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when I look at my calendar this morning. No appointments, calls, or video chats, no classes or deadlines for today! While there’s lots to be done, I am the designer of my day—and I LOVE it! Sure, we all have (varying degrees) of opportunity to shape our days—this one is bliss for me, as I am feeling overstuffed of late. The chance to plan, prepare, and dive into my projects is exhilarating. What about you? How are you feeling about your days (and evenings)? Have you figured out how to ride the waves of work, opportunity, and connection — both ...
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I came to the realization slowly… after I had written and drawn all my thoughts. The ideas, questions, concerns, and feelings of frustration, curiosity, and uncertainty were still fresh for me. Once I stepped back from my drawing and realized that I was using it as a reflection and self-coaching tool, I had to chuckle! Templates, creating vision maps (hand-drawn, as different from visions boards {though I do that too and LOVE it}), and capturing coaching client sessions by graphically recording them (for my notes of the experience) are all in my wheelhouse… but I had never done this before ...
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How did you get to where you are now? Was yours a rather straight path to your current work or were there bends in the road or interesting side trips that enriched your travel to your current destination? Over the past few weeks, I‘ve been having conversations with folks from around the world about how I found my way to being a visual practitioner. People are curious as to the path I have taken… and I get it! How did I shift from teacher to instructional designer to principal to administrator to my current foci/passions for the roles of trainer, ...
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Do you have a sense of where in the world your work can be found and how it is being seen, understood, and, perhaps, used? Just a few days ago, I woke up early, checked in on social media, and became emotionally involved with a post. Truth be told, I wrote a fairly thoughtful response to the visual and shared it, then I edited the post, shared my thoughts a second time, and edited it a second time, all within the space of less than five or six minutes. By the third posting, I took it down and replaced my ...
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It's been a wonderful two weeks of sussing out interesting sources, reading, listening, thinking, and drawing about feedback! Where I was last week… I have been doing a deep dive into my course notes from Responding to the Call of Our Times (NVC Academy) with Miki Kashtan/www.thefearlessheart.org, resources from Mary Alice Arthur's site, the field of Appreciative Inquiry and my notes from readings and thinking over the years. I want to share this still in-process work with you—to invite you into where I am in sifting and sorting material to create a cohesive picture… This week’s musings… In looking at ...
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I’m curious about your thinking! I’m up to my eyebrows in thoughts and questions around the topic of feedback. I engage in giving feedback almost every day, and I often articulate the context of my approach yet I want to dig deeper... When I look up the dictionary definition, it feels incomplete—it’s not big enough or inclusive enough or human enough... so I am on a quest to re-define it for myself and enhance the processes I offer my clients. And, I want your help. Would you share the following with me? How do you come to the topic of ...
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Don’t you love it when an idea that has been bubbling, just at the edges of your consciousness, springs forth in full bloom from a completely serendipitous encounter? I sure do! Habits from “before” are supporting me now… For the past few months, I have taken to listening to a podcast early in the morning—specifically those that feed my soul and inspire my thinking. It’s become my time to quietly enjoy the start to the day… it is such a treat! What are your rituals—whether they start your day, are a breather during your work, or a nighttime delight? In ...
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As I pondered the subject of today’s post, I was struck by several ideas simultaneously. I want to

• create a visual of what I am living/experiencing right now in my life
• use a new technique in Procreate to illustrate my vision
• share a shift in my thinking about living my life/our lives right now.

So, of course, this idea for creating the visual came to me last night, as I was reflecting on a conversation I’d had just the day before with a potential client about how/in what ways visuals can be used in the workplace. I had ...
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You know how you do something for so long… that you don’t even think about how you do it—it’s second nature? Then someone changes the way you think about it or approach it and well… then it’s really different? A colleague, whom I know through bringing Bikablo to her neck of the woods almost a year and a half ago, is working on her coach certification. In our wide-ranging conversation about what’s new since we last spoke and planning future Bikablo sessions, she asked if I would be one of her practice clients. Who doesn’t love a free coaching session ...
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Our Setting—Agile Coach Camp at the South Patio Club in Gurugram, India Imagine a lovely, warm, setting in a venue created for small events... people are milling about, drinking coffee, getting to know one another or reconnecting with colleagues, and there's a sense of anticipation in the air. Our Task Agile Coach Camp, (an initiative of Agile Alliance), uses Open Space Technology to enable participants to easily share questions, experiences, discoveries, learnings, and offers opportunities to generate ideas for solutions to the challenges put forward. Honestly, I find OST to be a gamble… I have had both excellent and less ...
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I am wondering if you took up the challenge I proposed a few weeks ago... Did you think through, and perhaps sketch out, how you talk about the work you do so you can explain it easily to others? Do you have some drawings to share? I hope so! Sharing my love of the bikablo method As I put my fingers to the keyboard, I’m chuckling… once again my strength of creativity has gotten me into trouble! While I have a new, hand-drawn, very different version of the visual that “describes” my work… I am already thinking of yet a ...
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Just yesterday morning, while out for our morning walk, I realized that so many of my work-life realities are mirrored in my daily experiences with Gus. Surround yourself with the people that support you. To do our best work we need to feel grounded, with folks who understand us, and who will also challenge us in ways that make us grow. Eat right and make time for play. It’s basic, yet how often do we overlook our physical, mental, and emotional well-being? How can we make the habit/the time to eat in ways which nourish us (take a break at ...
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When was the last time you faced that moment, when you knew that you would need to bridge the gap between the work you do and people’s lack of familiarity with your field? Just the other week I was a professional association meeting (the name remains secret to protect the identity), which began with the typical unstructured networking time that I so loathe. I know some folks who attend the meetings and I feel compelled to say hello and chat for a bit. I don’t know lots of folks and want to meet them, as that is in large part, ...
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I have just a few goals this year— and I am working at being just fine with that (it's a process). I have taken to heart the work of Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. It’s time to focus ONLY on what I do best, and that’s difficult for me.  I LOVE so many things and do more than one or two of them rather well—like most people! How do you come to this conversation? Are you enjoying an abundance of many passions, ideas, and goals or are you more laser-like in your focus? How ...
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Just last week I had an inkling that this bold, desirable, and challenging choice might be too audacious to achieve. I designed a month of work for myself that was just a wee bit over the top—with training, travel, projects and new initiatives. By the second week of the month, I found myself having to apologize to a few folks for my delay in responding to their emails. I started to feel frustrated and that turned to feeling troubled, bordering on disheartened, though not hopeless. How about you? What successes are you experiencing with your resolution(s)? While I hope they’re ...
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What do you find challenging in your work? My challenge is truly integrating my new learning with my existing knowledge to create new approaches, content, and materials. Remembering/refreshing my memories of what I have learned over time with new concepts and practices is daunting and yet delicious! Just this month… I chose to step into the opportunity to unite two areas of interest to support my practice. I joined the “Commit to Sit—A 90-Day Commitment to Practice” program offered by Koshin Paley Ellison, one of the founders of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. It’s a wonderful opportunity ...
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With just a few days distance from 2019, I can without hesitation, claim that it was a year of great opportunities, unexpected personal challenges, and ultimately, one of transformation. What about you? Where did you begin the year? What hopes and dreams materialized as planned, what difficulties did you face, and what did you experience, learn, and accomplish? My highlights were

