Communication is a crucial issue. Do we talk about the same? Did the other one understood?
In order to make sure that the common objective is clear and everybody talks about the same, the use of art to visualize the content can be of great help. The additional benefit of drawing pictures becomes even more meaningful if you are acting in multilingual settings.
One specific area in which the mean of art can be very effective is the process of getting commitments. Imagine a group of people with different understandings of for example “greening”. A workshop from the GIZ was conducted in order to talk about a common strategy in “greening” Vocational Training in Vietnam. The participants, principles of vocational training institutes, were asked to explain their visions. In the end of the workshop day activities for “greening” their school should be agreed on. A wide variety of different sets of outputs had to be presented, discussed and agreed on in the workshop.
The easiest way to document and recheck if all and everybody has understood is capturing the spoken words in drawings. The following pictures were taken at the workshop in April 2014. The participants agreed on divers’ activities that are to be undertaken until September 2014.
The drawing is the summary of the agreed outcome and all was successfully done in only one day. For the mid-term review those kind of visual protocols can be used again to evaluate the process and continue working on it.
For more information about “greening” Vocational Training read our reference article here (bitte link setzen zu reference -> green education4 vocational training in Vietnam.
