Dear Reader,
It’s Hannah again!
What if I told you that you could strengthen your innovation and facilitative leadership skills with a piece of art?
You might say I am crazy, but I would like to introduce you to Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS).
I was introduced to VTS almost 10 years ago when I used to work in museums and fell in love with the methodology. I made it the focus of a 2-year research project where I focused on the potential benefits of elementary-age students.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was building facilitation and leadership skills that would support me indefinitely.
3 Questions used in VTS:
The facilitator uses carefully worded open-ended questions, active listening, paraphrasing, linking supporting and contrasting ideas to guide a group exploration of the common focus.
Most recently, VTS has been adopted by the Hailey Group to use with business professionals, including innovation teams like IDEO, to develop observation, deep listening, comfort with ambiguity, and critical thinking skills.
I would argue that facilitation skills are as essential to a designer as prototyping, visual design, and user research.
Upcoming Live Courses
COURSE: Defining UX Strategy COURSE: Facilitating Workshops |
Benefits of VTS to designers:
Designers facilitate conversations around visuals every day. Whether it's a design critique or just an ad-hoc conversation about the user journey, VTS can move you from a participant in the conversation to an active leader.
Leading doesn't mean you have to have all the answers. Sometimes, it's about asking the right questions.
Until next week!
Hannah Baker
Educator & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute
P.S. Enrollment opens today for Facilitating Workshops, a 22-day learning experience on leading collaborative work.
The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
When Your Strategy Slides Hit Silence By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, I’ve shared strategy before, and watched it stall. Not because it was wrong. But because the room didn’t know what to do with it. I wasn’t looking for feedback. I wasn’t asking for approval. I was hoping they’d pick it up and run with it. Instead? Confusion. Silence. They didn’t see what I saw. Not because they didn’t care. But because I’d built the strategy, not the on-ramp they needed to step into it. It’s something I’ve...
Let's Talk about Liquid Glass by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Goodbye, paper-like design. Hello, moving blobs of liquid glass! Play button blunder from Apple Apple's new paradigm in aesthetics is both cool and potentially awful at the same time. "Rather than trying to simply re-create a material from the physical world, Liquid Glass is a new digital meta-material that dynamically bends and shapes light." -Apple Just when you thought skeuomorphism was dead, it rears its realistic head again. I...
Assumption Olympics: Why I Always Win Gold in Overreacting By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, I once pitched a new workshop format to a team of collaborators. One person nodded slowly and said, “Hmm… okay.” That was it. I smiled. Externally, totally composed. Internally? I sprinted up a mental staircase of conclusions: They don’t like it. They’re being polite. They think I’m not strategic. This was a bad idea. I’ve blown this opportunity. Maybe I’m not cut out for this work. I didn’t realize I was...