VisualsSpeak blog

The IAF conference was held in Atlanta last week. This is the second time I have attended an IAF conference and the first time I presented at one. At the closing session, we were asked to reflect on a key take away. Mine was, this is where I belong.

Yes, I have multiple roles. I am also a trainer, entrepreneur, business owner, coach, artist. Underneath it all, I am a facilitator. It’s so easy to forget when I sit in the office operating my business on a daily basis. I remember when I get around other facilitators and recognize the ease with which I can converse with them.

What makes a facilitator different?

While I hesitate to make any sweeping generalizations, something I notice in my facilitator colleagues is an inherent faith in the wisdom of the group. We focus on the process of the interaction more than trying to control the content.

On Whitespace, Daniel Rose noticed:

When designing large collaborative sessions with complex topics it is almost always the case that there is a big variance between the few people who know a lot about the topic and a few who have little to no context and everyone else falls somewhere in between. Sponsors are generally very anxious to do a lot of “education” around the project so that everyone gets up to speed. Usually this results in a desire to do a 3 hour PowerPoint presentation.

He goes on to talk about the difference between instructional learning versus constructional learning, and how part of our role is to help our sponsors have faith in the group. When I talk with someone who has been facilitating for any length of time there is an almost automatic assumption that the group is wise. Just help the members surface what they know.

Done well, facilitation looks so easy

Not that facilitation actually is easy. There are so many factors that effect the success of the meeting, from the flow to the environment, to the way people are invited and prepared. However, the better the execution, the more seamless and effortless it appears. Do a good job, and the details go unnoticed. The focus shifts to the content, and getting the work of the session done.

Some of the things I appreciate about the IAF conferences

• the opportunity to participate in large group processes
• seeing how various methods work
• three hour breakout sessions, so you can really get deep into the material
• advanced level tracks
• reflection built into the design
• half hour breaks so you don’t have to run from one place to another
• colleagues who do amazing things around the world
• people with passion to make a difference

In the days ahead, I’ll be writing about some of the session I attended and the one I facilitated. I always think this is going to happen faster than it does, forgetting about all the things to catch up on from being out of town. I continue to be amazed by the people who can live blog, and work toward accepting that I’m more reflective and need more time. More soon.

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.

I’ve written about Beth Kanter’s use of images before, actually made a screencast about it which was selected as screencast of the week over at Techsmith.

This time I attended a webinar where Beth was a presenter. Usually when I am on a webinar, I am doing several other things. Email, reading blogs, perhaps on chat. Seldom does something compel me to give it full attention.

Beth did something very interesting, which kept me focused. Cute puppies. She has noticed that a lot of her audience of non-profit techies post pictures of themselves with their dogs online. So she came up with the idea that pictures of dogs would capture their attention.

Now I don’t even think of myself as a non-profit techie, and I have three cats not dogs. She was talking about the use of technology and social networking. Yet, my focus was captured by wanting to see what creative dog picture she would use next. Even more interesting to me was I had actually already seen the slide deck, and still I wanted to see how she would weave together the social media story with the dogs.

| View | Upload your own

An Interview with Jeremy Reynolds

Jeremy has been a learning consultant for five years working with the Information Technology area in one of the two largest sports & fitness companies in the world. He introduced the VisualsSpeak ImageSet to his training department as soon as it was available.

How has the VisualsSpeak ImageSet worked as a training department tool?

VisualsSpeak can be used to develop intuiting skills and strengthen dialoguing overall. As users become more practiced in the method, overall communication improves. I have a co-worker who has always given me fits. So much of what I wanted to say seemed too hard to handle directly.Through using VisualsSpeak together, we find it is easier to express ourselves in direct ways. That practice of tapping the deeply felt, describing, and interpreting it for another has carried over into day-to-day communication

How have you been using the VisualsSpeak ImageSet?

We’ve used it three ways so far.
1. In a visioning session with a small team.
A group of four specialists whose work is interdependent.We used VisualsSpeak images to visualize what an inspiring communication environment is like for each person. Then we built a joint image to remind us of our shared aspirations.

2. In a group undergoing transition.
The images helped them to share hard feelings and moods they couldn’t otherwise make available to others. The images of VisualsSpeak became an interstitial space where emotions can inhabit tangible symbols; symbols we can try to understand and begin to work with as we commemorate endings and start looking ahead to what is becoming.

3. In a prototyping session.
Got a group of software developers together and taught them to look for asymmetric approaches to design and problem-solving. For example, pick an image, describe the image, then ask how some of those words describe our process. Another example, pick images that represent user friendly to you. Where does what we do align with these qualities? Where are the opportunities?

What have you learned about the tool?

VisualsSpeak often creates unexpected openings and surprising insights. Being able to adapt in the moment can allow some of those moments to flower. Because VisualsSpeak is so morphic, taking advantage of its full potential encourages the facilitator to mirror that flexibility.

What words of wisdom do you have for others who are considering using VisualsSpeak?

