that this is the last episode that I produce of the “Stories from the regions” series. After 42 stories, I’ll leave the production to my team who will continue it in DG REGIO, the Regional and Urban Policy department of the European Commission.
I imagined this series a couple of years ago, before the pandemic, as a pure internal communication initiative. My aim was to make my colleagues aware of what they contribute to every day with their work on EU funds and make them proud of it. This is how I asked them to become mobile journalists for me:
To collect with a normal mobile phone the human stories of the beneficiaries of EU funds in the field during their professional trips to the regions of Europe.
To record testimonials on how co-funded projects have had an impact on people’s lives.
With the trainees who were directly involved in the initiative and the colleagues, my team created these short videos from the collected material on the ground. Often with extremely variable quality because none of my colleagues are cameramen or journalists.
The goal was not perfection, but the authenticity of the testimonies in the stories.
Over time, the videos proved to carry a message that could also interest people outside our offices, and so we began to publish the video stories on Youtube and share them on the @EUinmyRegion social networks. The success of the episodes on social media is still modest, but the primary objective is not there. The series is primarily an internal communication tool and as such we have mobilised dozens of colleagues around it. They derived recognition, pride for what they do, and were able to better understand the purpose of their work.
All of this would never have been possible without the unconditional support and help of Agnès MONFRET who believed in the series from the start. She encouraged me, and pushed me, to make it evolve. Merci infiniment Agnès! The support of Marc Lemaître, Director-General in DG REGIO, with his motto “communication is everyone’s business” was also an important element in involving our colleagues in the initiative. Thank you Marc.
And finally, A huge thank you and a special mention for my colleague Marc Rodrigues, my Steven Spielberg! I wish you’ll the best and to continue the series. I will continue to follow you closely.
