How to … use creative methods in research, consultation and facilitation
How to … use creative methods in research, consultation and facilitation
By
Holly Sandiford
Whether you’re thinking about evaluation, research or facilitation, incorporating creative methods can bring new voices and new perspectives into the room.
In this How-to guide, facilitator, evaluator and socially-engaged artist, Holly Sandiford, shares more about why building creative methods into your practice can help to uncover richer data and insight, drawing upon her experience facilitating Cultural Vitality Labs in Norwich, as part of the Centre for Cultural Value’s Cultural Vitality programme.
This resource is split into two parts:
- Below you’ll find a short written introduction to using creative methods and the benefits they can bring to both you, as the researcher, and those you are working with.
- Alongside this, you’ll find a zine, Beyond Post-Its, created and illustrated by Holly. This practical resource is your go-to guide for creative methods, presenting seven simple ideas that you can incorporate or adapt into your own practice. The zine also comes with a helpful planner, with prompts and questions to guide your thinking. We recommend printing out the zine to get the most out of this resource. A plain-text, simplified version of the zine is also available.
Contents
Using creative methods with care
A note about the Evaluation Principles
Capturing what happens around the making
Before using the zine: Beyond Post-Its
Using creative methods with care
This creative methods resource and zine aims to be both useful and practical. It brings together a selection of the creative methods I used to facilitate the Norwich Cultural Vitality Labs, developed over years of working with diverse communities and groups.
My work as a creative health artist, researcher and evaluator has included working with those who may find traditional workshop approaches difficult, or who think and communicate in different ways. These methods come from trying to meet people where they are and finding ways to open up thinking, conversation and connection through making, moving, listening, drawing and working together.
Through the Norwich Cultural Vitality Labs, we explored cultural vitality and cultural ecology, looking at how people across the city understand, support and shape cultural life. The methods in this zine come out of that research process, but can also be adapted for consultation, evaluation, collective thinking and workshop design, and used to help people think, notice, share and connect in different ways.
A note about the Evaluation Principles
Although these are not evaluation methods as such, they do connect with the thinking behind the Centre for Cultural Value’s Evaluation Principles. I have found these useful when thinking about research, especially the principles that focus on People-centred, Robust and Connected ways of working.
For me, the Evaluation Principles provide a useful prompt. Who is in the room? Who might be missing? Are the methods appropriate? Are different voices and experiences being valued? Is the process useful for those taking part? And what happens with the information, views and opinions that participants share?
Why use creative methods?
Post-it notes, surveys, flipcharts and group discussion can all be useful, but on their own, they can miss a lot. They often work best for those who are confident with words, quick to respond and comfortable speaking in groups. We are in danger of missing out on hearing invaluable quieter voices. Moving between individual reflection, pair work, small groups, making, walking and whole group discussion can help overcome such pitfalls.
Creative methods also open up other ways of knowing. Drawing, mapping, walking, listening, making and layering can help people think visually, spatially, emotionally, physically and relationally. When you offer participants more time, this can sometimes help them to move past their usual first answer. This People-centred approach recognises that we do not all think, learn or communicate in the same way.
Making more ways in
Creative methods will not suit everybody all of the time. Some people will prefer a more direct or traditional approach, and that is fine. You cannot always please everyone in a room. But by introducing a range of methods across a session, you are offering multiple ways in. If a group does feel uncomfortable with a method, then I encourage them to adapt it to suit their own needs, e.g. try writing instead of drawing. It’s important to encourage those taking part to draw on their own creative resources and to let them know that there is no right or wrong way to do something.
People should be able to take part in ways that feel possible for them. Again, taking a People-centred approach allows different forms of individual contribution to be valued equally, rather than treated as less important because they may be quieter or naturally prefer to learn in different ways.
Trust, play and facilitation
The way in which a session is facilitated matters as much as the method itself. Creative methods need built-in warmth, care, structure and trust. Take into consideration how people arrive, how the room feels, what happens first and how much confidence people need before they are asked to collaborate.
The first activity can help to set the tone. A gentle drawing activity, a listening exercise, a walk or a simple task with materials can help people move away from formal meeting mode and begin to relax. This is not just a warm-up; it is part of building trust. Drawing each other without looking at the paper is a classic example that never fails to get people laughing and engaging with one another.
When there is more trust in the room, there is usually more space for play, creating an atmosphere where people feel able to experiment and make mistakes. Encouragement helps too, but I try to make it specific. I might notice an interesting connection, a thoughtful choice, a useful question or the way someone has built on another person’s idea. That helps those in the room feel that their thinking is valued, rather than feeling judged on artistic skill.