Get it and use it every chance you can get. It is engaging and changes the energy around many kinds of exchanges. People respond to the way it helps them talk.

I had the pleasure of speaking at the NW Coaches Association meeting recently. As is true in so many of these quick speaking opportunities, there were a number of questions left unanswered due to lack of time. This post offers some answers to some of them.

Setting up a VisualsSpeak session

The first thing I do anytime I use VisualsSpeak is to think about who my audience is and what is their desired outcome. NW Coaches is a professional association who comes together for networking and professional development. The individual members serve a range of niche areas. This meeting included coaches that focus on life, health, career, small business, organizational, and executive coaching.

People were seated in small groups at round tables, at my request. I decided to use the framing question, “Who are you as a coach?”, since coaching was the thread that tied the group together. Because people come to these meetings to network, I asked them to share the story of their images with their individual small groups. This gave them the opportunity to learn more about their colleagues beyond the verbal introductions they had done earlier in the meeting.

Each person had a piece of paper to construct their image on top of. You can read more about Why should I use a background? here.

How does the framing question change working with clients?

When working with an individual client, you can focus the question more directly on the goals your client wishes to work on. So, if a health coach wanted to help a client get clearer about creating a healthy lifestyle, you might start with “What is a healthy lifestyle?”.

The most common framework I use in initial coaching sessions, whether working with an individual or group, is to have people make an image of the present and the future. I do this by offering two pieces of background paper, and suggest the space between them is the transition.

The present/future framework is particularly effective with people who were born and raised in the dominant US culture. Here in the US, we learn to construct our lives around working for a better future. Many of the coaching, education, counseling, and organizational models focus on identifying goals and the action steps to achieving them. Using this frame is familiar to many people.

Oftentimes, a client will come with an idea of what they want. For example a new job. And they will have a story about the new job they are looking for, say with a company of a particular type. Yet, when they make an image of present and future, the story that emerges may be quite different. The verbal stories in our head, may not match our unconscious goals. Using VisualsSpeak will help you uncover the desires your clients’ have that even they may not be aware of. The picture of the future may not include a job at all, or it might include types of work your client has never mentioned. This process provides a very rich opportunity for looking at values and ideas about what is really wanted. Also, see Why use visuals to spark conversation?

What if you are not finding the right images?

VisualsSpeak isn’t collage. It isn’t about finding exactly the right images to represent every part of your life. It’s about sparking a different kind of insight. Oftentimes the insights are deeper when you don’t find the exact image you want because you are forced to think more about what it is you aren’t finding. The insights emerge from a combination of the images and the stories they evoke. I wrote another post, Why I am thrilled when you can’t find the image you want?.

Any other questions?

It was great to see a room full of enthusiastic coaches using images to deepen their conversations and spark new insights. I’m happy to answer any other questions you have, just drop me an email christine(@)visualsspeak.com or leave it here in the comments.

Monthly meeting of the Northwest Coaches Association (NWCA)

TIME/DATE
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

– Free pre-meeting workshop from 5:45 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
– Networking from 6:45 p.m - 7:15 p.m.
– VisualsSpeak Program from 7:15 p.m. - 9 p.m.

PRE-MEETING WORKSHOP DETAILS
Presenter: Veronika (Ronnie) Noize
Topic: Media Training Workshop
Description: Past President Ronnie Noize presents a shortened version of the Media Training Workshop created by media expert Peter Kerr for the ICF chapters leaders at the 2007 ICF Conference. Participants will learn how to prepare for a media interview, identify journalists’ techniques, tools, and traps, what constitutes “news” as well as practice an actual interview. This program and materials are used by permission of Peter Kerr of Kerr Communications, www.kerrcommunications.com.

Bio: Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, known professionally as The Marketing Coach, is the author of How to Create a Killer Elevator Speech, The Real Magic Bullet of Marketing, and a contributing author of Marketing Strategies that Work. As a marketing executive for over 10 years, Ronnie launched more than 200 consumer products, including software, books, comics, CDs, toys, and games, generating more than $650 million dollars through sales and licensing.

Voted the 2007 Coach of the Year by her chapter of the International Coach Federation, and named one of the Pacific NW’s 100 most influential women by the NW Women’s Journal, Ronnie is a dynamic speaker and sought-after marketing expert with an international clientele who helps small office/home office (SOHO) businesses attract more clients through her presentations, products and programs.

In addition to her busy speaking and coaching practice, Ronnie is a trainer for International Coach Academy, an accredited coach training school in Australia, and an active member of several business and philanthropic groups. In 2004 she founded the Northwest Women’s Virtual Business Network, a virtual space where businesswomen in the Portland/Vancouver area can network and connect with others. Visit her group at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NWWomensBizNetwork.

Ronnie’s web site is a comprehensive resource with free articles and valuable marketing tools for small office/home office businesses and independent sales professionals. Visit her web site at www.VeronikaNoize.com, or call her at 360-882-1298.

