Landscape Coloring

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Collect multi-dimensional visual and written feedback on a presentation or project using a shared color key.

Use it when: Use after a presentation, pilot demo, or project walkthrough when a group needs to identify strengths and concerns quickly without lengthy text forms.

Skip it when: Skip when the work requires line-item technical auditing or when public color ratings would create interpersonal anxiety around sensitive individual performance.

Group arrangement: Individual work, then pairs. Form one trio if the participant count is odd.

Timing: UWT suggested 15-minute plan based on the 5 to 15 minute band in original records.

Materials and tools

• One printed Landscape Feedback Sheet per person
• Coloring markers or pencils (Green, Yellow, and Red or Blue; at least 3 distinct shades per person or shared per table)
• Regular writing pens for annotations
• Wall space or whiteboard with tape or pins for hanging sheets

Before participants arrive

1. Print one Landscape Feedback Sheet per participant.
2. Post the color key and landscape zone definitions visibly on a wall or screen.

Say this to open

We will evaluate the presentation using a visual landscape. Each landscape zone stands for a distinct aspect of the work: the sun is the vision, the mountain is the challenge, the path is the action plan, and the river is resource flow. Use the color key on the sheet to fill in each section based on your appraisal, then write a short note explaining your rating. Precise coloring is not expected.

How to run it

1. Introduce landscape key 2 minutes

   Walk through the four landscape zones and the rating colors: Green for clear and strong, Yellow for needs refinement, and Red or Blue for missing or high concern. Remind everyone that letter codes (G, Y, R) or rough scribble work just as well as full coloring.

2. Color and annotate 5 minutes

   Participants work silently. Each person colors or codes the sun, mountain, path, and river zones on their sheet. Each person writes one concrete observation or note beside each zone to explain their rating.

3. Compare in pairs 4 minutes

   Participants pair up to compare sheets. If the count is odd, form one trio. Partners look for zones where their colors match and discuss what drove differences where their colors diverge. They note one shared strength and one shared question.

4. Debrief trends 4 minutes

   Ask three pairs to share the most consistent pattern they observed across their sheets. Tally broad room agreement across the four landscape zones to highlight shared strengths and open questions.

Debrief questions

• Which landscape element showed the strongest agreement across our sheets?
• Where did we see the widest contrast in colors, and what drove that difference?
• What is one concrete adjustment the team or speaker can take from the yellow and red zones?

Finished output: Completed landscape sheets displaying color-coded ratings and written observations across four project dimensions.

Remote

Set up a digital whiteboard (such as Miro) with one landscape frame per person, containing shape fills or pen tools and sticky note fields. Run individual coloring silently. Send participants to breakout rooms of pairs (or one trio for an odd count) for 4 minutes. Bring the room back together to review the visual gallery.

Hybrid

In-person participants complete paper sheets while remote participants complete individual frames on a digital whiteboard. An in-person facilitator photographs physical sheets and adds them to the digital board so both groups inspect the same gallery during the final debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Provide letter codes (G for Green, Y for Yellow, R for Red) alongside colors for participants with color-vision differences.
• Participants may keep sheets private or write notes without applying colors.

If the session gets stuck

Participants spend all their time shading carefully and do not write explanatory notes.

At minute two of individual work, announce that rough scribble or letter marks are preferred over neat artwork so time remains for notes.

Participants use colors outside the posted key, obscuring visual patterns.

Ask them to refer to their written notes to explain their evaluation during partner sharing.

Terms used here

• Landscape Template: A four-part line drawing (sun, mountain, path, river) used to visually map separate components of a presentation or initiative.