Working responsively
Good facilitation also means noticing what is happening in the room and adapting as you go. Sometimes you can see that a group dynamic is not quite working, or that someone needs a different way in. You might invite people to move tables, shift into pair work, offer a quieter option or introduce a new activity. These small changes can give people a way to step out of a difficult dynamic without having to name it publicly.
I also find it useful to have a few extra activities in mind, especially simple ones that use the same materials already on the table. Different groups take different amounts of time, and some activities may not land in the way you expect. Having an alternative option ready to go means you can adapt without making the session feel chaotic or overcomplicated.
Capturing what's happening around the making
Some of the richest material can come not only from the things people make, but from the conversations that happen while they are making, walking or looking together. When we have something to do with our hands, or when we are walking side by side, conversations can become less pressured and more natural.
It is worth thinking about how these conversations might be captured. With permission, you might record conversations, use a note taker or invite people to add notes as they go. The creative outputs matter, but they may not tell the whole story.
Making complexity visible
Creative methods can make complexity more visible. A collaged map with drawing and writing, or a tracing paper overlay, can bring together different thoughts and ways of seeing. This Connected approach helps participants take notice of relationships, the context and the wider systems at play.
This is particularly useful when working with relationships, barriers, care, power, belonging, systems or anything that feels difficult to explain in words alone. Visual and material methods can allow contradiction to stay visible. Different experiences can sit alongside each other without being flattened too quickly.
A rigorous approach drawn from Robust practice is not always about making things simple or tidy. Sometimes it is about holding complexity carefully and being honest about what is there.
Access and different needs
Including creative methods in your practice can also help support the accessibility of your sessions. When you design for different ways of learning and communicating, everybody benefits. Some people think through words, some through images, some through movement, some through quiet time and some through conversation with one other person before speaking in a group.
If there is an opportunity beforehand, it can be helpful to ask people how they prefer to learn and participate. Even a short conversation can help you to design with more care.
Giving something back
Research, consultation and evaluation can often feel extractive. People are asked for their ideas, feedback, stories or lived experience, but may not take anything from the experience or be told what happens afterwards. Creative methods can help make the process more reciprocal, but only if they are used with care.
People might leave with a method they can use in their own organisation, a new connection, time to reflect, or a stronger sense of being heard. The process should not only be useful for the organisation, funder or researcher; it should also offer value for those taking part.
In the case of the Cultural Vitality Labs, it was very important that participants remained informed about what was being done with the data they were providing. At the beginning of each session, a facilitator fed back to the group the distillation of the data and how it was being used. Flo Reynolds, Cultural Development Co-ordinator at Norwich City Council, also made sure to share with the group how useful their research and inputs had been:
“The creative methods opened up really rich conversations, with incredibly in-depth data. The sound walk transcripts were especially useful, and using our original collaged maps to create a shared Theory of Change helped us to move from what is to what if, without the stress of beginning with a blank page.”
What happens next?
There needs to be a plan for what happens to the material following the session. This does not need to be overly complicated, but participants should have a sense of why they are being asked to take part, how their contributions will be used and what will happen next.
Taking this Connected approach is important. The work is not only about gathering material. It is also about creating learning, feeding back ideas, building relationships and making sure the process does not just disappear once the session has ended.
If a process spans several sessions, it is also worth considering continuity. People who join later may need more time, context or a different way into the material, because some understanding comes through taking part rather than simply being told what has happened.
Before using the zine: Beyond Post Its
Before you start bringing creative methods into your practice, it is worth taking time to plan the conditions around them. The zine’s planning page provides a series of questions to help with this, including identifying what it is you are trying to understand, who is in the room, what might be hard to say out loud, and how those taking part might contribute in different ways.
The creative methods shared in this zine can act as starting points. They can be adapted, simplified, expanded, made quieter, made more playful, used indoors or outdoors or combined with more traditional approaches.
Take a look at the PDF zine to get started, or a simplified text-based version is also available.
Related resources
Creative methods, cultural vitality and relational consultation practice – an article written by Holly reflecting on using creative methods as part of Norwich’s Cultural Vitality Labs.
How to … conduct a walking interview
The Little Book of Creative Evaluation, by Elisavet Christou, Violet Owen and Pınar Ceyhan
Image credits: Cultural Vitality Labs with Norwich Creative City Compact. Photos by Andi Sapey.