PROGRAM DETAILS
Guest Speaker: Christine Martell, MS
Topic: VisualsSpeak Workshop
Description: Christine Martell, Principal of VisualSpeaks LLC, will present an interactive tool designed to bridge the right and left sides of our brains, making learning faster, more interesting and more effective. Through this experiential process, you will learn how to offer your clients new ways of gaining perspective and insights, and provide them with a richer set of data from which to base critical decisions. See how answering questions through images and pattern can unlock a different set of stories than words alone. These techniques can be used to increase individual or team performance and communication, leading to fast and insightful outcomes.

Bio: Christine Martell is an accomplished consultant, public speaker and artist with more than 25 years of professional experience. The VisualsSpeak tool she developed has been used by corporate trainers, independent consultants, small- and medium-size businesses, global corporations, non-profits, educational institutions, and organizations focused on intercultural communications.

Christine earned a bachelor of fine arts in textiles in 1982 at the Rhode Island School of Design. Over the next decade, she worked primarily as a product artist, exhibiting and attracting awards for her work in a wide variety of venues across the United States.

In 1995, Christine made the transition from a product artist to a process artist, concentrating on helping others to discover the value inherent in the process of creating art. She served as a facilitator at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where she developed ways to help art students reduce their creative anxiety and counseled them on issues related to classes and student affairs.

Christine earned a master’s degree in education from Portland State University in 2004, where she researched the benefits of visual communication as a training tool. She holds certificates of completion in a variety of training & development topics including intercultural training, multi-media and Web-based training, and management of training.Christine started VisualsSpeak in 2005 as a way of bringing the VisualsSpeak approach to a broad range of audiences. She is passionate about opening up the whole person so people can really be appreciated for who they are, and feels she is throwing life lines to people who really need to discover new openings. You can visit her website at http://www.visualsspeak.com/.

COST: $15 for guests and non-member coaches; free for chapter members and ASTD-Cascadia members.

REGISTRATION:Pre-registration not required

LOCATION
SCOTTISH RITE CENTER, 709 SW 15th Avenue , Portland, OR 97205

Hope to see you there.

This is part of a series of posts about the VizThink Challenge. Previous posts have covered how the challenge came about, an overview, what images were used, and what the words tell us.

Other levels of information

In this post we’ll be looking at the third and fourth levels of information derived from a VisualsSpeak Strategic Thinking process. Below are the four levels of data we analyze:

1. Which individual images were selected across all groups.
2. Analysis of the content of the written descriptions.
3. The visual language in the structure of each table’s image.
4. The intersection of the words and images, and how they are used together. Read the rest of this entry »
   

The VizThink Challenge offered Artrain a chance to have three facilitators using three different visual techniques work on an organizational challenge as part of the VizThink 08 conference. Forty table groups using the VisualSpeak ImageSet each created an image and wrote a description in response to the question:

How can we visualize the power of the Artrain experience to engage individual and corporate sponsors?

For the first level, we looked at the frequency of image use. We then invited our colleague Dr Rene-Marc Mangin to bring his perspective as a marketing communications consultant to analyze the narrative used by each table to describe their images. Read the rest of this entry »

The VizThink Challenge engaged close to 400 visual thinkers attending VizThink 08 to work on an organizational challenge with Artrain USA.

Forty table groups participated in the VisualsSpeak part of the process. Each table created an image and a written description in response to the question: How can we visualize the power of the Artrain experience to engage individual and corporate sponsors?

Each group used the VisualsSpeak ImageSet, so they all had the same 200 tested images to choose from. The set is organized into four main categories, each with three subcategories. We created a chart reflecting the category breakdown in the set. We then organized the images by how many tables used each one. Read the rest of this entry »

At VizThink 08, we participated in a challenge to assist Artrain with an organizational challenge. They are transitioning from using trains to specially designed trucks to bring their exhibits around the country.

We didn’t have time to prepare, and there were two other facilitators and techniques working on the same problem. I worked with forty tables of participants, perhaps as many as 350 people. We were presented with a question, and had 30 minutes to respond.

Each table had the same 200 photographs and produced a collective image along with a written description. We have been looking at the data to see what kind of wisdom emerges from a large group of visual thinkers.

About the audience

Artrain wanted input on how to engage individual and corporate sponsors. This was an ideal audience to ask for this sort of feedback. The conference fees were significant enough to discourage those who were not totally committed to attend. The audience was composed of people who were already in visual thinking or were interested in the field. And their were representatives of major corporations there such as: Apple, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Wells Fargo.

Where the data comes from

We are looking at four sources of information.

1. Which individual images were selected across all groups.
2. Analysis of the content of the written descriptions.
3. The visual language in the structure of each table’s image.
4. The intersection of the words and images, and how they are used together.

Each one of these different data points can offer insight, as well as a big picture view emerging from the patterns running across all four of the information sources. Read the rest of this entry »