VisualsSpeak blog

This is a question we received from a member of the VisualsSpeak Community.
“What is a way to use the pictures to close a meeting/seminar/coaching?”
Good question. I’ll suggest an answer or two, but I’m sure there are many ways to go about this. If you, the reader, have a suggestion please leave it in the comments box.

Because we are talking about the end of a meeting, etc, I think the best use of a photograph would be to try to cement the learning or the outcome. For example a simple exercise would be to ask the participants to “Chose a photograph that symbolizes one thing you learned today”. Or “Chose a photograph that represents something you can take away from this meeting”. There are a number of variations on this theme which should be tailored to your audience and the outcome you want to reinforce.

This is a good way to get people to remember one important aspect of the meeting. People will tend to remember an idea if they associate an image with it. Its important to allow the participants to choose their own photograph, because each person ’sees’ and remembers in a different way. If I associate a team goal with a photo of a butterfly and you see it as a lighthouse, then it may not be as ’sticky’ for either of us if the facilitator has picked out a picture of a pick-up truck for the whole group to use.

Another possibility would be to use the photographs as a way to affirm the group or its individual members. For example, ‘Chose one photograph that represents one of the group’s strengths’. Have the person speaking show their photo to the other members of the group as they speak. This is a nice way for people to not only hear the affirmation but to also ’see’ it as well. Again using a multi-sensory approach is more sticky or memorable. Important Note: As the facilitator, you need to be able to sense that everyone is leaving the meeting in a positive frame of mind and will be able to honestly express an affirmation. Otherwise asking for an affirmation is a leading question that could cause problems.

Photograph © Tom Tiernan

OK, so let’s practice a bit. Look at this photograph and tell me what you learned from reading this blog post? OR What are you taking away from this post that you will be able to apply to your business? OR What affirmation do you want to share with the writer of this post????

Here’s another tip. Don’t ask your participants leading questions such as above. As hard as it might be to believe, there may be one or two people on the planet who might not have something positive to say about this post. I know that’s incredibly hard to believe, but there is the possibility.

Have any suggestions for using photos to end a meeting? Leave them in the comments box so that everyone can benefit.

Thanks for the question.

Tom Tiernan
VisualsSpeak LLC