Working with Visual Cards - 12 Days of Celebrations - Day 4

What are you doing to incorporate more visuals into your work with team or group coaching clients?

Coaching is a primarily verbal modality, and new insights can be gleaned via the visual channel. 

Consider how you might want to incorporate more:

• Photographs
• Icons
• Metaphors

Last week I was asked by a coach regarding some tips for creating a powerful collage of images for them to use in an opener for group coaching. Some tips around virtual visuals:

#1  - Make sure they are varied enough - consider perspective, natural vs. built environment, variety of colors/textures/images, 

#2 - Consider the question you want people to reflect on - relate it to the theme

#3 - What questions will evoke awareness? Facilitate action?

In person:

A good rule of thumb for using visuals is to have 2 photos per person, to create enough variety.

Whether it's for openers or closers, I love incorporating visuals to activate new insights, create a pause, or provide a focus. 

To learn more about working with visuals, check out this 30 minute video I created on Working With Visuals - 2020, based on my experience of creating the Conversation Sparker Cards, and working with teams and groups for more than a decade with these approaches:

Enjoy the video and explore different ways, and different questions you may want to ask when working with visuals with groups and teams. 

You may also want to check out the 40 Ways to Work with Visuals Ebook I created with facilitated exercises to work with any visual card deck around topics ranging from innovation, to strengths, to goals. 

Activity today:

• Consider what you would include in order incorporate more visuals in your work
• Take 5-10 minutes to find copyright accessible images (consider Unsplash or Pixabay)
• Explore Canva if you are looking to create your own virtual visual collage

Enjoy!

Jennifer

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What is your unique style as a coach? Take 2-minutes to complete the NEW Group and Team Coaching Superpower Quiz. You can find it at https://bit.ly/gtcoachingsuperpower. Share your style using the comments below and/or follow along on Instagram at our CoachingBizBuilder site.

Join us for an upcoming program including: 

Group Coaching Essentials - Fridays 1015 - 1130 am ET: January 13, 20, 27, February 4 and 11 (with Evana) - 8.75 CCes

Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum - 10 CCEs - Fridays 1230 - 145 pm ET: January 13 - mid-Feb (6 weeks) with Jennifer

Reconnecting Workspaces Certified Coach - 24 CCEs - Join us in January for our next 7 week offering on Thursday evenings from 5 - 730 pm ET starting January 19th running to 1st week of March. Build out your specialization for coaching in today's evolving workspaces - hybrid, in-person and remote. 1, 2 and 6 payments available.  With Jennifer.

Team Coaching Essentials (14 CCEs)  - Being asked to coach teams? Equip yourself with the foundations of this quickly evolving field. This program is grounded in our From One to Many methodology PLUS what works right now in today's evolving workspace. 6 week program on Mondays 12 - 130 pm ET  January 9,  23, 30, February 6, 13, 27 2023 with Kathy

Mentor Coaching Group - 10 hours Fridays 9-10 am ET: January 13 - April 13th or Mondays 1230-130 pm ET running January 9 - April 9 2022 with Jennifer. (For ACC renewal or PCC)

SAVE THE DATE For our 19th Annual Holiday Party - 10 - 1 pm ET on Tuesday December 20th (virtual on zoom)!

Group and Team Coaching: Three Essential Items for your Toolkit

While Group and Team Coaching is primarily conversationally based, and our standard coaching

tools are our best ally, there can be some additional resources you will want to have on hand, to support your team and group coaching conversations.

1. Visual Cards - Visual Cards such as Points of You, the JICT Deck, the Conversation Sparker(TM) deck or Visual Explorer, are a great way to get people in dialogue. Whether you are working on creating a vision, exploring values, or mining for strengths, visual cards can be used in a myriad of ways for both individual and collective coaching conversations with groups and teams.
As in any coaching process, when we bring in additional resources we want to place the most emphasis on using these external tools in support of goal setting, action and awareness.
If you are curious as to how to work with visual cards, please check out my 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards E-manual (which can be bundled with the Conversation Sparker cards) or view this 30 minute blab I hosted last fall on working with visual cards

2. Post it notes - Now coming in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, post its are a great way to get all voices at the table or on the wall. take a look back at the 2007 post I wrote on different ways to use post its and index cards. Some ideas of where you may want to incorporate post its:
1. As a way to mine for coaching topics or agenda items
2. As a feedback/evaluation mechanism at the end of the session
3. To look at enablers and derailers for a team (there are some neat red and green arrow post cards available for this - check your local dollar store or office supply store to see if they have these on file)4. To explore different perspectives around an issue
5. To get different priorities on the table


