Drawing People Out: Discover the Art of Making Meetings Visible
with Deirdre Crowley, Founder of Crowley & Company

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Touchstone Consulting, 1920 N St. NW
6th Floor, Gallileo Room

6:30 p.m.: light dinner and schmoozing.
7 p.m.: workshop and discussion.
$20 at the door. Includes parking under the building for arrivals before 7 p.m.

A lively evening awaits you at our next Appreciative Inquiry Gathering where we'll discover how to bring our meetings to life through the magic of graphic facilitation. Experience the fun and power of graphic facilitation as you practice basic visual tools for capturing ideas in real time. Graphic facilitation infuses your meetings with playful visual storytelling that organizes data and reflects group processes to boost collaboration, creativity and innovation. Deirdre Crowley will guide us through a strategic planning process as we learn to use visual tools and practice simple drawings. You'll gain an understanding of how to make concepts visual, learn where to find more resources, and take away a template you can use. Click on the link above to RSVP, and join us for an engaging hands-on learning event filled with color!

About Deirdre Crowley
Based in Washington, D.C., Deirdre Crowley founded Crowley & Company in 2004 and has since facilitated strategic planning processes and conducted workshops throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. She has become a recognized leader and innovator in the increasingly critical field of graphic facilitation and strategic visioning through her commitment to helping groups move from an understanding of current realities to the ultimate achievement of their goals and visions.  

Deirdre's government client list ranges from the US Department of Defense to the National Institutes of Health, the President's Cancer Panel, the Ministry of Education of Guatemala, and the Ministry of Health of Tanzania. Public sector clients include Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Mars Incorporated, Glaxo Smith Kline, and Deloitte. She and her associates at Crowley & Company have also worked with several non-profit organizations ranging from the Aspen Institute to the National Breast Cancer Coalition, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and UNESCO. Crowley & Company's communication design work has been used in presentations to Congress and to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and has been reproduced in multiple languages around the world.

Deirdre has been instrumental in advancing the standards of the graphic facilitation profession, creating The Graphic Facilitation University program for the Mid-Atlantic Facilitators Workshop in 2008. She is also a founding partner of the Philadelphia-based consulting firm Strategy Arts; a senior associate with The Grove Consultants International in San Francisco; and an associate staff member of the Center for Evidence-Based Education in Princeton,New Jersey.

Deirdre received her BA in Education and English from Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. She worked for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and Citizens Bank in Rhode Island prior to four years of service as a volunteer and trainer with the US Peace Corps in Jamaica. She entered the field of graphic facilitation in 1994.

We are AI practitioners, federal staff, OD students, nonprofit leaders, government and corporate change agents and anyone interested in making positive change. We are a gathering of diverse individuals who endorse Appreciative Inquiry as an informing philosophy and methodology that supports positive, strength-based change in any number of settings. We come together to share information on topics like knowledge management, storytelling, strategic planning, conflict resolution, whole systems change, etc.

The philosophy and the methodology are scalable and applicable to families, communities, workplaces, and day to day living. It offers a new way of thinking that reframes questions from ”What’s Wrong?” to “What’s Right?” and then asks how can we do more of what’s working. We move from problem solving to solution finding. This shift in paradigm is essential when thinking about new ways of seeing the world and engaging in possibility thinking that leads to new actions and different outcomes.

We are a gathering of people interested in finding new ways to imagine and mobilize possibilities that will have a positive impact on our families, communities, governments and organizations. If you are interested in learning more about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) - whether you have had training or not - you are welcome to our Appreciative Inquiry Learning Community!

from A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.

Ap-pre’ci-ate, v., 1. valuing; the act of recognizing the best in people or the world around us; affirming past and present strengths, successes, and potentials; to perceive those things that give life (health, vitality, excellence) to living systems 2. to increase in value, e.g. the economy has appreciated in value. Synonyms: VALUING, PRIZING, ESTEEMING, and HONORING.

In-quire’ (kwir), v., 1. the act of exploration and discovery. 2. To ask questions; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities. Synonyms: DISCOVERY, SEARCH, and SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION, STUDY.

A shift in thinking is required to re-frame questions from those that seek to  problem-solve to those that find solutions. Instead of asking “What is wrong with this situation?” ask “What is right in this situation?”   As we look for the root causes of success, we can build on the things that are working.

This shift does not deny that problems exist, but it does shift the way one looks at problems.  What may be seen as a problem from one perspective may offer an opportunity when seen from a different perspective.