By combining different elements of visual vocabulary, you can develop your own visual language. If you take a playful approach to this, you will often come up with unusual visual translations of the topic under discussion. In combining different vocabulary elements, we use a technique similar to one that the German language is famous for – a grammatical concept called “compound nouns.” In English, we use this technique, too, for words like “notebook,” “skyscraper,” or “sunshine” – but the German language really takes these compound nouns to a new level, with words like “Schlüssel-Bild” (key visual) or “Hochhaus” (literally, high...

“If I was in your position….” “That sounds like a good idea….” “When that happened to me, I did this…..” “I would suggest….” How often, when working to develop coaching skills, do you hear interventions like those above, closely followed by a groan and a recognition that once again, the inexperienced coach has fallen into the trap of giving opinions or relating personal experiences?   In my experience one of the hardest things to overcome in coaching is the innate desire to ‘help’ and this generally plays out in giving advice. As we develop our coaching skills we need to recognise...

I read a lot about leadership, and not just because I’m professionally interested in leadership. What people write about leadership is a great source of insight into how they are viewing business organisations, and what they are thinking about how those organisations are likely to evolve. I’m particularly drawn to well-considered writing about leadership development, because dissatisfaction with the leadership pipeline is a good indicator of how quickly organisations are changing. This past summer I came across a great article by Josh Bersin entitled “Why Leadership Development feels broken and how we’re fixing it” Bersin considers the way that traditional...

Our modern business world is often dominated by complicated structures. If we want to change or optimise these, we first have to understand them – and this is not always an easy task! Using posters to visualise complex topics or processes is an ideal way to bring clarity to the seemingly incomprehensible. Here are some tips for what to pay attention to when preparing a visual presentation. My great-grandfather was a carpenter. Using just a few tools, he built tables, cupboards, and cabinets – one of which still graces my kitchen today. What was special about his work was its...

What does it take to become an effective facilitator of learning? Over the last 25 years, RSVP Design have been involved with the development of trainer training programmes for trainers and facilitators around the world. These have included: Supporting corporate trainers to use more experiential learning methods in their in-house training programmes Helping managers to offer more immediate, on-the-spot performance improvement Developing instructional training skills for medical and technical professionals involved in international health programmes, such as the global drive to eliminate polio Developing pure facilitation skills for those working to resolve conflict, develop strategy or support innovation in their...

oday’s organisations: flatter, faster, more pressured, more accountable. This situation has created the worrying paradox that every member of the organisation carries more responsibility for ‘getting it right’ yet there is less resource for the scrutiny that protects these members from ‘getting it wrong’. In these circumstances there is ever greater pressure on the individual to exercise the thinking skills that will spot flawed reasoning in the data that they receive, and detect equally flawed reasoning in the data that they generate. Critical Thinking and Logical Thinking are, more than ever, a personal skill set that needs to be employed in relation...