Creative Picture Cards

Creative picture cards can be used in a number of situations, from brainstorming in groups to one-to-one conversations. They allow people to view challenges in a new light. The cards act as visual aids to facilitate discussion, learning and development. Adults learn so much from games that there is a new field now called Game-based learning (GLB)!

I find using creative picture cards to deal with complex issues a great, and fun, way to facilitate learning. It makes people get touch with the power of non-linear thinking in the brain. This in turn promotes a space for reflection, where there is no right or wrong answer.

If you also want to use creative cards, there are a number of options to buy online. I have done mine myself. Using DIY, I cut pictures from an old magazine and glued them onto A5 cards. After the COVID-19 pandemic, with the need to move to online facilitation, I have taken pictures of the pictures. I uploaded these on my own creative cards stock page which I sign-post the groups I facilitate during exercises that explore our unconscious knowledge.

The trick is to ask people to pick the card first, and then only after they pick the card, we ask the question of how that card represents and describes whatever it is you want to discuss. In group settings, people can introduce their cards to others in pairs, which makes it less challenging.

I strongly recommend the use of creative cards and I have taken mine all over the world, from Germany to Bangladesh and Brazil. It is great to see how pictures translate across languages and cultures. At first, there is always a strange reaction from participants and a level of scepticism, which is normal. But then people get into it.