Use Word Clouds to Jumpstart Valuable Insights and Conversations (Facilitation Friday #73)
Word clouds are an underutilized tool that more meetings, workshops, and conferences should embrace.
We know a picture is worth a thousand words. But when might a picture actually be comprised of a thousand words … or more?
When it is a word cloud.
Using word clouds once was fairly common. I’m no Justin Timberlake and I certainly can’t bring sexy back, but maybe this post will help bring word clouds back given how useful they are in many facilitation settings.
What is a word cloud?
A word cloud is a visual representation of the frequency of word usage in a document, text file, or web page. The bigger the word as represented in the cloud, the more frequently it is used in the source document.
How do you generate a word cloud?
Free word cloud generators are available online and in app form. They usually allow you at minimum to determine the cloud font, color scheme, and font size. Some offer paid versions that provide more features.
Until it was discontinued in 2021, Wordle was perhaps the most widely used online cloud generator. One I often use because of its simplicity and features is Free Word Cloud Generator. Word cloud plugins are available for ChatGPT and other AI tools. Here is an annotated list of 10 additional word cloud generators to consider.
What are some effective uses for word clouds?
While I sometimes use word clouds simply for decorative or design purposes, their real potential comes as intentional prompts for compelling conversation and insights. Here are a few of the clouds I generate for that purpose:
Comments from program, product, workshop, or conference evaluations
Text from critical public-facing documents such as a strategic plan or annual report
Staff or volunteer job descriptions
Contents of a request for proposal
Survey responses, including customer or member feedback, strategic planning, environmental scanning and trend identification, needs assessments, et al
Summaries of magazines or journal articles
On many occasions, I’ve found it extremely useful to generate separate clouds for text from different sources (documents or demographics) as the simple visual makes it easy to quickly compare and contrast different inputs.
For example, below are two word clouds generated from nonprofit board and staff member responses to this survey question for a strategy conversation I facilitated: What business is the organization in? What is your purpose for existing?
To launch the conversation, I divided participants into their respective groups. Each discussed both words clouds, identifying what stood out most for them, what questions the clouds sparked, and the potential implications of the responses represented in the clouds. Reporting out and facilitated large group discussion followed. It also can be revealing to ask participants to guess what words they think will dominate a cloud and then see how accurate they were.
Are word clouds accessible for individuals who rely on Alt Text?
No, they are not. While Alt Text usually is concise, word cloud descriptions will be lengthier as you need to include the most frequently used words.
Ideally, select a cloud generator that also provides a table of the actual word count. In the Alt Text for your cloud image, you can then cut and paste an appropriate number of the most frequently used words or phrases along with their corresponding counts. I’ll sometimes include a sample of the least common words or phrases as well. You could also provide the complete word count table along with the corresponding image.
Bottom Line
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, and word clouds can provide a meaningful picture to provoke conversation, analysis, idea generation, action identification, understanding, and more. Facilitators should embrace them as a useful tool in their meeting and workshop design.
Getting in Action
Identify a future meeting or workshop when using a word cloud might be desirable and how you would incorporate it into your facilitation efforts.
Take evaluation comments from a meeting, workshop, or conference and generate a word cloud from them. What insights emerge from seeing the responses provided in this format?
Review this list of 52 Word Cloud Examples for Your Meetings and Events and select a handful to experiment with in your future efforts.
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude, 2023. All rights reserved.
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