3. Questions - While it's fun to bring in lots of different tools, it's important to remember that questions are the one thing which  helps clients explore and move into action. Questions can be used to open up conversations, expand awareness, focus choices, and move people into action. What are some of your favorite coaching questions?
Over the years I've focused quite a bit on the topic of using questions in team and group coaching. Please check out these related posts here:
Core Coaching Competency - Powerful Questions - read this 2012 post here
Powerful Group Coaching Questions - What? So What? Now What? - read this 2011 post here
Six Powerful Questions to Close a Group Coaching Session - read this 2015 post here
Six Questions to Focus - Read this 2016 post here.
Six Coaching Questions to Strengthen Connection in Groups and Teams - read this post here

What would you put as your top 3 most important tools in your coaching toolkit?

Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCCGroup Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Upcoming programs include: Mentor Coaching Group for ACC Renewals and ACC/PCC portfolio (Fridays 12 noon ET  which started on Sept 9 or Mondays at 9 am Eastern/New York - starting September 26), the Advanced Group Coaching Practicum (Fridays 1:15 - 2:30pm ET 10 CCEs) and the Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar starting Thursdays 12 - 1:15 pm ET on September 22 (8.75 CCEs)
Contact us by phone: (416)996-8326

Resources for your Coaching Business, Year End Planning, and Teams and Groups - Black Friday

I hope that Thanksgiving was a wonderful time of Friends, Family and Festivities for those of you who are just wrapping up celebrations. We've just started celebrating Black Friday here in Canada over the last few years, even though our Thanksgiving is in October. It's quickly become a marker for the start of the holiday season and year end savings. This year I'm pleased to announce a couple of resources to support you in your year end planning, 2016 business development and a cool new resource for your team and group work if you use visual cards.

Next Friday December 4th from 8-4 pm ET/New York I will be hosting a live virtual retreat for business owners using the Inner Biz Leader Virtual Business Planing Retreat. If you are looking to create your business plan for 2016 while reconnecting with your unique strengths, this program is for you.While this has been an on-demand program for the last year, I'll be hosting a one day live event where you get to work with me in group and 1-1 conversations throughout the day by phone and skype, and be able to Click here to access the special pricing coupon.
access the on-demand program 24 hours a day, 7 days a year, 365 days a year. I'm offering a 35% discount on the December 4th Virtual Retreat - regularly $497 US, with a savings over the Black Friday weekend of 35% for a total for the one day virtual retreat and on-demand program of $323.05 US.

The Coaching Business Builder on-demand program covers 12 core tips for coaches who are wanting to start, or grow their business. the course includes several hours of video and more than a dozen worksheets you can use in your business right now. Save 50% on the regular pricing of $59 US (for a total of $29.50 US) until Tuesday December 1st using this special link at the Learning Lab and Design Studio. Complete the course at your own pace and time.

Worksheet from the 40 Ways to Use Visual Cards,

Finally, I am very pleased to announce the latest support for coaches who are using visual cards in their work. As I shared in this week's Group Coaching Design Studio blab #5 (view here), I've just finished pulling together my latest e-manual 40 Ways to Use Visual Cards with Individuals, Teams and Groups. Chances are if you've ever seen me speak you've had a chance to experience one of the many great visual decks out in marketplace (Visual Explorer, the Coaching Game - Points of You, the JICT Deck or my Conversation Sparker Deck). The 40 Visual Ways e-manual (which I'm calling it for short form) includes detailed activity descriptions for facilitating 40 different activities with cards - from startegic planning, to change management, team development, innovation and problem solving. In addition to the one and two page activity descriptions I'm also including 5 worksheets which you can use Engaging Exercises e-manual has been for the last 10 years.
as is with your own teams and groups (one on strengths, a vision roadmap, the SWOT and more). This new resource is $40 US and is available through the Group Coaching Essentials site and the Conversation Sparker site. That's $1 an activity - can't beat it! I have a feeling it will be as widely embraced as the

Finally, the last (accelerated) session of the Group Coaching Essentials program starts Tuesday. This 8.75 CCe program covers a wide range of best practices, approaches and tools to support you in designing, marketing and creating your own group coaching programs. Classes are held Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30 - 245 pm ET on the phone on December 1, 8, 10, 15, 17. Price increases in January. More info and registration here (4 spots open for next week's session) .

So....as we start to turn our attention to year end, what do you want to wrap up before year end?What do you want to focus on in 2016? the Group Coaching Design Studio Blab #4 covered a number of other visioning questions you might be interested in exploring. Do listen in here. The next blab #6 will be held Friday November 4 at 9 am ET on 24 Theme areas to coach around - click here if you want to subscribe and/or join us.

