Tag: Sketchnotes

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Trust: an essential ingredient for teamwork

My colleague Valeria Croce asked me to record visually two fantastic sessions she organised on “Trust” with renowned speakers. I reproduce here, to accompany my visual notes, the essential passages of the articles that Valeria wrote after the sessions, as a report.

Resilient teams: how trust underpins care and performance in teams

Resilient teams: how trust underpins care and performance in teams - Sketchnotes

To trust each other at work is even more important in the context of hybrid or remote work, with limited human interaction and the difficulty to reach out to new people!

Chris Tamdjidi shared with us the evidence and learnings he collected through the years working with teams inside and outside the Commission, focussing on the important role of trust in teamwork. He observed that:

  • It is difficult to build a culture of collaboration: while most teams have established processes to perform tasks, they don’t have established processes to improve how they work together,
  • During Covid he observed an increase in individual productivity, but a decrease in collaborative productivity: it takes more effort to connect with others and collaborate in a remote setting.
  • We risk to work in micro-silos, narrow connections because of remote working – we maintain the relationships we already have, it takes efforts to build new ones.

This is why it is important to build team habits that help strengthen collaboration, team resilience and trust, especially in a hybrid environment. These habits are: Habits of attention; of connection; and of positivity.

Why being trusted (or distrusted) matters

Why being trusted matters? - Sketchnotes

Trust is critical to create an environment where colleagues collaborate, share knowledge, engage and contribute to the achievement of the shared purpose. Yet, trust-based relationships require time to be built. What can we do to start building trust from the very beginning of a new collaborative project with colleagues from outside our team or unit?

Hilary Sutcliffe and Vanja Skoric shared lessons they learned working for over 130 civil society projects.In a nutshell, they identify four areas, where most barriers to trust and collaboration can be found, namely:

  • Prior experiences and assumptions
  • Skills and procedures
  • Culture and incentives
  • Process concerns

Three aspects that are crucial to overcome barriers are: A (truly) shared purpose; a trustworthy process (based on seven drivers of trustworthiness: openness, integrity, competence, inclusion, respect and fairness); and a visible impact.

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Knowledge Management and Collaboration in international organisations: Edge or Curse?

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.

KM and collaboration workshop - Sketchnotes
KM and collaboration workshop - Sketchnotes
KM and collaboration workshop - Sketchnotes
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Hosting and harvesting online VS physical

On 5 May, Amy Lenzo (*) gave an online masterclass on “Hosting and harvesting online VS physical” to the community of practitioners of the Art of Hosting at the European Commission (**). My takeaways (actually apply to any online session):

“It’s not a question of technology, it’s a question of relationships” 

  • 90% of your experience, skills, practice as organiser of physical events can be transposed into online events. Reassuring, isn’t it?
  • The quality of your presence, trust and how you hold space, are just as important online as in the physical world
  • Never host alone an online session, be part of an hosting team
  • The hosting team must consist of at least one process host and one tech host (for all technical aspects) or more for large groups
  • The use of the camera is mandatory for speakers, and highly recommended for all participants (with muted mikes)
  • To keep participants’ attention, speakers can only use the visible/audible part of their body language: their face and their voice. Then, it’s crucial to smile with the whole face and to have a catchy tone and rhythm of voice
  • Keep in mind that everything is amplified online: your voice, your unconscious bias, space and time.
Hosting and harvesting online VS physical, graphic recording

This was also my first live graphic recording using the Procreate app (***). Only a few days after installing it on my tablet (it’s crazy, I know, but I like these challenges). My first learnings to start with Procreate:

  • Many years of experience with layers on Photoshop has helped me a lot. If you’re not familiar with layers, take time to learn how they work and to play with them
  • Select your fave brushes in advance. You can waste precious time looking for what you need during a live event. Mine were Technical pen, Acrylic and Wet Acrylic, and Hard Airbrush (I still have to learn how to have them available in one click)
  • Select your fave colours in advance for the same reason as for the tools (I still have to learn how to create my colour palette in advance)
  • Know the undo/redo gestures

(*) Amy Lenzo on Linkedin – Twitter

(**) At the European Commission, the Art of Hosting is called the Art of Participatory Leadership

(***) https://procreate.art/ipad

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Coronavirus en Belgique: confinements et déconfinements

Quand j’ai écrit cet article en avril 2020, je voulais expliquer simplement les phases du déconfinement avec mes sketchnotes, et décrire sur une ligne du temps comment la Belgique en était arrivée à devoir confiner sa population pour contrer la pandémie du COVID-19. Comme tout le monde, j’avais alors l’espoir qu’avec la fin du déconfinement prévu pour septembre 2020, on en aurait fini avec cette période. Le cours des événements a été fort différent et j’ai été contraint de mettre à jour ma ligne du temps.

