The Positioning Cards by Coachingcards: A Practical Guide
Positioning cards are large picture cards on which clients literally take a position. Here is a guide to the individual cards by Coachingcards and how to work with them, in person or in the coachingspace virtual coaching room.
Crazy House of Change
The Crazy House of Change refers to the "Four Rooms of Change" model by Swedish psychologist Claes F. Janssen, originally developed for the therapeutic context, and is an explanatory model for change processes. Paul W. Kirkbride, owner of the "Change House" that existed from 1989 to 2002, developed Janssen's approach further for management use under the name "The Change House".
The Crazy House of Change consists of four rooms, each describing a different emotional state:
Contentment: everything under control
Denial: this can't be true
Confusion: what a mess
Renewal: I/we have learned something
There are also additional annexes and rooms called the "sun balcony" (the balcony of the first room), the "dungeon of denial" (the cellar with the trapdoor), the "pit of paralysis" (the cellar with the boxes) and the "wrong exit" (to the right of the third room, with the moving van). These show possible extreme expressions of people's behavior in a change process. As with all Coachingcards, the interpretation belongs to the person working with the card.
True to its name, the Crazy House of Change is wonderfully suited to addressing and working through change processes. This applies to individuals in change of any kind as well as to systems such as teams in organizational development and change processes.
"Walk" through all the rooms with your group or coachee, or let them choose one. Talk about the feelings, experiences and the negative but also positive aspects of the individual rooms.
Helpful questions:
Which room are you in right now?
How do you experience it? How are you doing?
Which problems do you perceive?
Which resources can you discover?
How do the other rooms feel in comparison?
What do you need to move on?
Tell Me About Your Grief
Tell Me About Your Grief offers a metaphorical template for reflecting on your own grief and starting a conversation about it.
The design elements refer to the stages of grief developed by researcher and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. After years of research she described five stages of dying:
denial
anger
bargaining
depression
acceptance
Beyond the Kübler-Ross stages, the card also includes further phases and emotional states such as guilt and fear, as well as tasks of grief work, taking other grief models into account.
Ultimately, every grief is individual. The card follows a basic system but can be explored individually and has no fixed order.
Helpful questions when using the card:
How have things been for you so far?
Where do you stand right now?
Where do you want to go?
What can help you get there?
Tell Me About Your Grief can be "wandered" intuitively anew every day. Just as grief has no fixed sequence, the positioning on the card can keep changing. The positioning should be viewed and accepted without judgment by everyone involved.
The card is not limited to the experience of illness, dying and death. It can also be used for processing any (painful) separation or change, for example the loss of a job.
It also works well as preparation for active work with the Coachingcard "My Funeral Procession".
"Grief is a demanding lady. She wants to be seen, heard, taken seriously, understood, accepted, but also compassionately affirmed." (Jorgos Canacakis)
The Emotional Weather Map
The Emotional Weather Map offers a variety of common weather terms as used in forecasts, which work very well as metaphors for your own emotional world.
The card enables a direct and playful approach to individual feelings, both in work with individuals and with groups.
When working with metaphors, the interpretation and evaluation always belong to the person. "Deep snow" can mean something wonderful to one person and something terrible to another.
The Emotional Weather Map can also show developments in your emotional world: "Last week I felt changeable, now my heart feels sunny and warm; but I'm afraid it might only be a brief high."
The card can also address the context that causes a feeling. An "extreme weather situation" can, in a broader sense, describe a circumstance you feel exposed to.
The Emotional Weather Map is therefore especially useful in crisis situations, when a multitude of feelings covers everything else, needs attention, or is not yet defined or even buried.
Biblical motifs like the snake in the tree, the rainbow, the dove of peace and Noah's ark offer a religious reference on request and can convey hope in turbulent times.
Everyone involved should be prepared for this card to get straight to the heart of things.
Lost in the Woods
The forest has always served as a projection surface for social and cultural ideas. The forest ecosystem also offers numerous metaphors and transfers well to human coexistence.
With Lost in the Woods, also as a continuation of the forest in the "Land of States of Being", you can get to the bottom of conflicts and disturbances in interpersonal relationships and systems. It is worth it, because recognizing problems simultaneously points to solutions.
Ask your coachee or group to search the forest for the metaphor that best describes an existing conflict or disturbance. Discuss what might be behind it, whether it is a new or familiar phenomenon and how it came about.
Keep in mind that this is always a subjective perception of a situation. If you work with two conflict parties on the card, pay attention to appreciative, solution-focused communication. Consider together what can help in the situation and how to leave the forest, the "problem hypnosis", behind.
After analyzing the situation, it is worth reflecting on:
What function does the conflict have?
What if the conflict did not exist?
Which solution is hidden behind the conflict?
How can I contribute to the solution?
Which resource can be discovered in the other person's behavior?
What can I learn from the situation?
What do I wish for?
"One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man, of moral evil and of good, than all the sages can."
(William Wordsworth)
Summit of Success
The Summit of Success is based on the leadership fable by Patrick Lencioni about the five dysfunctions of a team, translated into positive success factors.
The functions of a successful team can be walked through like a shared mountain hike: 1. trust; 2. conflict resolution; 3. commitment; 4. accountability; 5. focus on results.
Capture your insights on moderation cards, for example, and place them on the individual sections of the summit (this only works if the template is at least DIN A0 size).
As team lead on the way to the summit, you can work through the following guiding questions and impulses in practice units:
Trust: How can we trust each other? Practice open mutual exchange and feedback.
Conflict resolution: How can we deal with conflicts constructively? Do not avoid having disagreements in real time. See problems as challenges.
