Purchasing Coach: Advent Window 14: Collage II

25 unconventional coaching and facilitation tools to surprise and delight

Today I'm taking collage in a different direction than earlier in this series of posts.

It's the first ever process I used for Landscaping Your Life, a tool I developed over 20 years ago using landscapes as metaphors for our lives, and is one I return to often with clients.

You can follow along with me if you want - to do this you need some magazines with images in, and a situation you'd like more clarity about.

Now pick an image that represents the current situation. No need to logically understand just get a sense of an image that feels, looks or even sounds right!

and now reflect on what changes you might want to make to the image - cut way parts of this image, add other images, and develop another image.

and keep making changes

You may end up with none of the original image but it's informed by that first image. Keep going...

and again and again

until it feels just right

and then reflect on the original situation and notice what you notice.

For me, what felt like it was in a permanent state of uncompletion now feels whole. Only time will tell what impact that has on my words, thinking and actions in the situation.

Did these images shift anything for you? Or perhaps you're intrigued to have a go yourself - it's certainly going to make more sense if you choose the images yourself.

Do let me know how you get on.

Alison Smith
Unlocking procurement potential - using conventional and unconventional tools
Procurement and Business Speaker, Coach, Trainer, & Facilitator
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159

Earlier in the year I applied some of the unconventional tools shared in this series of advent posts to common procurement challenges - more here.

Purchasing Coach: Advent Window 6: Collage

25 unconventional coaching and facilitation tools to surprise and delight

Window 6: Collage

Level of unconventionalness out of 10 = 5

==========================

Process:

• Identify a situation you'd like more clarity about. 
• Put the situation to the back of your mind.
• Explore a collage - logically first, as that might identify some insight. (see my festive one below although Pinterest is a great source for collages - here's my board with some pretty way out options.) 
• Explore the collage more intuitively - what would the advice be from the collage, or certain aspects of the collage ie what would it/they say to you?
• Follow any and all tangents - as they're your subconscious's way of showing where the solution may be found.
• Keep going - sometimes the real juice comes after the obvious has been exhausted. You may also find that on a different day with a different challenge that you will notice different aspects of the collage - which means you may also notice different things from me in the example below.
• Pick another collage. 
• Or maybe, make a collage to express the current situation and/or the desired outcome (I now have about 120 that I've made that I use in workshops, meetings and coaching sessions.)   
• Return to the original situation and consider what advice you have given yourself.
• What action will you take, and when?   

Festive/Holiday season example: 

Here's a collage I made for Christmas:

You may want to reflect on your own observations before reading mine.

Logical observations

After making the collage, I realised there was a lot of pairs in it - so one piece of advice might be not to try to do everything on my own. What would partnership look like in the situation?

Another element I notice is the light, and am reminded to follow the light - ie follow my passion not that which brings greyness to my day.

One picture is of a chocolate cake, and eating a slice would certainly give me great joy - so there's also something there about following our bliss too. Not making it all about the shoulds, oughts and musts.

These are observations that I am making based on my current life situation. When applied to your life or another situation these observations might not make sense. It's why, as with many of these tools, it's always useful to apply it to a situation you'd like more clarity on rather than just reading about mine.

More intuitive reflection

Relax, and the fun will come to you.

Let even more sparkle into your life.

Mind, body, heart, and soul isn't an either/or - they can and do coexist! (Blimey - that's something for me to reflect on), and also perhaps a link to the insight from yesterday's blackout poetry.

When reviewing the other collages I'd used here on my blog I found this one.

Whilst I think it reflects much of the advice I've obtained from the first collage, it has more of an energy about that I can take into 2018 with me. Perhaps using it as a screensaver for a time to remind me might be helpful. 

As a result of reading these thoughts, and observing the collages what insight(s) have come to mind for you at this time? What action can you take to help the insight enlighten the current situation? 

========================

Benefits: Helps us tap into the part of ourselves that does know the answer. Helps to bypass resistance to hearing alternate views.

Uses: Strategy and Vision Setting, Coaching, Problem Solving, Creativity & Innovation

Participants: Procurement, internal stakeholders, external supplier stakeholders. (It never fails to amaze me how open business leaders and other participants on workshops are to using this process, and the level of insight gained.)