23/10/2020: Je dois mettre le titre de cet article au pluriel car la Belgique est maintenant touchée par une deuxième vague importante de cas COVID-19. Des mesures à nouveau strictes remettent le pays dans une situation similaire au premier confinement, après une phase de déconfinement et… de relachement.

27/07/2020: Après les phases de déconfinement compliquées à comprendre mais qui ont donné de l’espoir, la Belgique durci ses mesures en raison de l’augmentation inquiétante du nombre de cas de Covid19.

24/04/2020 (article original):

Le 24 avril, le gouvernement belge annonce sa stratégie de sortie de crise coronavirus. Le temps du confinement dû à la pandémie touche à sa fin, ou pour le moins c’est que l’on espère. Le conditionnel reste toujours de mise car comme l’a dit Madame Sophie Wilmes, première ministre, lors de sa conférence de presse: “

“Le déconfinement est une opération jamais réalisée dans l’histoire de notre pays et dépend de l’évolution de la situation sanitaire et se base sur des hypothèses et des prévisions. […] Rien n’est gravé dans le marbre et certainement pas les échéances.”  Les faits lui ont malheureusement donné raison.

Le moins que l’on puisse dire c’est que le déroulement de la sortie de crise annoncée en 4 phases apparait compliqué et peu clair. Comme quoi, la communication de crise est une tâche très difficile. Pour mieux m’y retrouver, j’ai visualisé sur une ligne du temps les différentes phases de sortie, avec ce qui s’était passé depuis le début de la crise (et les événéments qui ont suivi). J’ai ajouté quelques sketchnotes persos sur la ligne du temps pour faciliter la compréhension de ce qui est à nouveau autorisé, ou interdit.

Ligne du temps de la crise du coronavirus/COVID-19 en Belgique

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Links between stories, skills and tools to create graphics

On 24 April 2020, I attended an interesting online session by Rafael Höhr on “Applications to create graphics in newsrooms“.

Although the title was explicit, we were going to talk about tools to create graphics, I cannot help thinking that tools are not the most important part in the process of creating graphics. Rafael explained this very well during the session and despite everything we spent (too much) time on tools.

The process of creating graphics should follow this order:

  • First, create a story! A story around the questions you want to answer, around what you want to show, around the 5Ws
  • Link your story to skills. Surround yourself with a multi-skilled team that will help you analyze, edit, interpret, tell, graph, animate your data.
  • At the end only, choose the tool (s) best suited to your needs

My sketchnotes of Rafael’s online session:

Apps to create graphics in newsrooms, sketchnotes

Thanks to my colleagues in the EU Publications Office for organising the online session.

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Teleworking mindfully

Being forced to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic brought a lot of uncertainty, fear, big changes to our lives. Teleworking mindfully makes possible to live it better! This is the main message of an online session organised by my colleagues from the EC HR department.

Their presentation is based on the work of two extremely inspiring and inspired persons: the master of mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who described five stages of grief. (it fills me with joy to see how “we” rediscover the Elisabeth’s work during this coronavirus crisis).

Teleworking mindfully, sketchnotes
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We will find meaning in this global pandemic

There are articles that teach you things about yourself and others that explain the thoughts that you have confused in your mind. Scott Berinato’s interview with grief expert David Kessler in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) brought me both things.

Although like everyone else, I can feel anger or sadness during this global coronavirus pandemic, I feel deep inside me the need to stay as much as possible in the present moment. And surely avoid projecting myself into an improbable future due to the current uncertainty. “Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures” as David says.

David Kessler tells us how to behave to deal with grief during these exceptional times:

  • Find balance in the things you’re thinking: best images and worst scenarios
  • Let go what you can’t control
  • Focus on what is in your control
  • Breath
  • Stock up on compassion
  • Feel your feelings and they move through you
  • Let yourself feel the grief and keep going
  • Realise that nothing you’ve anticipated has happened
  • Think about what you feel
  • Name what’s inside of you
  • Name this a grief. “There is something powerful about naming this as grief” Kessler says.

The practice of meditation or mindfulness can greatly help us “To calm yourself, you want to come into the present.”.

David also talks about the sixth stage to grief that come after the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ classic five stages (denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, acceptance): meaning. He concludes by:

I believe we will find meaning in it

David Kessler

My illustration of David Kessler’s interview:

Sketchnote: That discomfort you are feeling is grief

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