Visual Explorer™

About Visual Explorer

Posted on December 13, 2008 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

Young women from the Mariam high school in Kabul select their Visual Explorer cards.

Visual Explorer™ is a tool for creative conversations and deep dialogue—using a wide variety of images—about almost any topic chosen by the user.

Because of its versatility and ability to engage all kinds of people, VE is widely used in organizations, communities, schools, and coaching relationships, with the outcome of better conversations about things that matter.

Featured posts: VE and leadership culture at the Harvard Business School … New York Times NYU article … Creative Conversations in Ghana … Quick Guide …

Purchase Visual Explorer™
and the VE Facilitator’s Guide.

Contact: Charles J. Palus and David Magellan Horth

Sample of Visual Explorer images, click for more …

Click for a small sample of the 216 images in a VE set.

Visual Explorer session using the Star Model for mediated dialogue

The Star Model: Dialogue by Putting Something in the Middle

Nuggets of Wisdom from the Early Leadership Toolkit

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

By Brandi Nicole Johnson

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend LBB’s training on CCL’s Early Leadership Toolkit. I spent 2.5 days learning about CCL’s leadership content, practicing a toolkit module (ie. exercises, lessons, etc.) delivery and critically considering how we could apply what we had gathered in other settings to a population of young people. …

Continue reading this post here.

The CCL Early Leadership Toolkit features several Leadership Explorer tools (Visual Explorer, Values Explorer, and Leadership Metaphor Explorer).

Use of Collaboration Explorer in a Capacity Building Retreat in Nairobi

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

By Kathy Vaughan
Center for Creative Leadership

I used Collaboration Explorer and Visual Explorer as part of a retreat for a high performing team within a multilateral agency whose work is pro-poor. The team is comprised of core staff and several consultants. The team has operated in a highly dynamic environment over the past year with large scale organizational change and with lack of formal leadership of the new overarching entity within which they sit. Over the course of the year, I have worked with them on a capacity building initiative to enhance the collective capacity of the team in the areas of communication, conflict management and negotiation. The September retreat marked the end of the engagement. The design for the retreat included both Visual Explorer and Collaboration Explorer.

Visual Explorer was used for engagement around the idea of collaboration, on Day 1. VE cards were arranged around the back of the room. Participants were asked to pick one image that best represented collaborative teamwork. They went through the star model for dialogue, and experienced the power of the tool. Insights from the participants included the value of diversity, the need to be open to other perspectives, and inclusion. The participants were challenged to consider how this process of slowing down, describing thoughts and ideas without evaluation or judgment, and having space for full participation and meaning creation would add value to their work.

For Collaboration Explorer, I introduced the tool using the information provided through CCL. I arranged all the orange cards on a table in the back of the room. I wrote all the labels for the Orange cards on a flip chart on the board with an asterisk next to the 7 collaborative principles.

Participants chose two orange cards which spoke to the current state of working relations. They gathered in a circle outside and handed their cards to me face down, so that selection was anonymous. I went around with the deck of cards and had each person pick two which they read out loud. I then organized the cards in categories and noted them on the wall under the label current state.

Next I asked the participants to reflect on the visual images they selected earlier, answering the question: What is our ideal state of collaborative working relations? From there, I asked them to examine the cards and pick 2 cards each which reflected the ideal state of collaborative working relations. The participants read out their selected cards as they stood in a circle within the learning space. After some discussion, the group agreed to look at, analyze the cards on the floor to identify their top ten. One participant took responsibility for reading them out loud and keeping track of the count. In the end, the participants had about 12 ideas. They agreed to move on without full closure to the next step. I put up their options on the wall under the heading What is our best/ideal?

The final selection involved choosing the key essential behaviors and actions to move towards the idea (blue cards). Again, participants were asked to select two (blue) cards. They organized them and whittled down their choices to a total of 20. Then, they opted to put the discussion on hold until another point after the retreat. I put up the cards on the wall under the label “The key actions and behaviors toward it.”

The positive:
• The cards were easy to use.
• The participants enjoyed the regular engagement and the unique way of thinking about collaboration.
• They participants felt safe with the process and demonstrated a high level of inclusion.

Potential challenges to using the cards:
• The very many cards did seem overwhelming to some to read within a time limit. I am not sure if individual sets would have helped given the sheer volume.
• Too much of the same dominant speakers.
• Sometimes the discussion was reminiscent of other team discussions, very detailed, high level and in-depth but without necessarily creating greater clarity or generating understanding of each other’s perspectives.