Alison Smith
Unlocking procurement potential - using conventional and unconventional tools
Procurement and Business Speaker, Coach, Trainer, & Facilitator
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159


Here's a post I wrote after facilitating a session using the collage cards I've developed at the Scottish Institute for Business Leaders.

Earlier in the year I applied some of the unconventional tools shared in this advent series to common procurement challenges - more here.

Momentum provides motivation

I was listening to Brendon Burchard on a podcast and he said "momentum provides motivation".

Read that again.

"Momentum provides motivation"

He didn't say motivation provides the momentum, he said momentum provides the motivation.

A great reminder that taking action towards our goals every day can also inspire further action. Rather than just the other way around.

We don't have to wait for the motivation to take that action. 

One morning a few months ago, whilst mid vision setting and thinking I had to have the vision perfect before I took action, I woke with the following words in my mind.

"Put your running shoes on."

It didn't mean literally, it meant put them on metaphorically and do something every day towards the vision.

As I often do, when I may find great insight or advice hard to accept, I made a collage. I think it's as much about the act of making it, that changes the internal beliefs and mindset, as having the resulting collage card and leaving it somewhere where I will see it regularly.

This is the collage I made.

Another collage I made at the same time was made to act as a reminder for me to do my hip mobilisation exercises daily. Exercises I know help my knees (and one reason I knew the running shoes weren't for actual running!). Exercises that I don't however do every day - other than when I did the 28 day challenge.   

The smiling face in the collage was made by the 5 year old from next door and is of me - complete with purple fringe (bangs?). Apparently he "didn't need to draw the white hair because the paper was white" :-). 

The great news is that since making the collage I have done my hip mobilisation every day.  

For me taking the time to find the appropriate pictures, cut them out, position them, glue them, talk to next door's son and help him with his drawing, and make the card was the momentum that has since provided the motivation to keep me taking action.

What can you do today to start the momentum to get where you want to go?  

I also make collage cards to use as coaching and facilitation tools with clients - more here. They were certainly very popular in a recent session with the Scottish Institute for Business Leaders with one senior manager saying:

"I found the approach valuable, and an excellent framework to help develop solutions from a new perspective. It was interesting how apparently random pictures prompted highly relevant thoughts. Definitely recommended, and approach with an open mind" left in comments in a recent post.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Unlocking personal potential using unconventional tools

Creative Problem Solving

I returned from a Scottish Institute for Business Leaders meeting yesterday full of the joys.

As with every one of their meetings there was a speaker in the morning - this time Paul Fletcher speaking on innovation. He certainly got us thinking about innovation, the need for it, what it is, how others do it well, and what it looks and feels like to do it. A Hackathon anyone?

In the afternoon the SIBL members and guests split up into smaller groups to address real life issues, and to act as a executive board if you will for each other.

Two of the groups followed the normal pattern of using Action Learning to discuss, explore, shift and then to identify actions needed to move a situation they're struggling with forward.

As with other times I've attended a meeting Drew Pryde, SIBL's chairman, let a self selecting group come with me. Over the years these sessions have included all of the unconventional tools I use in my work, including a walking session in the woods. These are tools I use when I'm coaching procurement professionals, delivering training, facilitating procurement team strategy days, or as in this case supporting business leaders from other professions.     

As we'd been talking about innovation my sales pitch was "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. Let's innovate and do something different, something unconventional, but something that's very effective too." Basically, if you've not solved the problem via conventional means, and perhaps keep going round in circles, let's do something different instead.

I'd brought a number of tools with me, and during the initial scene setting and challenge sharing start to the session, we decided to focus on two of the tools - pipe cleaners and collages.

WOW.

Can I say that again WOW. (and sorry you have to take my word for it.)

Perhaps because I've let go of the apologies about using the tools. Perhaps because I've got better at making people feel less resistant to something different.

What ever the reason, everyone there came away enthusing about the tools, and the insight and new way of looking at the situation they'd brought to the session to explore.

Confidentiality restricts what I can share, but everyone's body language had noticeably shifted at the end of the session when speaking about their situation. You'll find other non confidential and, therefore, more detailed explanations of using pipe cleaners and collage by following the hypertext links.

