Visuals in Group and Team Coaching Work

Earlier this week I dedicated my bi-weekly Facebook live call to working with visuals in group and team coaching. While I've been using different card decks and visuals for more than a decade now, I continue to rely on them as a "go-to" for conversations of all types. If you're still over on Facebook, please check out the 4.23.18 13 minute bi-weekly call I did sharing a recent experience of working with goals, visuals and questions.

Given that not everyone is on Facebook (and yes - that may be you), I thought it would be useful to dedicate part of this post here at the blog to a quick walk through of a potential activity you might consider.

We stepped into quarter 2 a few weeks ago and many of our clients are working towards this, or other important goals. Here's a quick 20 minute activity which can help individuals gain some new perspectives around goals.

First, have each team member think about one of their most important goals. With a partner, zoom into that, discussing what it would look like if that goal is SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound. I always an an E on the end and if you've read any of my books you'll see me call them SMART-E goals. E is for exciting. Be sure to check out why the goal is exciting and what's important about it. Have them write this out and notice what becomes clear for them around the goal.

Next, get partners to select a random question card (there are 22 in the Conversation Sparker Deck) and then connect that question to their goal. Perhaps the question is "What do you need to do to collaborate more?" or "What do you say no to?"or "What else?". The role of the partner is simply to listen to what the other person says.

Finally, you can have group members in a third round of this discussion select another  photo which represents what they want to create in their goal achievement.

Visuals have a way of accessing new knowledge and ideas in a way questions alone may not. Check out the Conversation Sparker Cards at ConversationSparker.com.

I've rolled in more than 40 facilitated instructions into an e-manual called 40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards, which is available through our site and also Coaching Toys. If you are looking for actual instructions and five worksheets you can use and duplicate for your groups, check it out at our Potentials Realized Store.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | Effective Virtual Conversations.com 
(416)996-8326

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