Feedback on Collaboration Explorer for CCL Labs:
• The materials available to me about the foundational theory behind CE did not really set it up comfortably for me. A brief 1 pager would be helpful.
• Create cards which can be easily stuck on the wall
• Have a tally sheet as one option to capture thoughts as well as those cards which generated discussion. Perhaps listing all the categories with the associated numbers. I made a note of the numbers and wrote the categories on the wall. This could help the tool be used with different groups like a focus group and then compiling all the results into an overall profile which can be validated at a large group meeting or through dissemination.

Video introduction to Visual Explorer

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

Here is a nice introduction to Visual Explorer by David Magellan Horth. A deeper introduction is a CCL Webinar called Visual Thinking for Effective Leadership, by David and Chuck.

What Is Visual Explorer?

Visual Explorer uses images to facilitate conversations, creating new perspectives and shared understanding. The tool consists of 216 images, available in letter-size (USA), postcard-size, and playing-card-size formats, and a facilitator’s guide.

Visual Explorer offers the most benefits when a group needs to:
• Find patterns in complex issues and making connections
• Take a variety of perspectives
• Ask new questions, uncover hidden assumptions
• Elicit stories and create metaphors
• Tap into personal experiences and passions
• Articulate what is known to the group
• Practice dialogue

A Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

Sue Wolpert, change agent in Cleveland, writes to us about the formation of a Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle. (More on Sue’s work with dialogue and community engagement in urban neighborhoods here.)

The Possibility People in Cleveland are moved to manifest their own aspirations for healing and peaceful neighborhoods by the stories told and spaces created by a small group of change agents who dedicate themselves to learn, celebrate, and demonstrate peaceful neighborhoods. As we discover new ways to live with ourselves, others and our physical spaces we model, with deep respect, these new ways of being.

The conversation we had was fabulous. The participants came up with so much wisdom that would never have surfaced without the cards. …
Every card opened the path for a story, every story revealed an important piece of information for our work.

Hi Chuck,
I have been working with a group of people organizing a Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle. To begin with we convened 12 people who said they would come together for three sessions, to learn, and to help plan a bigger roll out of the circle in the spring.

I used the Visual Explorer deck at our last gathering. At the previous session, participants used a World Café Model to respond to a draft of the Purpose, Possibility, and Goals of the bigger Learning Circle. The ideas were incorporated into the document.

The homework was to go out of the circle and talk about the ideas in the community; see if they range true, and if it felt comfortable and authentic to share.

When we reconvened we wanted to hear the feedback from participants, but we did not want to start word-smithing the document. I asked people to use the Visual Explorer tool to respond to two questions [these can be framed as statements or requests or questions, or all of these so people get the idea]:

The first request was: Find a card that represents how the Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle, as expressed in the document [see below], is authentically compelling and meaningful to you and the people you shared with outside our circle.
Second: Select a card that captures the doubts that you still hold.

The conversation we had was fabulous. The participants came up with so much wisdom that would never have surfaced without the cards. The cards had us focus on the bigger picture rather than details of is this word correct. Every card opened the path for a story, every story revealed an important piece of information for our work. We did one round about the positive and then one round about the doubts.

We ended that portion of the night with a little meditation. All the participants have sign up to be a part of the roll out of the program in the spring. I will keep you posted.
Sue

The draft document under consideration in this session is below.

Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle

Purpose and Possibility

The Possibility (A declaration of something compelling to others and inspiring to us)

People in Cleveland are moved to manifest their own aspirations for healing and peaceful neighborhoods by the stories told and spaces created by a small group of change agents who dedicate themselves to learn, celebrate, and demonstrate peaceful neighborhoods. As we discover new ways to live with ourselves, others and our physical spaces we model, with deep respect, these new ways of being.

Purpose of the Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle

To bring forward the possibility of peaceful neighborhoods

To become conscious and skilled change agents

To use our skill to spread healing and wholeness in the world

Some Goals

Create a learning circle that will share stories, build trusting relationships, plan and carry out learning activities for ourselves and the broader community.
To engage with other people outside of our circle, who typically do not participate, right from the start and support them in creating their own circles.
To be cause in healing the pain of disenfranchisement and isolation
To discover, demonstrate, and share simple tools that can be replicated easily
To increase awareness of….
- Our own internal processes
- Our interactions with others-
- What is happening around us
- Learn to ask better questions in the community that allow us listen and learn while creating the impromptu circle on the street

World Café results about the Structure of the Peaceful Neighborhood Learning Circle

Everyone likes the Accordion Model as a rhythm for our work. The sessions would alternate, whole group meets and then the affinity groups or cohorts meet. Members would commit to participate in this rhythm from when the circle commences in March until the summer. The group meets as a whole for community building and learning of practical tools that can be easily replicated and practiced. The teams meet to bring learning into the community right from the start. People like the idea of taking a group Learning Journey.

