Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity

Chapter 8. Using Images & Interaction: Collage & Picture Cards

Providing people with images and information in moveable pieces is another way to generate the same kind of energy that sticky notes tend to generate, with the difference that you are adding content to work with. Collage refers to the practice of using images from magazines and books to create new combinations that express ideas and feelings. Picture cards are sets of single images usually printed and laminated for re-use that work a lot like games, and can be used in clusters as well as individually. I've touched on these before but want to explore how to actually use them in a little more depth. They are a terrific way to get a group working visually if you or they are a bit inhibited about drawing.

COLLAGE IN JOURNALS

This is what I created in my sketchbook journal as part of a self-discovery exercise at a Facilitation Mastery Workshop. See www.soulcollage.com for more information on this technique.

Personal Visioning with Collage

Let's start with collage and a personal story. My colleague Laurie Durnell, director of The Grove's consulting group, loves to do Soul Collage. This is a set of practices for using imagery from magazines to explore inner direction and interests. The term is copyrighted by Seena Frost, a psychologist who has developed a whole literature about this technique. I was personally touched by this in ...