Intro to Powerful Habits Series

Get the Picture’s Lisa E. recently read “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” and was so motivated by what she learned that she created this awesome visual summary of the book.

Written by New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg, the book describes the science of habits, explains how patterns affect productivity, and teaches us how changing patterns in your life and your business can make all the difference between wild success and total failure.

As Duhigg explains, our brain is consistently looking to conserve energy so it “chunks” sequences of actions together, developing automatic routines in our behavior – those actions we tend to do mindlessly – which leaves room for it to focus on other things.

In order to change an automatic routine or habit, it’s important to understand the way they work. Like Lisa E. illustrates in the second wheel, habits are circular. The loop begins when we are triggered by something that initiates one of our automatic routines with the goal of achieving a certain reward.

• Cue: The time hits 3 PM.
• Routine: You leave your desk to get coffee.
• Reward: You get a 15-minute break from work.

The Golden Rule of habit change, as shown in the third wheel, is keeping the same cue and reward, but changing the routine in the middle. So, instead of getting coffee every afternoon, perhaps you could take a 15-minute walk at 3 PM instead. That way you get the reward you’re looking for … and add a little exercise and rejuvenation into your day without extra caffeine! See how that works?

What Duhigg teaches us is that people aren’t the only ones with habits. Organizations and industries have them as well. By paying close attention to their routines, businesses can encourage the good ones, and change the ones that are detrimental to their success.

Understanding how habits can affect the success or failure of an industry, Get the Picture took on a self-directed project to interview a dozen veteran graphic practitioners and facilitators with the intent to uncover the best habits for fully leveraging the power of using visuals. The practitioners we spoke with wholeheartedly agree… 

Visuals are meant to be a thinking tool, not just a recording device.

Besides gathering lots of insightful information on how graphics, when well-integrated, can produce high levels of excitement, increase participant interaction and encourage higher-level thinking that leads to new insight – we’ve also learned that although more and more people are turning to visuals as a resource, far too many of them do not get the full value out of working with a facilitator and graphic recorder in their meetings.

Oftentimes, what you find when visuals are not being utilized to their full extent, is that both the client and the facilitator are new to graphic recording, meaning neither of them has experienced the full depth of potential the tool or their graphic recorder have to offer.

Introducing … 

In an effort to further the graphic recording field and support clients in getting the most from this increasingly popular method, we’ve decided to launch a new blog series, “Powerful Habits to Maximize the Benefits of Graphic Recording in Meetings.”

Over the next several posts, we’re going to share advice based on what we’ve learned from our research to show you:

• How to optimize graphic recording as a thinking tool during meetings
• Ways to get beyond using visuals as just a cool way to take notes
• Methods for properly integrating graphic recordings into your meeting process
• Creative strategies for collaborating with a graphic artist
• And a whole lot more!

As the field of practitioners expands, practices diversify and the demand for graphic recording increases, we’re excited to promote the use of visuals as a process tool and support the development of good habits for using graphic recording.

Check back soon for our first post to discover exciting ways to get the ultimate value out of your meeting visuals. Learn how to fully (and meaningfully) integrate graphic recording into your entire meeting process and be sure to take part in the conversation by leaving your comments below.