Views from the Verandah

A set of 75 playful cards for the serious tasks of identifying values and planning for the future.

Not everyone has an actual verandah or porch, but we all need to take time to reflect on the view from where we now sit. Where am I heading and in what time frame? What is in the way? What do I want to focus on?

Careers, guidance and relationship counsellors, social workers, managers, educators and succession planners can use these cards to build rich, practical conversations about priorities and dreams.

 

 

 

In the Mailbag

'I am using Views from the Verandah with my Year 10, 11 & 12 students in Careers Counselling. It is such a lovely way to look at goals and future plans with students. It is a great tool to help remember changes in thinking and planning-students refer to it quite often. It makes each interview unique and targets interests clearly. Or, if the student is not quite ready, this becomes the focus.'

 

Marianne Hupalo, Careers/VET/Music Coordinator

Trinity Catholic College, Goulburn NSW

 

Views From the Verandah:

A Tool for Exploring Our Values and Visions of the Future

 

What began as an idea for a tool to help farmers talk about their long term plans, soon morphed into a planning tool that can be used in multiple settings from career guidance to relationship counselling.

 

Mike Stephens from Farm Management 500 initially contacted us in 1997 with the need for a hands-on tool their network of consultants could use to talk about their long-term pictures of the future. It had been a common experience to find that while farmers were fine with their day to day planning, many struggled to identify or talk about their long term goals. Vital questions like succession planning (who is going to inherit the farm?) or retirement were commonly not talked about or failed to take into account key considerations.

 

As the idea progressed, we decided we liked the iconic Australian metaphor of sitting on the verandah and looking out to the horizon. And as the project progressed and grew into a multi-use planning tool, we discovered that the metaphor could be understood by young people, non farmers, urban dwellers and even those who didn't own a verandah!

 

Using John Veeken's engaging visual humour of very humanoid birds, Views From The Verandah has proved to be an accessible and versatile way of building conversations around what is important to us (our values) and where we want to get to in our lives (our visions of our future).

 

Each of the 60 values and visions cards identifies an aspect of life that many people would say was important to them now or in the future. Like our other seriously optimistic card sets, if what is important to any participant is not identified in the deck it is both easy and permissible to create you r own imaginary cards. In the Views deck we included one blank card for this purpose, 8 cards that suggest different time frames into the future and 6 focus cards that suggest different metaphors for planning and goal setting.

 

Meditations and Discoveries

 

Ali Gwyer is a storyteller and meditation teacher who regularly works with individuals and in group situations. Here she describes the fun that's been had and insight gained from using Innovative Resources' cards and books in her work with childcare professionals and her home-based meditation practice.

 

For the past nine or ten years I've been a meditation teacher and storyteller. I've run workshops in children's centres, kindergartens and the Lady Gowrie Child Centre in Melbourne. Having trained in primary and kinder teaching, and lectured in child care, I've been especially interested in self-esteem, creativity, meditation and relaxation for young children, parents and staff in centres. I also run classes from home, incorporating storytelling and spirituality, along with meditation. A trial of Strength Cards, a fascinating conversation, and a visit to Bendigo led to the decision to try a variety of cards and books from Innovative Resources.

 

I was up and running! (Well, I need a walker to move around, but you get the picture) Strength Cards have been a success in both formal workshops and the meditation work I do from home. At the beginning of a workshop I ask each participant to choose a card, then discuss why they are at the workshop and what they see as the strength they've brought with them. The discussion takes place in pairs with each partner reporting back to the main group. At the end of the session each participant keeps their strength sticker. At the beginning or end of a meditation session, participants shuffle the Strength Cards then choose several. These might be the strengths people feel they have or would like to have. The great thing about the Strengths Cards is that they are always helpful, no matter what group of people I use them with.

 

Views from the Verandah also works well in these situations. Choosing topics and questions from the booklet, we discuss how each person's cards are relevant to both their present feelings and their personal pictures of the future. It gives people lots of opportunities for reflection and meditation. The Inside Out journalling kit has proved to be a most valuable tool for my meditation group. The combination of the visual images and the written word appeals to people's individual strengths and forms of expression. Usually we'll have an initial discussion then come back the following week to share further insights.

 

In workshops, the I Can Monsters and The Bears have both proved great discussion starters on the subject of enhancing young children's self-esteem. I used them in a session with kinder and day care staff at the Lady Gowrie Centre in conjunction with puppets, art and picture story books, with good results. What about story books? Everyone enjoys stories. My meditation group loves picture books, so I ran a series called 'The Wisdom Of Children's Stories' using Innovative Resources' books. The theme was 'change' and the discussion was amazing. My groups have focussed on both professional and personal issues. The resources have freed people to be open, and many have expressed their delight at the fun they've had and the great insights they've gained.