There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about scheduling, trust building, accountability, and learning models.

Visual Explorer at RedZebra

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

This is a brief montage of a Visual Explorer session from the enormously talented and creative folks at RedZebra. Notice the journal writing step that greatly enhances the depth of a VE session.

CCL Conducts Evaluation with Afghan and U.S. Youth

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

Heather Champion, a senior faculty member with CCL’s Evaluation Center, recently completed an evaluation of Youth LINKS, a virtual cultural exchange program between youth in the United States and Afghanistan. Global Nomads Group, a U.S. nonprofit, in collaboration with the School of Leadership Afghanistan, hosted the program.

Global Nomads Group is an international NGO whose mission is to foster dialogue and understanding among the world’s youth.

The focus groups included the use of Visual Explorer, a tool developed by the Center for Creative Leadership designed to support collaborative, creative conversations in a wide variety of situations to help develop ideas and insights into useful dialogue. Nine questions were asked to assess the impact they experienced from participating in the program. Also assessed were the extent to which they discussed the program with other students, family, and other community members; what they learned about the US/Afghanistan; … and factors that supported and barriers that prevented greater impact.

Six middle and high schools from a cross the U.S. were paired with six middle and high schools in Afghanistan.

Young women from the Mariam high school in Kabul select their Visual Explorer cards.

The evaluation included a survey of the students, interviews with the teachers who facilitated the program at each school and focus groups with the students in both the U.S. and Afghanistan. A local evaluator implemented the evaluation in Afghanistan. Students participated in a nine-month curriculum that focused on cultural sensitivity, media literacy and civic engagement, and included six video conferences where students could interact with each other.

A unique aspect of this evaluation was the incorporation of Visual Explorer (VE) into the focus groups. Students picked a VE card that represented the impact they experienced from participating in the program. The use of Visual Explorer was a powerful and engaging component of both the U.S. and Afghan focus groups.

A participant from the Bakhtar School shares her Visual Explorer card.

Impact

There was evidence of impact in the all three of the areas targeted: cultural sensitivity, media literacy, and civic engagement. The greatest impact reported by both Afghan and US youth was greater unity and solidarity and an increase in media literacy. Additionally, Afghan youth reported being encouraged to continue their formal education (not always highly valued in Afghanistan, particularly for women), being inspired to help develop their country, an increase in confidence, and recognition of the benefits of team work. U.S. youth also reported an increase in cultural awareness and an appreciation of diverse perspectives.

For more information on the evaluation process contact Heather Champion at the Center for Creative Leadership.

Neighborhood Connections: Dialogue and Community Engagement in Cleveland

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

We enjoy hearing from people who are intrigued by Visual Explorer and looking for ways to use it in their own work. Below is a thread of conversation with Sue Wolpert, a change maker in Cleveland (here, here, and here … ) and publisher of The Funny Times. Thanks for sharing your work and fun with us Sue.

My work is around dialogue and community engagement in urban neighborhoods in Cleveland. Even in the microcosm of a city we have so many cultures, isolated groups, enemies, possibilities. I refocused my work here in Cleveland after years of Israel Palestine peace work. After my last trip to meet and support positive change agents there, I found that many of the same issues (small minded, past-centric, distrust, power differentials, lack of spaces to bring people together across divides etc.) all of it is right here in my backyard. Cleveland is an exciting place.

From: Sue Wolpert
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 12:43 PM
Subject: Visual Explorer Post Card Facilitator’s Set

Hi, Last year I had a chance to be in a large group in Belgium that used the Visual Explorer deck as an ice breaker activity. It was an enjoyable way to get a room full of strangers talking to each other. I would be interested to know what other ideas you have for using objects like a deck to help groups bring themselves forward into relationship and action.

My work is around dialogue and community engagement in urban neighborhoods in Cleveland. I would like to have a tool like the Visual Explorer as a way to loosen up peoples imagination when they gather for various reasons. I work on a grassroots level with individuals and simple associations of citizens trying to make the world a better place.

