Facilitating notes

Status for when people are done picking pictures

At the top of the board, it says "Type 'Done' as your status in 999 point font when you are done picking pictures." Fill out people's names before the session starts. During the session, ask participants to indicate when they are done selecting pictures by typing 'Done' for their status or 'Could be done' if that reflects their status better.

An easy way to get to this location on the board is to search for "status" by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper left corner.

Indicating when people are done sharing

It can help to ask people to say something like "I'm complete" or "That's it for me" to indicate that they are done sharing.

Asking "Would you like any reflections?"

Note that participants can choose to just share about the images they've selected without having others in the group respond. (Or, they can choose to have everyone participate in talking about the image they've shared and what they've said about it.) To make it easier for the sharer to choose to not have the group respond, one suggestion is to end each participant's sharing time by asking them, "Would you like any reflections?" (If they say no, then you move on to the next person whose turn it is to share.) You, as the facilitator, can be the one to ask this each time. Or, you can designate someone to do so.

With some groups, others in the group just naturally don't do any responding to what each person shares. So, you can gauge, in the first round, if this is the case for your group or not, before deciding whether or not you want to use the above suggestion.

Pick a Picture session examples

1. 4 adults. People had lots and lots of responses to what the sharers shared. 120 minutes. 2 prompts.

Prompt 1: Pick pictures that you were drawn to even if you don't know why.

Prompt 2: Each person chose or invented their own prompt to use

Two hours was a generous amount of time for this group of four people to do two rounds. Everyone knew each other, and having two hours provided time for there to be a large amount of interaction.

2. 3 adults and 2 children, ages 9 and 7. Dad and 2 kids shared one computer. 60 minutes. 1 prompt.

Instead of having each person share all their pictures at once, we took turns sharing one picture at a time. I plan on doing this every time I have young children in a session.

Prompt: Pick pictures that you would give to someone or send to someone. This could be several pictures that are all for one person, or you could be giving/sending the pictures to more than one person.

3. 3 adults. Almost no responses to what sharers shared. 75 minutes. 4 prompts

Prompt 1: Select images that make your nervous system say ahh, where ahh is the sound you make when relaxing

Prompt 2: Select images that remind you of someone important to you

Prompt 3: Each person chose or invented their own prompt to use

Prompt 4: Think about inserting yourself in the picture. You could be putting yourself in the picture by imagining that you are that thing/person. Or you could be adding yourself into the scene as a new thing/person. Pick pictures that you find interesting to do this with.