4. Create engaging templates

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Image of a five building blocks to create engaging templates can be seen. Five blocks are individually labeled as the following, from left to right: (1) discover your visual language, (2) design your collaboration process, (3) define key questions, (4) create engaging templates, and (5) prepare to scale The fourth block “Create engaging templates” being the longest one. This block consists of a human icon in a confused state seeing at a poster on an easel. Above blocks one to three, two following more posters can be seen: Create clarity and template considerations.

Create clarity

Why templates? A template organizes information visually. A template can provide a framework and create clarity in a process in sections or as a whole. Good templates can handle complexity, focus dialogues, and promote collective learning.

Templates must be adapted to fit the situation; they must be based on the purpose of the process and make use of (some of) your pre-designed process questions.

BUILD YOUR LEARNING ARENA

When you work visually, it makes sense to use the physical surfaces of the room to chart information and structure dialogues. We call this building a visual learning arena. You will find it to your advantage to build your visual learning arena from templates. Your learning arena needs to support your participants in working in a structured, holistic, and systematic manner with their shared knowledge. Each template can be used to frame one element in your process design. Each template has its own purpose, but together the templates all serve the overarching purpose and goal of a given process. Start small. Create a simple template that supports a single part of your process design.

Image of a four human icons, three human icons sitting around the table. Behind them, posters on walls and poster on easel can be seen. Image of multiple parallel lines starting from a single point. Image of a rectangle can be seen. Image of a human icon with a poster “Agenda.” The poster consists of different arrows in half circular manner pointing toward a line encircled in a circular figure. On the left-hand side human icons can also be seen. Image of a poster on an easel. A cartoon image of a three human icons in front of an easel with a poster can be seen. A human icon on the right-hand side can be seen with both hands in open wide state while two human icons on the left-hand side can be seen asking a question stated on the poster on an easel. Image of a blank rectangle image. A cartoon image of a human icon in front of the poster “Timeline” can be seen. The poster consists of an half-circle arrow and thought bubbles around them. This arrow points toward the human icon. Also, this poster consists of bidirectional arrow. One arrow points toward stars and other toward human icons. A check box can also be seen. Image of a blank rectangle image. A cartoon image of the three human icons in front of a poster with different images. One human icon on the left-hand side can be seen with two hands in open-wide state and two human icons on the right-hand side can be seen pointing toward the poster. Image of a blank square image. A cartoon image of the four human icons sitting around the table discussing over a topic. On the centre of the table is the poster with an arrow pointing toward to a line. Image of a blank square with bold boundary. Image of a human icon holding a card with a question and space to enter the answer on it.

Template considerations

When ...

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