I am wondering if there is a way to get the materials (cards and facilitator booklet) at a discounted rate. [Yes education and not for profits get a 40% discount--ask for it.]

Thanks for your attention,
Sue Wolpert

later …

Wow! Thank you so much for the package full of tools which I received this morning. I opened the picture deck this morning first thing and I asked my husband, tell me how you are feeling about the pinched nerve in your neck? He picked the card of the football players crushing the guys neck. …

Today, I took the deck with me to a visit today with a couple of people that run an organization called Peace In The Hood. They do anti-violence, anti-gang, work in a very rough neighborhood of our city. They also do character development work with youth. I shared with the leadership of Peace In The Hood, the Visual Explorer deck and the Values Explorer cards. We discussed ways they might use the Visual Explorer deck to open up dialogue with stakeholders who might become donors. We also talked about how they might use the values cards with their youth as part of the character development and rites of passage work. We came up with the idea of making a wall hanging that uses the 5 values a person holds most closely.

Chuck,
Here is what is going on with the me and the Visual Explorer decks you shared. I used them once in a group setting (see a few pictures attached) before I took on a two year project for a wonderful local organization called Neighborhood Connections.

The event was an experimental evening, a party for local change agents (A Small Group) that combined using the Visual Explorer deck with practices from Peter Block. I have also used the deck in one on one meeting with new people as a way to take the conversation in a different direction.

My work with Neighborhood Connections gives me a great platform to bring people of Cleveland’s urban neighborhoods together. Over the next two years my assignment is to convene many events and occasions which will showcase the accomplishments of grassroots people in Cleveland. I will be creating learning circles, parties, and other kinds of fun community dialogues and learning adventures which will build connections. My work is to bridge divides and cross siloed communities, both among grassroots people, organizations that work with grassroots leaders, and in the vertical divides.

I have spent the last 2 months having conversations with people, listening for themes and for what they want to accomplish that might be possible with a groups that spans across neighborhoods, kinds of work, organization, etc. I am almost to the part where I am going to start making up the engagement process and the what kinds of groups to get going. This is where I will start using the deck.

I will keep you posted as we invent the kinds of convenings where people can slow down, and use the deck to connect and share about what is most important to them in the matter at hand.

One-on-one life coaching using Visual Explorer

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

From: Beth Dixson
To: Horth, David; Palus, Chuck
Subject: a Visual Explorer story

Recently I gave feedback to an emerging leader, a participant in the Women’s Leadership Program at the Center for Creative Leadership. (I have disguised her identity in what follows.)

She is highly regarded and experienced. Her personal stumbling block is her reluctance to speak forcefully or take the lead.

I’ve carried a small deck of Visual Explorer cards with me for years, just in case. We framed a question for her having to do with seeing herself in 6 months time, and about shifting that which blocks her.

It was late in our 3 hour session, but I spread the cards around our room and left her for a few minutes to be with the images and her thoughts quietly and privately. When I returned, she had confidently picked the card showing a single dandelion seed head silhouetted against the bright skyline.

She spoke about her certainty and attraction for this image instinctively, but could not say more. I followed up with my thoughts framed as “if this were my card, I see/I feel … .” She liked having a partner in dialogue. It seemed to be a new idea for her that she could look outside herself for a deeper identification with her inner state.

As much as picking the card, I think modeling the way of seeing it and feeling the connection was the key experience for her. A new skill, way of paying attention, bridging the inner chaos through recognizing a personal visual metaphor.

It shifted her mood greatly to a lighter, more hopeful mind set. We were able to complete our talk concretely with sketched actions to take after the workshop.

Along with the whole class experience, I think she will carry that clear image as a re-framing point to sustain her.

As small a thing as responding to an image was a significant moment with its own power and clarity when the totality of the week begins to blur. I certainly felt glad I had this compact resource at hand.

Building and Testing Visual Values Explorer in Somalia

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

This post comes from Aaron White at Leadership Beyond Boundaries. Aaron is Deputy Regional Director based at the new Center for Creative Leadership office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Here’s our virtual interview with Aaron: (More on contextualizing Visual Explorer at What is the biggest challenge that youth face in Ethiopia?)

***

We have been prototyping a Visual Values Explorer contextualized for Somalia. This card deck works with low-literacy pastoralist communities to talk about individual and communal values and to create deep dialogue for leadership development and conflict mitigation.

Why Visual Values Explorer ?

The Visual Values Explorer idea originated from a desire to have a card deck that could be used for low literacy populations to discuss personal and communal values and one that could also be used for dialogue creation around a framing question.

