Power of Visual Communication

If you missed my December 9 Webinar about the Power of Visual Communication, you can view the full program here.

In the webinar, I talk about some of the many uses for the VisualsSpeak ImageSet. Here’s a quick breakdown of what I covered:

• Why use visuals?
• Heart Image icebreaker
• How conversations change when using visuals
• Research in creating VisualsSpeak
• Facilitation Model we use
• Case Study- Developing cultural competence in future leaders
• Case Study- Change Management Initiative and Team Building
• Conflict Resolution
• Strategic Visioning
• Question & Answer

Time: 43 minutes

You can download a free copy of the Heart Image exercise I show at the beginning of the webinar on the VisualsSpeak website.

You can get 20% off any VisualsSpeak product until Jan 9, 2010 by entering the coupon code (vswebcast) in the shopping cart

• VisualsSpeak ImageSet deluxe version Regular price $495 - Sale price $396!
• VisualsSpeak ImageSet Lite Regular price $425 - Sale price $340!
  

Being an experiential facilitator, it was strange to work from a script on PowerPoint. Even though there were over 300 people signed up for the call, I was talking to my computer monitor and a cat. It was such a relief to have attendees ask questions so I could get a sense of the audience. So different than working with the energy in the room with a face-to-face audience.

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VisualsSpeak Community

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting and redefining of my work lately. When we launched VisualsSpeak three years ago, we thought if we addressed a wide range of people, the market and interest would give us some guidance about direction. Ok, so that wasn’t the best idea I have ever had. Now I realize I need to get much more focused on particular market segments.

As a step in that direction, I have begun to gather content specifically for people who use the VisualsSpeak ImageSets and Energizers. I’ve started the VisualsSpeak Community, which someday I hope will spin off more online training offerings for those who are looking to learn more about facilitating deeper conversations using visual tools. Right now there are photographs and videos, specific information about the tools, as well as places to share framing questions and experiences.

I hope you will join me and share your successes and challenges so we can all learn together.

What’s your story?

Christine and I were inspired by something we read recently about how to involve a community of people and businesses in donating to non-profits doing exceptional work. This is what we came up with. Your input about our approach would be greatly appreciated.

We are inviting the VisualsSpeak Community to donate to a good cause. And it won’t cost you a cent!

Send us your VisualsSpeak story and we will make a contribution to Mercy Corps. This Portland, Oregon based group has a global perspective. Presently they are contributing their resources to relief in China and Myanmar after the recent disasters there.

This is a Win-Win-Win scenario:

• You win – Your story is converted into dollars and then contributed to an organization doing great work on a global level.
• VisualsSpeak wins – We get your great stories to share with current and potential community members.
• Mercy Corps wins – They receive money from our community to help continue their great work.

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.5 billion in assistance to (more)

The Details

Send us a story* about something that happened while using VisualsSpeak. This might be about a time when there was a significant breakthrough, or something unusual happened, or new insights were inspired, or anything you think others might want to hear.

Include as much detail as possible such as:

• Who was the audience?
• What was the purpose of the process?
• Where did this take place?
• How did your participants respond?

Please include the following information about yourself: (as much as you like)

• Name
• Title/ Profession
• Company/ Organization
• Website/ Blog
• Digital Photograph (or where we can find one on the web)

How to send your story

• Leave your story as a comment on our Blog post “What’s your story?”
• Send a separate email to info at visualsspeak dot com

Show me the money!

• VisualsSpeak LLC will donate $10.00 per story
• Christine & Tom will personally contribute $10.00 per story for a total of $20 per story
• $300.00 total potential donation! (15 stories)
• Donations to be tabulated on June 18, 2008

Why?

We believe in giving back. And one of the ways to give back is to support organizations doing great work. There’s not enough time in a day to do everything, so contributing to groups that benefit us all makes sense.

* By sending your story to VisualsSpeak, you agree to give us permission to use it in various ways including but not limited to our website, Blog, and marketing materials.

Thanks for your story and for supporting an incredible organization like Mercy Corps!

More often in life, making a difference is about all of the small steps we take along the way.

Yours in service,

Christine Martell & Tom Tiernan
VisualsSpeak LLC

Give Your Participants All The Images!

Getting Tough on Time Limits Narrowing image choices may create visual bias. When the choice of images is narrowed down, a specific person’s visual bias may be inserted into the process. In choosing the final 200 photos for the VisualsSpeak ImageSet, Christine and I, with the input of many people, made conscious choices about which images were going to be in the set. We knew that our visual bias would be in the set and we did as much as possible to minimize the impact. Every person sees the world differently. There’s no way of getting around that. The key to any process is to get as much of ourselves, as the facilitator, out of the process as we can.

Photograph © Tom Tiernan

The key to the VisualsSpeak Process The key to the process is setting time limits for how long you give your participants to choose and assemble their images into a collage. There, I just gave away our ’secret sauce’. (I hope Christine will forgive me.)