• sifting and sorting through all the types of work I have done through the years and landing in a new, more cohesive, place and space/site (www.jillgreenbaum.com)
• reviewing and reflecting upon my visual practitioner work, and creating a visual ...
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When is the last time you devoted your precious time, energy, and resources to attend a retreat, conference, or meeting? How’d it go for you? What did you learn along the way and in reflection after the event? Earlier this month, I participated in a story-prototyping lab—Friday evening to Sunday evening—that’s a big commitment! It’s an aspect of my work that I enjoy yet it’s not central to what I do. I was intrigued with the opportunity to meet folks in different fields—film, graphic design, illustrators, cartoonists, advertising, marketing—and to use our collective skills to create an original visual narrative ...
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It’s been a whirlwind of experiences! The last three weeks have held:

• the six day Fast and Loose Sketching Retreat with Christina Merkley and Rhoda Draws in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• the last of three NYCNVC (nonviolent communication) Integration Program retreats
• and, a bikablo training at University of St. Thomas (as part of my bikablo + Lettering partnership with Heather Martinez)

I won’t lie, with all the work and play of the last three weeks, it’s been challenging to cleave to my goal of immediate application of my new knowledge and skills. In each of my experiences, ...
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I am super-excited to be preparing to go to San Miguel de Allende for Fast & Loose Sketching with Christina Merkley and Rhoda Draws (yes, that is really her last name—these days). The Backstory… I have been thinking about this trip for almost a year now. When I first started seeing Christina post about a drawing course she was taking in Mexico during, wait for it, Day of the Dead, I was intrigued. I was diligent in tracking down Rhoda, asking about her schedule for this year, and then had to sit on my hands and wait until decisions about ...
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I am passionate about being in connection with folks. And, I’ve realized of late (through doing a deep dive into Nonviolent Communication Training) that I have a need to contribute. The question of how to share my love of visualization/visual thinking/drawing with more folks for whom this work is intriguing, a bit foreign, perhaps even scary, has been rolling about in my mind. Honestly, I have done more than my share of coordinating groups and meetings over the years. I have no desire to be the glue that holds a group of folks together. I’m searching for people who share ...
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Yay! It FINALLY feels like fall is here! I bask in the memories of getting ready for the adventures of a new school year. Getting new notebooks, organizing pens, markers, and pencils, making book covers from grocery bags—wow, there’s a memory—are the stuff of halcyon days. Before diving into the remainder of this year, I’m getting out my iPad and Apple Pencil and envisioning the future… I’ve drafted it here. Are you feeling the same? I am asking myself,

• Where have I been this year—both literally/on the planet, mentally, and emotionally?
• Where am I now and what are my ...
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The reality feels more nuanced to me,,, I get it. Folks all want to feel like they have their lives under control—I like to feel that way too. The idea of balance, feels really cozy and, well, balanced, stable. It seems like an ideal to be realized, that becomes a way of living, a practice. My life feels different. The idea I have worked with, and endeavored to achieve over the past dozen years or so is, harmony. So while there are days that I feel like this I am always seeking this Years ago, early in having my own ...
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I’m so happy that you’re here! I am passionate about bridging the chasms that sometimes open up in our daily conversations. When interactions become challenging, I turn to my existing tools that I may not be using fully, or look for new resources to support me and others. I find the ways in which we engage with each other endlessly fascinating, and quite often, amenable to immediate change. Just over two weeks ago, I hosted a session, “Why is this conversation so difficult?” at the International Forum of Visual Practitioner’s annual conference. We did a deep dive into our personal ...
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