Drawing Together
Drawing Together is a visual thinking exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Introduce the idea of drawing together by drawing and describing the meaning of each symbol. 5 min.
- Invite participants to practice drawing the five symbols: circle, rectangle, triangle, spiral, star person. 5 min.
- Invite participants to combine the symbols to create the first draft of a story, working individually and without words, about “the journey” of working on a challenge or an innovation. 10 min.
- Invite participants to create a second draft, in which they refine their story by dramatizing the size, placement, and color of the symbols. 10 min.
- Ask participants to invite another individual or their small group to interpret their drawings. Remind them that the person who has done the drawing does not speak. 5 min.
- Ask the whole group, “Together, what do the drawings reveal?” Use 1-2-4-All with larger groups. 5 min.
- Below: Visual stories created in 40-minute Drawing Together sessions
- Below: Visual stories created in 40-minuteDrawing Together sessions
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Invite participants to practice drawing the five symbols: circle, rectangle, triangle, spiral, star person. 5 min.
Invite participants to combine the symbols to create the first draft of a story, working individually and without words, about “the journey” of working on a challenge or an innovation. 10 min.
Invite participants to create a second draft, in which they refine their story by dramatizing the size, placement, and color of the symbols. 10 min.
Ask participants to invite another individual or their small group to interpret their drawings. Remind them that the person who has done the drawing does not speak. 5 min.
Ask the whole group, “Together, what do the drawings reveal?” Use 1-2-4-All with larger groups. 5 min.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Drawing Together. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Invite participants to practice drawing the five symbols: circle, rectangle, triangle, spiral, star person. 5 min.; Invite participants to combine the symbols to create the first draft of a story, working individually and without words, about “the journey” of working on a challenge or an innovation. 10 min.; Invite participants to create a second draft, in which they refine their story by dramatizing the size, placement, and color of the symbols. 10 min.; Ask participants to invite another individual or their small group to interpret their drawings. Remind them that the person who has done the drawing does not speak. 5 min.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Liberating Structures; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Liberating Structures, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to Amy Lenzo in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.