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Exercises/Relationship Mapping/Visual Explorer/Photo Cards • WorkshopBank
Visual Thinking · Relationship Mapping

Visual Explorer/Photo Cards • WorkshopBank

Visual Explorer/Photo Cards • WorkshopBank is a visual thinking exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.

30 to 60 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25), Pairs, Small group (4-8)GROUP SIZE
ActiveENERGY
In person, RemoteSETTING
High cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Network Design This relationship mapping exercise strengthens Network Design, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. You need to open up a topic that people find hard to discuss directly, such as team culture, leadership style, or organisational change
  2. You want to hear from quieter participants who struggle with verbal brainstorming
  3. A group needs to surface the emotional or intuitive dimension of a situation, not just the rational one
  4. You are working across cultural or language boundaries where images communicate more than words
  5. You want a reflective opening or closing to a larger workshop
  6. The group is stuck in surface-level conversation and needs to go deeper
  7. You are coaching an individual and want to access thinking that sits below conscious awareness
  8. A team needs to build shared understanding of a complex situation before jumping to solutions
  9. Participants then share their chosen image with a small group, using it as a springboard for deeper conversation.
  10. You need to open up a topic that people find hard to discuss directly, such as team culture, leadership style, or organisational change You want to hear from quieter participants who struggle with verbal brainstorming A group needs to surface the emotional or intuitive dimension of a situation, not just the rational one
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.

Prompts to use +

You need to open up a topic that people find hard to discuss directly, such as team culture, leadership style, or organisational change

The group is stuck in surface-level conversation and needs to go deeper

A team needs to build shared understanding of a complex situation before jumping to solutions

Participants then share their chosen image with a small group, using it as a springboard for deeper conversation.

You need to open up a topic that people find hard to discuss directly, such as team culture, leadership style, or organisational change You want to hear from quieter participants who struggle with verbal brainstorming A group needs to surface the emotional or intuitive dimension of a situation, not just the rational one

Run this with your AI assistant +

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Visual Explorer/Photo Cards • WorkshopBank. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: You need to open up a topic that people find hard to discuss directly, such as team culture, leadership style, or organisational change; The group is stuck in surface-level conversation and needs to go deeper; A team needs to build shared understanding of a complex situation before jumping to solutions; Participants then share their chosen image with a small group, using it as a springboard for deeper conversation.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from WorkshopBank; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including WorkshopBank.)
  • What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
  • No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
  • Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.

Pairs well with