Knowing common values helps build empathy for other groups (women, other clans, etc) to empower and reduce conflict.

Why contextualize for Somali People?

Those who are working among the Somali people need tools like this to better implement programs in food security, conflict mitigation, governance, etc. I saw a great need for NGOs to have a tool like this in their work.

I have a camel given to me by a Somali ‘uncle’ –which means I’m forever connected to this group. I have enjoyed the challenges of working with nomadic Somalis in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia and through that experience

Roughly 5 million Ethnic Somali people live in Ethiopia, but over 12 million Somali people also cover part of Djibouti, the autonomous and rapidly developing Somaliland, the Somalia we know from piracy and war, and North Eastern province of Kenya. All sharing similar values, language, religion, and livelihoods despite being spread across 5 countries and thousands of miles. The Somali culture is very different from the majority of Ethiopia. It’s a very egalitarian society as opposed to highly hierarchal

How was it created?

CCL worked with Desert Rose Consulting whom we often turn to for contextualizing of our tools and methodology. Thomas Berger, a Swiss social anthropologist who is fluent in Somali, worked for several months to get a set of pictures that represented important, and not important values. Many focus group discussions were held among urban and rural Somalis. Pictures were tested and modified several times until a working deck of 64 values was formed.

What are the challenges?

Values are not talked about in Somali society, so it was difficult to get to the root of the culture to understand the how the values actually play out.

Low-literacy populations engaged in focus group discussions had a difficult time “reading” or interpreting abstract pictures that were being used in current Visual Explorer decks. The new cards are easier to interpret and leave less room for arguments over what the picture means.

Participants were acutely critical of seemingly minor issues in the picture. A picture of a man and two children (which was supposed to represent the value of being a father or of having children) often got the response… “why is this man with his children during the day? Is he unemployed? Why are the children not looking after the goats or in school? Is he in America?” Because of those issues, pictures had to be very carefully selected so that participants did not get distracted and start arguing over meaning. In a picture of a teacher (see below), we blurred the words on the black board to avoid arguments over the content of what the teachers is teaching.

Where to next?

A lot of development money goes unsuccessfully into Somali areas, but we believe leadership may be the lever to improve these programs. Tools like Visual Values Explorer can help NGO staff to get community buy-in or to create understanding for like values between groups.

Leadership Explorer tools in Leadership at the Peak

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Charles J. Palus & David Magellan Horth

Here’s a story of Wisdom Explorer in combination with Visual and Metaphor Explorers, from our colleague Dave Altman. Dave is an early adopter and shaper of the Leadership Explorer™ tool series. Dave is EVP of Research, Innovation and Product Development, at the Center for Creative Leadership.

‘When participants enter the room, they are dazzled with a potpourri of stimuli that gives them a shot of energy and piques their curiosity… ‘

CCL offers Leadership at the Peak, a program for C-level senior leaders from organizations around the globe. One of the challenges we have in this program, and others we run, is to build in enough time for participants to reflect on the data they receive ,to analyze the experiences they have had during the program, and to set goals for the future. In LAP we now provide participants with a few hours of relatively unstructured reflection time preceding an intense day of both peer feedback and one-on-one executive coaching.

The following approach, in my experience, enhances the effectiveness of this period of reflection. Prior to participants’ arrival, I spread throughout the room cards from Wisdom Explorer, Leadership Metaphor Explorer and Visual Explorer. When participants enter the room, they are dazzled with a potpourri of stimuli that gives them a shot of energy and piques their curiosity!

I then provide them with framing questions related to their current challenges and their goals going forward. I change the wording of the specific questions based on the climate of the classroom and the needs of the participants.

I then ask participants to select a card that represents their current challenge and a card that is emblematic of a high priority goal. In all but a handful of cases, participants flat out reject my advice that they limit their selection to two cards! Many take 4-5 cards and some take even more than that.

It’s very clear that there is huge variability in Explorer card preferences. Some people will select multiple cards within a single deck (e.g., only Wisdom Explorer), while others will mix and match.

Whatever cards they select, a large majority of participants relate how important the card is to them and ask whether they can take the card home. Some weave passionate stories about the cards they select. Most want to share their cards and stories with other participants (which we encourage, but not require them to do).

There are many lessons to be learned from these experiments to promote robust reflection. An important one is to provide participants with multiple Explorer sets, as it increases the likelihood that their reflections on being a leader will be substantive, thought-provoking and lasting.