Emerging opportunities in post-graduate public health education for health systems development School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Guidelines for the development of a Rich PictureFacilitated by Nikki Schaay, SOPH, UWC

Reflective task: What do you see as the emerging opportunities for your institution in relation to developing new models and approaches to post-graduate public health education?

Draw a rich picture to illustrate this. In doing this you might want to consider things like:

What are most exciting and interesting ideas you have about these new models and approaches?

Your starting point (where you are now) and your end point (where you would like to be at the end of this year, next year or in 5 years’ time – whatever is appropriate to you)

The journey do you need to take over the next while: what are the anticipated obstacles and hurdles along the way? What will slow things down? What will accelerate things?

What are the institutional and/or legal frameworks that you need to consider, investigate and/or challenge along the way?

How you will approach the design of your new endeavours (curriculum, materials etc) and what resources you can draw on?rich

Are there particular people (role players) that you need to bear in mind, hold a dialogue with and/or negotiate with? What are their perceptions about these opportunities?

Are there any significant connections or linkages between all the ideas, the groups of people and the path(s) that you have drawn – that you think would be important to highlight?

Rich pictures are pictorial representations of a complicated situation which can include issues, ideas, connections, people, relationships, influences, cause-and-effect, characteristics, points of view and prejudices, and so on. In fact, they depict everything you perceive to be part of the situation you are concerned with.

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What is a Rich Picture & how does one develop one?

They are used to gather information about a complex - or what some would call a ‘messy’ situation. They are an attempt to encapsulate the real situation through a no- holds-barred, cartoon representation of as much as possible about the situation or the idea in all its “messiness”.

“A Rich Picture is a way to explore, acknowledge and define a situation and express it through diagrams to create a preliminary mental model. A rich picture helps to open discussion and come to a broad, shared understanding of a situation.”

Source: Kaye Stevens, Better Evaluation. Evaluation options, viewed 17/05/15, <http://betterevaluation.org/evaluation-options/richpictures>

There are no hard and fast rules in drawing a rich picture. You can draw in any way that speaks to YOU and helps you to express your response to this question.

HERE ARE A FEW GUIDELINES:1

Gathering materials: Start with a large piece of paper and some colored pens or crayons.

Getting started:

“Many people are wary of drawing their first rich picture. Some object that they cannot draw. The good news is that you don’t need to have any artistic talent. Indeed, my experience is that sometimes artistic people get sucked into creating an aesthetically pleasing picture rather than sketching rich, interconnecting visual notes. The good news is that if you could draw when you were five, then you have all the talent you need to draw a good rich picture.”

Source: Rosalind Armson, Growing Wings on the Way: Systems Thinking for Messy Situations, Rich Pictures, viewed 17/05/15, <http://www.triarchypress.net/growing-wings---rich-pictures.html>

Simply represent everything you know about the situation – both the factual data and subjective information.

The situation is full of resources for, as well as obstacles to, taking action. A key tip here is to make sure there is plenty of activity in your picture… Include people (and in their context), their roles, relationships; relevant history; organizations, departments, teams; processes; issues, needs, thoughts and ideas; dreams, targets, goals, aspirations; obstacles, concerns, reactions, responses, conflicts; resources, tools, equipment, buildings, objects…Use metaphors. Show interconnections. Make it rich!

“Some people get ‘white-paper panic’. If you find it difficult to start, just draw a squiggle in the middle of the page. It will break the intimidating power of the empty white paper. Don’t do preliminary sketches. The first rich picture will be good enough…Don’t get hung up about ‘getting it right’ or using the right symbols.”

Source: Rosalind Armson, Growing Wings on the Way: Systems Thinking for Messy Situations, Rich Pictures, 1 Adapted from Rosalind Armson. Growing Wings on the Way: Systems Thinking for Messy Situations, Rich Pictures, viewed 17/05/15, <http://www.triarchypress.net/growing-wings---rich-pictures.html>

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viewed 17/05/15, <http://www.triarchypress.net/growing-wings---rich-pictures.html>

Place all elements on your sheet of paper wherever it feels right to put them.

Drawing elements on sticky notes can be very effective in the early stages of drawing a rich picture. You can move them around until the rich picture clearly represents the situation as you see it.

Don’t use too many words. Words can be used as labels, as exclamations in speech bubbles and in other brief ways but not as sentences and paragraphs that need to be read.

Consider including yourself in the picture as well.

Consider key themes from your rich picture that you might want to explore further or that are of interest for further enquiry.

Consider developing a title for your rich picture.

Additional reading:Here is a simple animation about the process of developing a rich picture in a small group:The Open University, Systems Thinking and Practice: Diagramming. Available at:http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/

In case you need a visual clue about what rich pictures might look like – here are a few examples:

Source: http://networkingaction.net/

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Source: http://betterevaluation.org/evaluation-options/richpictures

Source: http://sites.miis.edu/thinksystems/second-day-lessons-and-activities/

Source: http://www.sswm.info/content/rich-pictures

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