 

Ali works from the Melbourne bayside suburb of Hampton.

 

 

 

The 'Aha!' Moment:

A Family Worker tries out the Views Cards

 

Views from the Verandah is a metaphor for examining and questioning our values, our lifestyle and our environment, and reflecting on where we want to be in the future.

The verandah. It really is an Australian (and New Zealand) icon as much as the thong (or 'jandal') and the corrugated iron roof. In fact, all three of these go remarkably well together: there you are, wearing your thongs, sitting under the tin roof of your verandah. Close your eyes and perhaps you can picture the scene.

 

Metaphors for the future

What is the view like from your verandah? What do you see in the view to the front fence? To the horizon? Can you see clearly or is that rusty old car that is slowly merging with the lawn getting in the way of your view? These questions can be metaphors for looking at our lives and considering our goals for the future.

 

St Luke's Innovative Resources has produced a 'future planning' tool called Views from the Verandah. There are eight Time Frame cards and 60 Pictures of the Future cards in the pack. These pictures cover a wide range of goals, dreams and aspirations that motivate us. They cover areas such as lifestyle, learning, personal growth, relationships and business.

 

Bird jokes

The graphic artist for the project, the very talented John Veeken, has created some lovable bird characters who get up to all kinds of antics throughout the cards. Take the card with the word Courage on it, for example. Is that bird leaping off the bridge with a rope around his scrawny ankle, really going budgie jumping? And is that bird in the Good Food card really buying an eggplant? And isn't that old bird with the cane stepping out of a mini mynah car in the Helping Others card? Of course, what else? (Well, I suppose it could be a Falcon.)

 

So how are the Verandahs cards being used out there in the field? They were extensively trialled during their development, but we are really keen to hear about how people are using them in their work. We consider our resources 'works in progress' so it is good to hear your ideas for how to use them creatively, and how to improve them.

 

Family work

Marlene Bemelen is a St Luke's Family Worker based in the Central Victorian town of Castlemaine. She dropped by our office with a great story to tell us about her recent introduction to the Views from the Verandah cards.

 

Marlene said that she recently met with a client who was facing some very difficult challenges within her family relationships. Living in an isolated area and chronic debt were also impacting on her options for change. The client, a mother who loves art and reading, was in the process of buying the house she was living in. However, because of this, her financial future involved many years of debt paying. In fact her debts were escalating and she was feeling very despondent and felt that she had no control over the situation.

 

Marlene decided to try the Views from the Verandah cards and was surprised by what happened.

 

'I asked her to think of 12 months down the track and asked her "Where would you like to be?" She went through the cards and picked the ones that expressed what she would like to be doing in a year's time. Then, together, we went through each one of the cards that she had selected and discussed whether it could be achieved. Each and every one seemed impossible given her present circumstances!

 

The 'aha!' moment

'Finally we came to the last card which was Writing. The woman said that she felt she couldn't even do that because she had so little peace of mind at home. This was an "aha!" moment,' Marlene said. 'The woman saw very clearly that something had to change in her circumstances. This is when she realised that she did have choices. They would be very difficult ones but she saw that unless she allowed some realistic changes to take place, her dreams and goals for the future would be almost impossible to achieve.'

 

They then talked about what could change to bring some basic ease into her life. They discussed how a move closer into town would save taxi money and enable her to pick up the specials at the supermarket. Perhaps the money saved could allow her a regular trip to an art gallery or a notebook and pens for her writing? This would mean letting go of buying the house-a difficult thing to do, but a dream that was in fact, holding her back.

 

'I felt that the Verandahs cards seemed to help the process of really facing the need for change,' said Marlene. 'In a short period of time, there was a real sense of direction emerging.'

 

Using the Views from the Verandah cards

Who can Use Views from the Verandah?

Views from the Verandah is designed to be versatile and useful to many people including a wide range of human service workers.

 

Many people have planning needs and struggle to adequately plan for the future, whether this is retirement, a career, recreation or family needs. Human service workers including teachers, financial counsellors, career advisors and family therapists, work with people around planning issues.

 

Like other Innovative Resources materials, we hope any individual or family can sit down with the kit, enjoy it and find it useful. Similarly, we believe that many human service workers will add it to their repertoire of tools and invent imaginative and creative ways of using the cards.

 

The compact nature of the Views from the Verandah cards makes them easy to carry and able to be used on the kitchen table, the lounge room floor, the counsellor's desk or in the boardroom.