Commitment: How can we foster commitment? Practice clarity and agreements instead of consensus and apparent certainty. Make clear arrangements.
Accountability: How do we create mutual accountability? Make responsibilities transparent and practice mutual constructive criticism.
Focus on results: How can we direct our attention to the result? Make your goal visible and honor the successes connected with it.
In general, a solution- and resource-oriented perspective is recommended: In which of the five functions have we been successful so far?
You can also combine the Summit of Success with the Coachingcards "Lake of States of Being" and "Team Ahoy" in a storytelling context.
The Systemic Castle
Experience shows that it is refreshing and helpful for teams to leave familiar territory and go on a team outing. That not only improves the working atmosphere but also strengthens team cohesion. How about a castle tour?
The Systemic Castle (based on an impulse by Martin Drogat) invites you to find a place for a shared conversation about the system. Systems can be couples, families, teams or organizations.
During the castle tour, many interesting places can be discovered, such as the fear hole, the treasure chamber, the market of possibilities or the laundry. And did you know that the connecting paths in fortresses are called "communications"?
Invite your system on a castle tour. Everyone may look around curiously and choose a place where they would like to invite the others for a conversation.
In the treasure chamber you can address the resources of a system, in the chapel its values, in the (battle) arena recurring conflicts, and in the chambers the perceived favoritism of individuals.
Curiosity about discovery and joy in the exchange should stand in the foreground. Make sure no "problem hypnosis" arises; keep the focus on the solution potential. And even if unpleasant aspects come up, it is positive that they come up at all.
To finish, meet on the market of possibilities for a coffee, at the wishing well, or for food and drink in the knights' hall. A team outing that will surely stay in good memory for a long time!
Stay in conversation and revisit the castle whenever needed.
In a storytelling context, the Systemic Castle can also be combined with the Coachingcards "Lake of States of Being", "Team Ahoy!" and the "Summit of Success". A company outing becomes a whole team adventure!
Team Ahoy!
Team Ahoy shows a sailing boat on the open sea, setting course for its next destination. This Coachingcard by Niko can serve as a basis for understanding underlying team structures and developing teamwork further.
On the ship, Belbin's team roles are represented by the sailors. Not every person automatically has a role.
In addition, the state of the sea and the formations of the fish stand for the team phases according to Tuckman.
Set sail together with your team and ask the participants to position themselves in relation to the team roles and/or the team phases.
Helpful questions:
Which roles do you take on and which do you need?
Which roles do you still discover?
How do you deal with unfilled roles?
Which team phase are you currently in?
What characterizes this phase and where is there potential for development?
What have you already achieved successfully and what can you take into the next phase?
Is there a connection between the filled team roles and the team phases?
What do you need to develop further?
What can you contribute yourself?
And: what is your next adventure or goal?
In this spirit: Team Ahoy!
Team Ahoy! can be understood as a continuation of the Coachingcard "Lake of States of Being" and lets you design a shared voyage at sea with the team.
Palace of Identity
The Palace of Identity is based on the "Five Pillars of Identity" model by German psychologist Hilarion Petzold, who developed the psychotherapy approach of Integrative Therapy and co-founded the Fritz Perls Institute.
The five pillars are:
Body and mind Refers to physical and mental well-being, appearance, health, self-esteem and sexuality.
Social network Includes family, friends, partners, colleagues and other important relationships.
Work and achievement Describes professional activity, accomplishments, satisfaction with work and personal growth in one's profession.
Material security Refers to income, possessions, housing and financial stability that convey a sense of security.
Values Denotes the personal convictions and search for meaning that shape identity.
The five-pillar model can serve as an instrument for taking stock and reflecting, to strengthen your own well-being and cope better with crises.
The scales beneath, shaped like a staircase, allow you to examine the individual pillars of life, take stock and then set goals.
A question on the pillar of body and mind could be: "On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high satisfaction), how satisfied are you with your body and mind? Do you feel comfortable in your body? How are your health and sexuality?"
If your coachee positions themselves at 6, for example, but wants to reach 9, the next question is what they can do to reach a higher level of satisfaction.
Later in the process, the Coachingcard "Grand Hotel of Needs" can help make the plan concrete.
Journey to the Land of Learning
The Journey to the Land of Learning invites you to engage with your own learning process and reflect on it consciously.
The card shows different stations that symbolize various phases and aspects of learning, including curiosity, motivation, doubt, overwhelm, insight and integration.
Ask your coachee or the group to position themselves on the card and describe where they currently stand in their learning process.
Helpful questions:
Where do you stand in your learning process right now?
What brought you here?
Which challenges are you facing?
Which resources are available to you?
What helps you take the next step?
Where do you want to go?
The card is especially suited to learning and development processes, both in individual and organizational contexts.
It can help make learning obstacles visible and open new perspectives on your own path of development.
Grand Hotel of Needs
The Grand Hotel of Needs offers a structured way to engage with your own needs and perceive them in a differentiated way.
The various rooms of the hotel symbolize different needs that often remain unconscious in everyday life.
Ask your coachee or the group to look around the hotel and notice which rooms particularly appeal to them, or irritate them.
Possible questions:
Which needs do you perceive right now?
Which rooms attract you? Which repel you?
Which needs may be getting too little attention?
Which needs are especially present at the moment?
What do you need to take good care of yourself?
The card works especially well for emotional topics, self-care and personal development processes.
It can help you gain clarity about your own needs and derive concrete steps from them.
All these positioning cards are available digitally in coachingspace, the GDPR-compliant online coaching platform. Get to know them in a free live demo: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/coachingspace