Have a fantastic rest of your holiday weekend and I do hope you will take advantage of some of the savings, and the upcoming resources to grow your work!

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-8326

Group Coaching Design Studio - Inaugual Blab - October 22, 2015

As many of you know I like to experiment with new technologies in service of community, education and learning. I am exctied to announce that I hosted my first blab this morning! If you haven't heard about blab yet, it's a neat new platform which can bring people together for conversation. From my experience this morning I also see it as a great vehicle for educational snippets and dialogue.

I'll be hosting my next blab  - the Group Coaching Design Studio (TM)  Blab - on Thursday October 29th from 945 - 1015 am Eastern. You'll need an internet connection and Twitter account.

You can view this week's inaugural blab where I cover off some of the benefits of group coaching, do a short piece on vision work (with the Conversation Sparker card deck), and then opened the mic!

You can view the replay here (26 minutes) - Enjoy!

Hope that you will join me next week for our 2nd blab - 945 - 1015 am ET on Thursday October 29th. The link should be https://blab.im/jennbritton-group-coaching-design-studio-jennifer-britton-author-effective-group-coaching-3 (and you can also always search on the date of programming where I am "online live" in case the link does not work).

If you have program ideas - things you'd like covered, or questions you have, please let me know as I'm looking forward to hosting several more of these.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
 (416)996-8326
Join us for an upcoming program including the Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar starting Oct 29th at 1030 am ET (8.75 CCEs) or the Advanced Group Coaching Practicum (10CCEs) starting Friday Oct 30th at 145 pm m ET. There are also a few spots open in our 2 day training - Group and Team Coaching Intensive (19 CCEs) - being held the weekend of November 7-8 (19 CCEs)

10 Years, 10 Posts From the Last 2 years

This month celebrates my 10th year in business. Somedays it is hard to believe! What do you want to celebrate? The photo on today's post is one of the 70 photo cards which are part of my newest product, Conversation Sparker Cards(TM). The cards are designed for coaches, trainers and other facilitators to bring into their workshops, retreats and coaching sessions.

 Tomorrow, I'll be hosting a 10th Anniversary call for alumni of my Group Coaching Essentials programs tomorrow and will be sharing some of my lessons learned, as well as some of the things that are different in the profession today, then when I started Potentials Realized in 2004. Check your latest newsletter for more details for the Friday April 25th call at 12 noon (40 min). We'll be using some of the Conversation Sparker Cards as well during the call. Be sure to check out some of the card launch specials at the new ConversationSparker.com website!


Today I wanted to share with you 10 of the top read posts over the past few years. I started blogging in 2005, and since then it's been a regular part of my communication, writing and connecting with people. I often get asked, how do you keep coming up with new ideas? Two things help me with this? First, I'm continually out working with groups and teams and there is always a new experience or insight even after decades of this work! Second, I usually use MindMaps to help me get sparked with new ideas. If you are looking to write, blog, speak etc. try carving out a few minutes of MindMapping every month to capture new ideas for topics. Having these all in one place you can refer to is useful.

And now....on to the top 10 posts over the last 2 years (according to reader numbers at least!):
Creating Connection Amongst Group Members - Feb 2014
Four Stretch Points for Group and TEam Coaching - Jan 2014
What? So What? Now What? - Fall 2013
The Benefits of Group Coaching - July 2013
Team Coaching Characteristics - September 2013
Bringing More Visuals into Your Group Coaching - December 2012
Partnering and Co-Facilitation: 10 Questions -  October 2012
Closing off a Group Coaching Process -  May 2012
Five Great Books for Coaches to Have on their Bookshelf - May 2012
Coaching Business Builder - Know Your Client - May 2012

What have been your favorite posts over the years? What have you used to support you in your work.
As always, please feel free to share your insights!

Hope you will join us tomorrow at 12 noon ET. Recording will also follow in the next few days.

Best,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized | GroupCoachingEssentials.com
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Phone: (416)996-8326 

Join us for an upcoming program:
Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar starts Friday May 9th runs to June 13th at 10:15 am ET by phone. No class June 6th (6.75 CCEs - 4spots)
Mentor Coaching Group for ICF Credentialing (ACC/PCC) or ACC Renewals - Fridays 9-10 am Eastern - 10 hours. 7 group calls starting May 2nd running to July 25th (3 spots)
Early bird rate for the July 10-11 Group and Team Coaching Intensive is on! Join me this summer in beautiful Muskoka for this 2 day program (approved for15 CCEs - 5 spots).
June 2 - 3 (Monday/Tuesday) join me for a two day Train-the-Trainer at the Facilitation Skills Intensive held in downtown Toronto. The focus is on group facilitation techniques (6 spots).