One member commented that the process allowed the individual to guide themselves through the challenge towards resolution. That is, it wasn't so much other people there making assumptions about what message a collage had to convey, but the individual's unconscious helping them notice that which would be of most benefit.

On reflection I see that others weren't telling the other person what they would do, or what they thought they should do - which often can raise the barriers to change. You only have to think about how you felt last time someone told you what they thought you should do to get a sense of that. I'd go so far as to say every time someone tried to provide a solution, rather than just ask a question to help the person explore the situation more fully, I stepped in.

It links to the morning's session. Paul said "innovation is just knowledge having fun" - I'd say that's what the unconventional tools are about. They also support a saying I saw recently

We're the best people to give ourselves advice. We just need the right space, the right support, great questions, and an environment in which we feel safe enough to keep our barriers down so that solutions can be found, and transformation take place.

When will you next try something different to help get you out of the challenge you're facing?

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Using unconventional tools to unlock the potential of procurement teams

If you'd like to discuss how I could run similar sessions for you and your team do please get in touch. alison@alisonsmith.eu +44(0)7770 538159. 

The Purchasing Coach: Unconventional tools

My name is Alison Smith, and I often use unconventional tools when coaching, and also when facilitating sessions.

There I've said it, and here's why I use these unconventional tools:

• The main reason is they're very effective at inspiring change (more about that in tomorrow's post).
• They really are effective in a business context - as, for example, the CIPS board of management, Scottish Institute for Business Leaders, and Professional Speaking Association in Scotland can confirm.
• They're effective because they're very good at bypassing resistance to change.
• They're different - which means they retain people's attention longer as individuals puzzle and wonder about what's going to happen next.
• I'm very good at using them to facilitate change - the feedback I get supports that I keep the session grounded and aimed at achieving the goals, at the same time as expertly using my intuition to guide clients in the direction of maximum growth to unlock potential. 
• I'm good at keeping a healthy sense of fun in the session.   
• I love using them - there's nothing so satisfying as not knowing where a session will go, and then facilitating the client's journey, and seeing the difference it has made at the end.
• I like new, creative and innovative tools that tap into our unconscious - because just like an iceberg the solution is more likely to be found in what we're not logically and consciously aware of. 

I spoke in more depth about the unconventional tools in my 2016: my year in blogs post.

Here's a quick introduction to a few of them:

I'm spending the afternoon today facilitating a Transformation Game - it's a tool I use in personal coaching sessions, and is very effective at helping clients identify and remove what's holding them back from achieving a goal they have in any area of their life. (The hypertext link takes you to a transcript of game on finding work/life balance.)

It's not for the fainthearted, and its business cousin the Frameworks for Change Coaching Process is a tool I'm more likely to use in business coaching and facilitation sessions.

Other sessions might include making or exploring collages:

or pipe cleaners (the example here was the antidote to lack of communication in an organisation)

or using nature as a metaphor for our lives (if for example they want to feel more grounded)

or exploring the sayings people are using (such as having their head in the sand)

I said they were unconventional. The hypertext links above take you to blogs providing more detail about how a session using each of these tools might work. There's also more unconventional tools in the post I wrote in December last year (including walking meetings).

(Post script addition: more here from a recent Scottish Institute for Business Leaders (SIBL) meeting when I used 2 of these tools to facilitate change for a small group of SIBL members).

Please don't let the above pictures put you off - as I said in the opening I use them because they're effective. The session using pipe cleaners in a supplier management workshop is a recent example where some truly transformative solutions emerged.

I don't use every tool in every session, and some sessions stick with more traditional tools (from my NLP or business toolkits for example for goal setting or communication planning). Some group's resistance to unconventional tools also steer me in other directions. That is, the aim of achieving the outcome for a session is paramount - with the means of achieving it being adapted to suit the outcome, audience and organisation.

For more detail on what a session might look like for you do get in touch - alison@alisonsmith.eu  +44(0)7770 538159. I look forward to hearing from you.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change Inside and Out

This first week of 2017 I'm exploring the topics that make me tick - those topics that inspire my action (including the odd rant), and that are subjects that I share often in the procurement consultancy, speaking and coaching work that I do. They're also subjects that I have expertise in, enjoy, and that also make a difference when applied well.

Posts so far this week have covered:

• Don't leave your humanity at the door - because I get frustrated when I hear people tell me that we have to leave our authentic selves/humanity at the office door, and instead apply rules that cause other people and the planet great distress. I believe taking our humanity to work with us is what being a B Corp is all about, and is something I'm going to be talking to B Corporations about during the year. 
• Language - because words have power, and we often unconsciously use words that hinder us achieving our goals.  
• Soft skills - because if your goals rely on working with other people soft skills are the fastest way to achieving them
• Use of unconventional tools - as above 

Topics to be covered later in the week include:

• Procurement in large corporate organisations - because it's the environment I've worked in for over 30 years, and in addition to the tools above also applied more conventional tools to category management and supplier management. 
• Creativity and Innovation - because there's a law of diminishing returns, and if we keep doing what we've always done we get what we're always got!  
• Inspiring change - because effective change comes from motivated people. 

Day 18: 4 new habits in 28 days - new perspectives

At the weekend I used some collage cards I made some time ago, and shared the insights behind the making of those cards. As I reflected on the insight I got I realised that there may be further insight available if I reviewed the cards from a different perspective. That is, if I followed the process I invite clients to follow and connected with the cards today and asked "what advice do you have for me today?" rather than think about the advice the card had 1 or 2 years ago. 

Before reading my observations you might want to think of a challenge you'd like more insight on, and then view the collage cards and see what comes to mind. There's no right or wrong just let your unconscious (or should that be subconscious) determine what you notice and direction you thoughts go on from there to find a solution.

Here's what I discovered. 

Today I'm drawn to the turtle and the slow easy movements as they move through the sea using the flow and currents within the sea to make progress. The message from the card would be "Breathe".

I notice the white bird and get the same sense I did with the turtle - less flapping and more gliding using the air currents to get from a to b. The message of the card would be "Ease and flow".

The golden 'sun/star' on the right hand side is where my focus went to immediately. Not the spiral so much as the centre that is "calm and sure". The message would be "stay true".

Just a reminder this is no right or wrong in any 'message' you may interpret from the card - it's really only your subconscious communicating with you and making meaning from the images used in the collage.

It's not a part of the collage I often take note of any more but the sitting figure looking at the sun rise/set on the top left is where my focus went today. The message would be "less doing, more being".

Not sure they said much different to the weekend's blog although it feels less onerous and huge, and as a result much easier to achieve. Just be, breathe and go with the flow.

What insight did you get from these images that you can apply to your situation - and what action will you take and when? Do you need to tell anyone about this commitment?

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change - Inside and Out

The blog posts of the journey to embed 4 new habits in 28 days have so far included - finding the inspiration, vision and goal setting, setting targets, doing things differently, wavering, finding support, commitment, the danger of making assumptions, measuring progress, slaying the old habits and thoughts and, by use of the Frameworks for Change Coaching Process I use in coaching, being invited to be less perfect, and to be kinder to myself.

The 4 habits are:

1. I will consistently eat gluten free every day 16/18 (and nightshade (pots and toms) 15/18)
2. I will do my hip mobilisation every day 16/18
3. I will drink at least 2 litres of water every day 16/18
4. I will do at least one thing differently every day 17/18 - I turned off my email and phone whilst concentrating on a task to do. I had my second night in a row without TV, and am aiming to have a third and fourth too!

Hypertext links in the text above link to previous blogs written on the subject.

#28daychallenge

Day 15: 4 new habits in 28 days - Transformation

Today I want to apply another tool I use in coaching to help me to embed the 4 new habits to support my arthritic knees. The tool is soul collage cards. 

I used the collage cards on day 8 when I developed a card to represent what would happen if I kept doing what I was doing. It won't really need to make sense to anyone else so long as it does me :-)   

I said in the blog that what I was moving away from wasn't as much of a inspiration and motivation for me. Today I'm looking fowards.

When I first learnt about soul collage cards at the Findhorn foundation I made a number of collage cards that resonated with insights from the workshop we'd had earlier in the week, or from my experiences using the Transformation Game* for over 10 years. 

I thought it useful to remind myself of 4 of these insights today.

If you have an issue you'd like more clarity on then do please put it to the back of your mind as you review the cards, and just notice what you notice. 

If each card had some advice for you what would they say? 

It's not just about observing the cards logically from the mind - but letting the heart and soul into the action. And yes that can take practice to do. Especially as we're all so much more comfortable using our mind to explain everything! 

The above card represented swimming in a pool, and then having the walls pulled away and realising you're actually swimming in deep water. For some people a more daunting place to be, but for me there's no comparison between a chlorinated and busy pool, swimming up and down, to swimming in deep water.

A reminder perhaps to not make these 4 habits simply a daily tick list to do, but see them more as a new way of being? 

The trainer spoke of door A and door B - much the same way as the red and blue pills in the Matrix film. 

That is, we have the option of taking the safer option, of staying with the old habits and just doing what we've always done. 

Or we can choose to do something different, and take door B - even if it might involve going through the flames just like a phoenix (if I'm not mixing too many metaphors), it does allow us to be reborn anew into a new reality.

Blimey - these cards do seem to be making these 4 new habits into something much bigger than I first imagined!

There's a setback card in the Transformation Game*, a tool that originated in the Findhorn Foundation, and it says:

For forgot you were a Radiantly Beautiful Cosmic Miracle - you forgot everyone else was too. 

The above collage was my interpretation of those words.

It's always a reminder for me to be me - and to remember that I am more than enough. No need to listen to the shoulds, oughts and musts. To just listen to my heart and soul and act from there. Or perhaps it's about directing my will in that direction (that certainly feels right as I type it - even if my head hasn't quite caught up with the full meaning of 'directing my will towards the direction of my heart and soul!?!)

There's a 'transformation square' on the transformation game, and when you land on it there's a meditation that invites you to walk through a door into what Theory U might describe as the emerging future.

As I imagined walking through the door in one game I found myself at the top of a cliff and a favourite poem of mine came to mind.

“Come to the edge, he said.

We are afraid, they said.

Come to the edge, he said.

They came to the edge,

He pushed them and they flew.

Come to the edge, Life said.

They said: We are afraid.

Come to the edge, Life said.

They came. It pushed them...

And they flew.”

It's most often cited as being written by Guillaume Apollinaire.

The above collage is my representation of that image.

Time to fly perhaps? 

Which also reminds me of a picture I sent to a friend this week:

Oh dear that does all feel quite BIG!

I realise the cards were all saying the same thing, just looking at it from a different perspective. Not too much of a surprise when I remember that the workshop was entitled the alchemy of transformation, and tools I often use in coaching are called The Transformation Game and The Frameworks for Change Coaching Process :-)

What insight did you get from these images that you can apply to your situation - and what action will you take and when? Do you need to tell anyone about this commitment?

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change - Inside and Out

The blog posts of the journey to embed 4 new habits in 28 days have so far included - finding the inspiration, vision and goal setting, setting targets, doing things differently, wavering, finding support, commitment, the danger of making assumptions, measuring progress, slaying the old habits and thoughts and, by use of the Frameworks for Change Coaching Process I use in coaching, being invited to be less perfect, and to be kinder to myself.

The 4 habits feel a little mundane when taken in isolation. These cards have reminded me that these new habits are about supporting me having flexible and pain-free knees. Which would truly be transformative and life changing if it was achieved. A great reminder to persevere, especially when I didn't do even one of these habits one day this week!:

1. I will consistently eat gluten free every day 13/15 (and nightshade 12/15)
2. I will do my hip mobilisation every day 14/15
3. I will drink at least 2 litres of water every day 14/15
4. I will do at least one thing differently every day 14/15 - Rather than wait till the end of the month I uploaded this week's receipts onto my invoice for a client. (I can't believe I've not done that before, I generally dread the end of the month because of this).

I did have one day this week where I didn't achieve even one of the above. Busy work, driving and late home, and therefore no focus nor attention on the task in hand. A sign perhaps that they have yet to become a habit that I do automatically without any thought - or just a busy day :-).

Hypertext links in the text above link to previous blogs written on the subject.

#28daychallenge

* The Transformation Game ©Innerlinks - www.innerlinks.com

Day 8: 4 new habits in 28 days - Slay the Dragon

In my quest to do something different every day I purchased a dragon fruit, and then promptly asked on Facebook what on earth I should do with it!  

One response was 'find the dragon it belongs to' - which I thought was a great title for a blog - and this is that very blog. Although the title morphed a little as I explored those words and wrote the post! (See the bottom of the post for more about the 28 day challenge, and progress made to date.)

This is why I love blogging, because currently I have no idea where this blog title will take me - all will only become clear as I write it.

I wonder what meaning 'find the dragon' might have?

If I look up dragon tree I find this:

Although the actual tree the dragon fruit comes from looks like this;

What do you imagine when you think of a dragon? 

or perhaps ;-)

or even

If however I ask you what words do you associate with 'dragon' then I'd expect slaying would appear. Other words when I asked others included fire, flying, friendly, and not so friendly. 

Slaying feels very apt for the #28daychallenge don't you think? 

After all to adopt new habits requires the slaying of old habits, and also slaying of the resistance and hurdles that have stopped us taking up the new habits before. 

I love using metaphor and analogy (see Landscaping Your life for more on using nature as a metaphor for all aspects of our lives). I therefore wonder how sticking with the metaphor, with slaying these habits and hurdles, provides additional insight to those already explored in recent blog posts. Recent blogs that have covered: finding the inspiration, vision and goal setting, setting targets, doing things differently, resisting the wavering, finding support, commitment and not making assumptions.

Slaying or killing aren't words I particularly resonate with, but that's where the new habit of doing something different every day comes in. 

What would it look, sound, feel like if I did slay a few old habits. What would you see me doing? What would you never see me doing?  

The habits I'm slaying are:

• Eating gluten, and nightshades (pots and toms) 
• Not doing my hip mobilisation and other stretching exercises regularly 
• Not being sufficiently hydrated

Most slaying seems to take place with the help of a sword, and I wonder what this represents in this example?

What's the saying about the pen .... the pen is mightier than the sword? Keeping track of my progress here, and having to write down '7/7' days achieved or '6/7' days achieved has certainly kept me motivated. So perhaps the sword in this instance is the pen - starting a journal or diary for noting progress. Progress in terms of achievement or otherwise of the new habits, recurrence of old habits and progress made towards my goal of flexible and pain free knees.

I wonder if slaying the old habits also requires the following:

• Understanding what happens if I keep doing the old habits. That is, understand the worse case scenario of continuing to do what I'm doing. Providing me with something to move away from, not just the lovely outcome I'm wanting to move towards. Use of the problem reversal technique can help to develop a list of unhelpful outcomes. I decided to use #soulcollage, and this card that I made helped me bring this particular insight alive. It's the first 'negative' collage card I've made since first learning about them 2 years ago! Another example of me doing something different ;-).

Slaying the old habits may also require: 

• Identifying the trigger that starts the old habit, and either shifting it or avoiding the trigger.
• Identifying other habits that support the ones we're replacing, and stopping or amending them too. It's not always a great idea to change everything in one fell swoop, but if you always eat gluten when you go for pizza with your friends try suggesting going to a different restaurant, and certainty one with lots of GF choices.
• Making it hard or even impossible to do the old habits. I don't really like thinking in terms of penalties for default - but perhaps it's time I did. I just know how my brain works, and think I might I know I will fight against them, and just find it all too hard, and give up!! That said it might work for others, so useful to be included here.

Other thoughts on what slaying old habits might look like are more than welcome.

Another aspect to the slaying includes slaying the resistance or hurdles I put in the way to doing the new habits. Hurdles that might come in the form of:

• Fear
• Just not being in the right state of mind or body
• Negativity - "I'll never get there", "It's never worked before" "I'm over the hill" "I can't do it"etc. My prescription for positivity may also help here.
• Negative and unhelpful beliefs about the efficacy of the habits - the wobble on day 4 was a great example of this, 
• Lack of confidence - blog posts with suggestions of how to increase confidence include this one on speaking, and this more personal meaning, 
• Wanting the easy life - which is where this challenge all started 
• Recurring patterns - going around in circles
• Being happy in our comfort zone - and is where the idea of embracing the new habit of doing something new every day came from to flex the 'doing something different' muscle
• Blaming others and not taking personal responsibility - ie having our head in the sand
• Only doing something if we know we will succeed - ie aiming only for perfection
• Anger - at ourself, our body, other people or the world for needing to change
• Other blocks - see blog post for other suggestions

Wow - who thought buying a dragon fruit could provide such rick picking of ideas and inspiration!

What do you need to slay, and how can using the dragon slaying metaphor help you identify an action plan? 

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring Change - Inside and Out

More in this Landscaping your Life post on why metaphors are useful tools when we're stuck, and how they can help get us back on track.

In these blog posts I'm sharing what I'm doing to improve the chances of succeeding in changing 4 habits in 28 days - habits that will support improved flexibility and less pain in my arthritic knees.

The 4 habits being:

1. I will consistently eat gluten (and nightshade) free every day - failed again - 6/8 (this time by eating the black pudding that was in my fridge forgetting that it would have gluten in it :-( - the other day I ate potatoes by mistake!)
2. I will do my hip mobilisation every day - achieved 8/8
3. I will drink at least 2 litres of water every day - achieved 8/8 
4. I will do at least one thing differently every day - achieved 8/8 - I watched ITV news and not BBC - not a biggie but I'm working on the assumption that any shift out of a normal routine is flexing the 'doing something different' muscle. I also ate the dragon fruit with kidlets from next door. 

Hypertext links in the text above link to previous blogs written on the subject.

#28daychallenge

Have you tried everything to find a solution?

What about collage? A process in my coaching toolkit.

Coaching means different things to different people. 

In essence coaching is about helping the client to know where they are, where they want to be, and identifying what they need to do to get from one to the other. Coaching may be required to identify all of these. Coaching may also be about helping the client work through the action plan, to take the first steps and / or journey towards their goal.

There's many different tools and techniques that can be used in a coaching session. One of the more creative tools I use is collage cards (that's one word for them anyway). They use the premise that metaphors are worth more than pictures and words, and can therefore allow us to observe a situation from a very different perspective.

To try it for yourself think of a situation you'd like more clarity on, and then consider the following cards. 

Don't be too quick to determine how the card relates to the current situation. 

Initially just describe the card, and perhaps identify any themes you might draw from it:

You might notice the endless road and the heat of the desert, and noticing the alternate means of transport out of there. Or it may be it's just about taking the clear path ahead? 

Or perhaps about returning to more psychedelic times?

Or climbing vertical cliffs to the top? 

Or looking for the easier path, already forged by the wind, rather than the harder one? 

What about this next collage? 

It's not about describing every element of the card as much as noticing what you notice about the card. Your unconscious will help you see the pattern(s) that align with the current situation. 

So it might be about having the physical strength, or being more playful, or connecting more to nature. Or perhaps noticing the natural timing of things - e.g a full moon only takes place every 28 days (or perhaps it's a sun). Or about reminding you to take time to smell the roses?

What about this even more obscure collage? 

The inner power perhaps? Or walking your own walk? Or surviving in an alien environment - perhaps even being yourself in such an environment?

As you now reflect on the original situation what are the summary themes you can take away from these cards? There's no right or wrong, and logic isn't necessary in that the cards may just have reminded you of something else entirely that relates instead. The mind acts in mysterious ways, and so long as you've got an insight, why worry about how you got there?

For me the cads message is about not making life too difficult but instead taking the clear path ahead. It's also about connecting with the elements, nature and remembering there's a natural order to much of life, and not to fight against but move with it. 

You may have got something totally different, and that's the reason it's such a helpful process. We're able to connect to the cards in a way that makes sense to us personally in relation to the current situation, and yet perhaps still also provides a different perspective. 

How did you get on? 

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Inspiring change inside and out

If you're wanting to find out more about the coaching offered for yourself or your team do please get in touch alison@alisonsmith.eu or +44 (0)7770 538159

Notes from a session at a Scottish Institute for Business Leaders meeting using these collage cards can be found here.

The earth cried

Story idea inspired by Visual Verse (1 picture, 1 hour and less than 500 words) and picture used is my collage card shown.

 

The poem "The Earth cried the day the mist set in" has now moved to my new website.