 

Four elements that St Luke's hope would be present any time Views from the Verandah is used are:

 

Innovative Resources actively seeks feedback on creative and successful applications of all strengths-based materials.

 

How can I Use Views from the Verandah?

Like other Innovative Resources strengths-based materials, Views from the Verandah can be used in many different ways and we can encourage people to experiement with creative and respectful ways of applying them.

Some people may like to sit down by themselves and use Views from the Verandah to reflect on their own pictures of the future. However, Innovative Resources believes our materials  work best when they are built into conversations.

We call our materials 'prompts for conversation' because of their ability to suggest important things that can be talked about. It is these conversations that can lead to significant change.

 

Views from the Verandah is a unique planning tool that combines concepts, graphics and gentle humour to provide prompts that can lead conversations in new and fruitful directions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

By suggesting questions like those above, Views from the Verandah can challenge us to be more systematic and rigorous in thinking through our pictures of the future and to approach planning issues in new and creative ways.

 

It is the conversations that the cards generate that provide Views from the Verandah with its power for change. The insights we receive into our own pictures of the future and those of others will be enhanced as we build layers of conversations around the cards.

 

Can the cards be dangerous? Yes, they may challenge the beliefs, preconceptions and assumptions of ourselves and others. So in the conversations we build around Views of the Verandah, we need to listen respectfully to what others are saying and recognise that even if we share the same verandah we may have different, but equally valid, views.

 

There is no set way of using the cards with either individuals or groups. Perhaps the easiest way is to spread all the cards on the flor or on a table and then invite the participants to sort the cards into different categories.

 

Focus Cards and Time Frame Cards provide some examples of the categories that can be used.

 

Focus Cards are simply questions that might provide different windows of insight into thinking about the future. If these questions or metaphors don't feel right then there are many alternatives to consider. For example, the cards can be grouped into 'very important', 'important', and 'not important' categories.

 

The 'very important' can then be prioritised:

 

Or you might ask participants to categorise the cards according to how much time and energy they put into the different options:

 

Time Frame Cards suggest a range of options for thinking about goals stretching far ahead into the future.

 

If any of these time frames is not relevant, please feel free to choose alternatives.

 

Focus Cards

The intention of the Focus Cards is to ask different questions about the view from one's verandah and to focus on particular aspects of the view.

 

Six Focus Cards are included in the kit. However, if the metaphors are unclear, irrelevant or don't work, they can be omitted or substituted. It is important that the questions make sense to the person or people using the cards.

 

What is your view to the front fence?

This can be a question about the things we do on a daily basis, the things close to us or under our feet.

 

What is your view to the horizon?

This question looks beyond the immediate to the big picture goals in life. 'Studying the horizon' is a metaphor that looks at long-term plans, our deepest values and how we create meaning for ourselves:

 

 

What would you like to read about yourself in the paper?

Verandahs are a great place to read the newspaper. We read newspapers for many reasons and they give us views of the world around us:

 

What stars can you see at night?

 

Verandahs at night can be great places to gaze at stars, do some dreaming and let your imagination run free:

• What are the things you dream of doing in the future?

• What are the dreams you once had? Why have they been put aside? What is now stopping you from these dreams?

• If you could fulfil one dream, what would it be?

• Do people who are close to you share the same dreams as you? Have you shared your dreams with others?

• What are your dreams for the people you love?

• Do they have the same dreams for themselves?

• Are there steps you can take towards achieving your dreams?

• If you could take one journey, where would you go? Who would you go with? What would you take?

 

Sometimes just talking about our dreams may make them more realisable.

 

What interferes with your view?

At times our pictures of the future can suffer from interference. There may be obstacles that limit our view.

 

This question examines what it is that we have to deal with before we are able to achieve our goals or move towards our pictures of the future:

 

• What things, if any, make it difficult to form a picture of the future or get in the way of this picture?

• Are there things you have to deal with before you can tackle your goals?

• Are these obstacles secondary goals? That is, if you achieve them first, will you be freer to work on the goals you really want?

• Are there compromises that may allow you to work on your goals even if the obstacle still exists? How can you reduce the obstacle's impact?

 

Do your pictures of the future change? Some people change their goals and plans rapidly. For others different pictures of the future slowly emerge. Sometimes the goals we have appear contradictory or irreconcilable. But then suddenly, our view of the future may become clear. It may only be for a short instant but these clear moments are like gold. So this question refers to those times, however fleeting, when things are clear:

 

For people who struggle to imagine a clear day you can ask 'exception' questions: