VisualsSpeak blog

Christine Martell and Tom Tiernan, owners of VisualsSpeak LLC, are pleased to announce that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Certificate of Registration for the trademark VisualsSpeak.

VisualsSpeak®

Reg. No. 3,435,236

Registered May 27, 2008

Owners’ Response

Co-owner Tiernan ’s response was to say “Now we are finally in a position to challenge Microsoft’s dominance of the global software market.” When reminded that VisualsSpeak® is not involved in developing software, he was quick to point out “But we could be”.

VisualsSpeak’s® principal, Christine Martell, could not be reached for comment as she is currently luxuriating on a private island in the Caribbean awaiting the riches to roll in after the Trademark announcement.

Newsflash: arrived today

That was an unexpected blogging vacation. I was sick for two weeks, and I’m still recovering slowly.

Just back from the International Association of Facilitators conference in Atlanta. I’ll be writing about the conference, and about the session I facilitated in the days to come. Stay tuned.

We have updated the content on our website

In an attempt to serve you better, we have changed the content on the VisualsSpeak site to give you a clearer idea of what we do and the products that we offer.

We are experimenting with the site by using a WordPress blog template. This allows us to change and update the content quickly and easily, and with little expense.

Our plan is to test the new content by listening to your feedback about what works and what doesn’t. When we feel that we have arrived at the right content, we will fork over the money to have our regular website template updated.

We need your feedback!

Please let us know what you think about the new content. You can let us know here on this blog or make comments on the VisualsSpeak website itself at the bottom of the pages.

Thanks

Christine & Tom

We started having some trouble on the backend of the blog, so I decided I would upgrade the software to see if it would self heal. The good news, maybe some of it did? The bad, the images are now running into the words. I have tried to edit the code, to no avail.

I am facilitating large sessions the next two days. I fly out to the next conference Wed morning. Oops, didn’t really leave enough time to research and fix upgrade challenges.

I need a favor

Please, visualize space around the photos on the blog. I promise I will fix it as soon as I can. I recognize how visually disturbing it is, and how it violates many of the things I have been saying in posts about using visuals. I think it is one of those little jokes the universe plays…..let’s mess with the thing she cares the most about, he he he.

The key to getting the most out of the VisualsSpeak process is designing an effective question.

In the VisualsSpeak process, we create a framing question based on the desired outcome of the group or individual. Participants select photographs that have meaning for them in response to the framing question and assemble them on piece of background paper, which represents the question.

In VisualsSpeak sessions, a great deal of the planning is devoted to designing the question(s) which will create a bridge between the characteristics of the particular participants and their desired outcome. Know thy audience and their desired outcome!

We could write pages and pages about the importance of questions, but we would fall far short of a wonderful resource already available. While attending the 2007 International Facilitator’s Association conference, Christine had the pleasure and good fortune to meet Dorothy Strachan. Dorothy is an author and top level facilitator. She works with a wide variety of clients from elite athletes to non-profits.

Her book “Making Questions Work: A Guide to How and What to Ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches and Educators” is a wonderful resource no matter what your profession. We highly recommend it.

It’s like a cookbook for questions. First you determine what part of a process you are trying to develop a question for, then go to that section and search through sample questions. With a little adaptation and customization, you can generate a whole session’s worth of questions very quickly.

I’ve been reading some interesting material by Robert Middleton on how to market a service company. Even though its about service companies, the concepts apply to product companies. VisualsSpeak is actually both a service and a product company. As I write this my partner, Christine, is facilitating a 2 day retreat for an executive management team for a branch of our state government. So we offer consulting as well as sell products.

The marketing material suggests that the first thing you do is create what they call an Audio Logo. Most of us know this as an elevator speech. Actually its the one-liner part of an elevator speech which is designed to gain interest in what you do. This comes in handy, because people always ask ‘What do you do’? If you have a good audio logo, they will ask you for more information about what you do. Sounds simple, right? Not so. At least for this entrepreneur.

Read the rest of this entry »

True Confessions and more

We haven’t been entirely honest with you. Its true and I, at least, feel badly about this. The truth is that doing VisualsSpeak exercises can be fun. A lot of fun. This is one of those family secrets we’ve been guarding. Quietly whispering to one another hoping that no one overhears.

The reason for the secrecy is because the messages out in the ‘real’ world are that businesses shouldn’t be fun. Business is, well, serious business. If we mention or god forbid say that one of the primary benefits of using our tools and processes is that they are fun, no one will want to do business with us. We’re not serious enough. We don’t get ‘it’. Anyone who values fun is not going to make it and shouldn’t be associated with.

Photograph © Tom Tiernan

Recently Christine and I have been doing some startegic visioning work using the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. Practice what you preach, right? One of the exercises we did was to ask ourselves “Where do we want VisualsSpeak to be in five years?”. Interestingly enough, a lot of the information that surfaced had to do with our core values. Remember we’ve been telling you that this is one of the benefits of using our tools. “But why would knowing your core values be important to a strategic plan?” I hear you ask. Ah, lean closer Little Grasshopper and I will expound on this most important concept.

Read the rest of this entry »

Christine (Martell) and I have been friends for about 20 years now. We met when we both lived on Cape Cod, MA. On the outside, we appeared quite different. She was a practicing artist at that point complete with a degree from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), one of the most prestigious art schools in the US. I was a Real Estate broker and had never been the least bit ‘artsy’.

Photograph © Tom Tiernan

I decided she was an interesting specimen and for the benefit of humans everywhere I should put her under a microscope to see what makes an artist tick. OK, so I learned that putting an artist under a microscope is a bit like herding cats. They just won’t stand still long enough to be analyzed. At the same time I was being drawn into this upside down world called art. It was a bit scary. They just don’t think right. A bit out in left field. No consistent rules. Anything goes. Shape, size, color, dimension, texture. Everything is re-definable. I got dizzy.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the VisualsSpeak ImageSet manual we suggest using 12″ x 18″ construction paper as a background for assembling images. We do this for a couple of reasons. First, it gives people a starting place. Second, we use the placement of the selected images on the back ground to give us more information about the person.

When we worked with the development team, we asked different questions at different times. Sometimes it was a one part question, sometimes two. We began to notice that the overall patterns in how the selected images were assembled were similar each time. We pointed this out to them, and they would try to make different patterns. It never felt right to them. We suspect we are seeing something about the natural visual language of each person. There seems to be a corelation to the way people think.

The more linear thinkers tend to make images like these:

Photograph © Christine Martell

The more strategic thinkers tend to make images like these:

Photograph © Christine Martell

As we worked with this more, we discovered the patterns are most consistent when there is a short time to select and assemble the photos. We aim for five minutes. We have started charting these patterns across teams and watching how the patterns we see in the images relate to the patterns we see in behavior. We are seeing interesting trends.

Another reason to use the background paper is it helps people who like to work within the box. It gives those who like to line up the edges a guideline. The people who skew their images and expand way beyond the edges hardly notice the background. They also tend to be the people who find the process very comfortable. They don’t need assistance to make the process work for them.

When we design a session, we spend time developing the process around using the pictures. Each session is customized for the individual or group using similar elements. So is it the pictures that make the session powerful and successful or is it the process. I think it’s both. Mainly because each person engages differently. For some, I think it is the pictures. Some, it is the process. For others it is a blend. Which is why I like it so much. The experience can morph and accommodate a wide range of differences. Two very different people can sit side by side and engage with the exercise in their own way. The outcome is affected by who you are and how you process as the unique you. Extend the invitation to engage. Watch, listen. That’s where the learning is. Seek meaning in what happens.