Welcome to our Inspiring Communication Through Images Blog.
Hi we are Christine Martell and Tom Tiernan, owners of VisualsSpeak. We have been helping Trainers, Facilitators, and Consultants to improve results for their clients with VisualsSpeak since 2004. We draw on over twenty years of training and facilitation experience to provide you with innovative ideas and tools to enhance the results you get for your clients.
VisualsSpeak is primarily a business that helps professionals enhance their communication processes. With the increased pressure to get better, faster results, professionals are turning to tools that are more customizable, engaging, and get results quickly. Our VisualsSpeak ImageSet is the tool of choice for many professionals due to its flexibility and wide range of applications.
In addition to our tools and techniques we provide our customers and clients with a wide range of resources such as a free e-Newsletter, Blog, a Resources section on our website, and one-on-one coaching.
Our blog is for:
- Sharing ideas and resources about facilitating, training and consulting
- Using visual tools to enhance communication
- Empowering people to become better at what you do and the results you deliver to your clients
What is a Blog?
A blog is just another way to communicate with people. Some of them are specific to particular audiences such as consultants, facilitators, etc, while others are more general in nature such as putting personal thoughts out for others to read.
Why Blog?
There are as many reasons to blog as there are people. Our VisualsSpeak blog is geared towards being a resource for trainers, facilitator, consultants and other professionals who use our tools and tecniques. It is a way to offer information that can be accessed on an as-needed-basis. A blog makes getting new information out to our community fast and efficient and it is much more economical than having to print and mail materials.
How should I use your Blog?
Use our Blog as a resource for when you want other perspectives on group or individual processes. Sometimes you may not be able to find an article that specifically relates to your profession or situation, but you might find ideas that can be adapted to fit your needs.
How do I navigate your Blog?
There are a number of ways to do this.
- Chronological order. You can read through the articles chronologically. The newest blog post (article) appears at the top of the Blog homepage.
- “Search blog posts”. On the upper right side of the page is a “Search blog posts” field. Enter the word or term you are interested in and click the search button.
- “Topics”. Look at posts sorted by “Topics”. Click on a topic to see all of the articles related to that topic (right side of page).
- “Recent Posts”. On the right side of the page is a column for “Recent Posts” which is an easy way to see if any of the more recent posts might be of interest to you.
- “Other posts related to this topic”. At the bottom of many posts are links to other posts on a related topic.
Our Philosophy
Our success depends on your success. Our relationship is a partnership. Your successful use of our tools and techniques is critical to our success. We are always looking for ways to innovate based on your feedback.
We value long-term relationships. We want to work with you on a long-term basis and have you feel you could recommend us to a colleague without hesitation. We invite you to give us feedback… the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Holistic facilitating approaches work best. A holistic approach is one that engages both the creative and analytical parts of people. VisualsSpeak tools and techniques are designed to tap into the deep creative aspects of ourselves to solve problems, generate ideas, and to make deep connections with people.
Experiential processes have the ability to transform individuals and groups. Getting everyone involved in a process and giving them a voice in the outcome is how to engage people most effectively.
Empower people “ Don’t put them in a box. Our processes are participant-led and don’t rely on an interpretation by an expert. Clients are the only ones who can correctly identify, label and clarify their ideas, beliefs and values. As facilitators, our job is to offer guidance for how clients can get deeper insights and be able to communicate them in a way that others can understand.
Creative processes should be fun. Having fun opens the doors to creativity and stimulates new ways of to approach problem solving. Fun is where creativity lives.
Cooperative communities have a greater ability to enhance processes than a single expert. We are committed to inviting and sharing information on more effective practices with the VisualsSpeak community. Sometimes we are the teacher and at others you are the teacher and we are your students.
