Case Study: Strategic Planning using Visual Facilitation

In this article I am going to describe what it is like to work with me as a visual facilitator, taking you through the whole process from start to finish. I want to explain what goes into the design of a facilitated session and what it looks and feels like on the day. I’ll use an organisation with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with on several occasions, Neighbourhood Network.

Neighbourhood Network is an Irish social innovation company and registered charity that aims to build social cohesion through neighbour connection. They have multiple projects that facilitate neighbours to connect with each other, host events and build social structures that enable them to be active on issues of local importance. I have been a fan of their most well-known project, Street Feast, since it began in 2010. Street Feast is an annual lunch on the street with your neighbours. It is a simple idea with powerful impact. My first facilitation job for Neighbourhood Network was to facilitate a Street Feast Celebration Day, where Street Feast hosts and volunteers gathered to celebrate their achievements and give feedback to Neighbourhood Network.

Street Feast Think-In Event at Linked In Community Space, Nov 2023.

In 2024 they approached me to help them to begin dreaming about the next stage in their evolution as an organisation. They had grown to a team of 12 people delivering multiple projects centred around neighbourhood connection. Taking time out of the day-to-day operations is a big commitment for non-profit organisations such as Neighbourhood Network. They wanted to provide a space for “Blue Sky” thinking and dreaming about what the future might hold for them. The outcomes of this would feed into a strategic planning process. We were fortunate to have the committment to attend of both staff and board members.

We used Miro to co-design the process, including the 2 facilitated sessions. Miro is a remote collaboration tool that operates like an online whiteboard. I scheduled and hosted the design sessions on Zoom. The first step is to clarify purpose, in order to really understand what outcomes are needed. Once this has been made clear, the next step is for me design a process that I think is going to achieve the outcomes defined, as well as respond to other needs such as social connection or to have fun. Finding a suitable venue is also key to facilitating an engaging, participative and visual workshop (lots of wall space ideally!) For Neighbourhood Network’ Blue Skies workshops we planned the two sessions in advance, knowing we would have 4 weeks between them to take on feedback and make changes.

In the session themselves, we used a combination of printed visual templates (for individual or small group work) and very large visual templates hand-drawn onto paper (for full group participation). The visuals provide both a structure for the discussion and a way to present it visually so that the whole group can see what is emerging. In this case, we co-created a fun "Organigram” using Polaroid photos, string and post-its. This was to both allow some social connection and also to present an image of the organisation that included the relationships between people. It allowed each individual to describe their role and also think about how their role is interconnected with others. Later, in small groups with the support of a specially designed visual template, participants were invited to “Dream Big” and create an annual report from the year 2023 for Neighbourhood Network.

For the second Blue Sky workshop, I took the “Annual Report” work that the participants did and visualised them using an AI tool to bring their ideas to life in a fun, colourful way. (Note: this was a once-off experiment and I have no plans to use AI again.) We then brought all the activities together in a single, large visual template that followed the structure of a Strategic Plan. It included target audiences, activities, outcomes, impact, trends and stakeholders. This allowed us to see all of the individual threads of thinking in one coherent whole. It also showed us some gaps and conversations that still needed to be had before a plan could be written. After the Blue Sky workshops I collated all the participants’ work on Miro and sent a Harvest pdf to Neighbourhood Network.

In January 2025 I helped Neighbourhood Network review a pilot project that was approaching completion. Our Shared Plate is a community climate action project that partners with local authorities to empower neighbourhoods to “grow, cook and eat food together”. We hosted an audience of stakeholders in Dublin’s Wood Quay event centre to “Stop, Build and Reflect.” For this workshop I prepared lots of flipchart sheets with questions that we had worked out together. I facilitated Carousel conversations that allowed everyone to share a perspective on each critical question, but also allowed for people from different stakeholder perspectives to hear from each other.

Our next piece of work began in March 2025. The outcome of this was to have a draft Strategic Plan, ready to be approved by the Board. Neighbourhood Network wanted an inclusive but efficient process to have this in place by end of May. Again, we worked on Miro together to co-design a process that involved both desktop research and a facilitated workshop. Working with a Strategy SubGroup, we developed a new Theory of Change on Miro. This led to the formation of a draft Vision, Mission and set of Pillars which defined specific strategic areas of work. We brought these to a full-day workshop with all staff and board in April 2025 to get their input. We also brainstormed a set of Values that people felt reflected the work of Neighbourhood Network. As a values-driven organisation this part was particularly important. We titled this workshop, “From Blue Skies to Open Seas” and used a visual metaphor of a 3-masted schooner embarking on a voyage. Visual metaphors, especially if they emerge organically from the group can be powerful containers for meaning-making in a group. In our 2024 Blue Sky workshops the metaphor of a fleet of different types of sea-going vessels emerged. Our goal,at that time was to align and all start moving in the same direction. In 2025, the metaphor of the schooner emerged, a single vessel with 3 powerful masts harnessing the wind to move the whole ship out to sea. The results of this workshop was harvested onto Miro and summarised. The Strategy Sub Group worked to craft the exact wording for all elements of the new Strategy. I was also interviewing stakeholders at this time. Our final outcome was a draft Strategy document that is now with the Board for consideration.