VTS@Work® Program
Learn an accessible, rigorous methodology for leading and participating in your most important professional interactions.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a powerful, research-based methodology for facilitating discussions about complex, ambiguous materials.
A robust yet simple set of techniques, this methodology is designed to deepen attentiveness, curiosity, critical thinking, self-awareness, and mutual appreciation within a group. Its rigorous, open structure enables groups to work respectfully through challenging conversations and mitigate biases.
In the VTS@Work® program, you’ll thoroughly learn and apply the method’s leadership skills and creative mindsets as they pertain to your professional context. Challenging and transformative, the course includes sustained practice, personalized coaching, a safe learning community, and ongoing application directly to your work.
We connect VTS research and theory with cutting-edge topics from organizational behavior, metacognition, leadership and team development, inclusion and equity, patient care and/or user experience, innovation, and more.
We serve the arenas of business, healthcare, nonprofits, human-centered design, and more.
We meet you where you are and help you grow.
VTS@Work® Outcomes
COMMUNICATE & FACILITATE MORE EFFECTIVELY
You will achieve proficiency in all VTS techniques: active listening, paraphrasing, suspending judgment, asking good questions, sustaining inquiry, creating psychological safety, generating multiple perspectives, and choosing stimuli.
TRANSFORM YOUR WORK
As the program progresses, you will apply what you learn for immediate impact on projects and processes, teams and colleagues, clients/users or patients, and yourself. You will develop a detailed action plan for your ongoing integration of VTS techniques and mindsets. Results include more accurate diagnosis (problem-finding and -solving), actionable feedback, inclusive communication, and igniting others to learn and grow.
GAIN SELF-AWARENESS & EMPATHY
You will develop a heightened awareness of your own observational and thinking habits, blind spots, assumptions, and biases. At the same time, you will deepen your understanding of and appreciation for the thinking patterns and experiences of others. You will have tools to help yourself and others be more attentive and present.
VTS@Work® CERTIFICATION
Upon completion of the course, you have the choice to apply for certification. Certification is awarded if you demonstrate 1) proficiency in all VTS techniques, 2) understanding of the method and its impact in your context, and 3) the ability to discern the “what, when, with whom and why” of VTS discussions/techniques in your field.
VTS@Work® Program Modules
BASICS WORKSHOP: Join our introductory workshop to learn the basics and relevance to your work.
ADVANCED COURSE: Have some experience under your belt or taken the introductory workshop? Join this deep-dive course to gain fluency with the method in your work context.
CERTIFICATION: Earn certification as a VTS@Work® Facilitator. The workshop and advanced course are designed as a sequence to get you there.
We also offer training in certified VTS@Work® Coaching and Trainer Training. Please contact us.
VTS@Work® Intro: The Basics
Experience the power of Visual Thinking Strategies. We introduce you to the VTS basics, with a focus on workplace applications. You will understand how the method promotes critical thinking, psychological safety, respect for diverse perspectives, and meta-cognitive awareness of one’s own thought patterns and biases.
You will practice facilitating VTS with art and a stimulus from your own work; each practice will include personalized coaching by experts as well as peer feedback. Throughout, you and the other professionals in your small cohort will build community, reflect, and bridge VTS skills and concepts to your professional lives. This is an experiential, compelling, and highly personalized workshop.
Faculty-Student ratio averages 1:5.
Format: All sessions are currently held via Zoom with ample breaks.
FEE: $800
Nonprofits and higher education receive a 25% discount. Be sure to list your qualified organization in your contact form. If cost is a barrier, please reach out to us and we’ll be delighted to help you find a way to take this course.
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Thursdays from 11 am - 1 pm EST on the following dates:
Day 1: October 3
Day 2: October 10
Day 3: October 17
Day 4: October 24
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Thursdays from 12 pm - 2 pm EST on the following dates:
Session 1: January 9
Session 2: January 16
Session 3: January 23
Session 4: January 30
VTS@Work® Advanced Course & Certification
Rigorously develop your VTS facilitation skills and by extension, your behaviors, mindsets, and expectations in your workplace. This interactive course--the first of its kind to focus on developing professionals beyond basic VTS training--is rooted in research and trains you to become highly proficient at facilitating VTS discussions and seeding the techniques throughout your interactions. You will deeply understand the method’s design, applications, and impact on teams, leaders, innovation, your own field, and yourself.
The bulk of course time is used for active practice and coaching with an emphasis on individual growth and proficiency. Each session connects VTS to a larger theme, including:
Thinking and metacognition
Empathic communication
Psychological safety
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Facilitative leadership
Self-compassion
The faculty-student ratio averages 1:5. Occasional guest speakers are professionals who apply VTS within their work, including executives and leaders across domains, healthcare clinicians and educators, designers, researchers, and more.
Format. All sessions are currently held via Zoom with ample breaks.
Duration. Eight 3-hour sessions over six months. Research on VTS demonstrates that the facilitation skills are most effectively learned through short bursts spread over months, with time between for practice and application.
Outside work. In-class sessions are supported by a variety of homework activities, including readings/videos, reflective writing, and practicing VTS outside of the course. Each participant will also receive 2 hours of 1:1 coaching or consulting outside of class.
Certification. The course fee includes two opportunities to apply for certification as a VTS@Work® Facilitator (after the course completion). Certification demonstrates high proficiency in all VTS techniques, understanding of its design, and the ability to apply the skills in your work setting.
Fee: $2600
Nonprofits and higher education receive a 25% discount. Be sure to list your qualified organization in the registration form. If cost is a barrier, please reach out to us and we’ll be delighted to help you find a way to take this course.
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Thursdays from 12 pm - 3 pm EST on the following dates:
Session 1: February 13
Session 2: February 27
Session 3: March 13
Session 4: March 27
Session 5: April 10
Session 6: April 24
Optional Session: May 8
Session 7: May 22
Session 8: June 5
Testimonials
“VTS has enhanced my ability to lead others and myself—it’s been the most valuable thing I’ve learned in my adult life.”
“Where a new way of seeing things is needed, where a team or organization needs to dig beyond the first big idea that comes to them—this is a method which can open new possibilities and ensure all voices and ideas may be heard.”
“Through VTS, understanding “what more can I find” has been very enlightening. I recognize the important role of looking for more and being very curious with an open mindset, one that helps me question my preconceptions.”
“Excellent tools and methods to achieve breakthrough results in understanding and empathy when looking at building teams that span functions or disciplines. Good for getting unstuck.”
“To observe a VTS facilitator is to observe what the future of leadership should look like. Let’s think of a leader as a facilitator, as someone who is listening to understand and to restate for comprehension and synthesis, and as someone who is quietly encouraging their team, all of them, to feel comfortable making observations grounded in evidence.”
“Knowledgeable and compassionate facilitators. Engaging group of participants across several industries. Great opportunity to develop skills and stretch the imagination of how VTS can be used at work.”
“In the role of facilitator, I learned to listen with intense attention, paraphrase to capture the speaker’s key points, and guide discussions to reveal the underlying concepts of a particular idea. In a very short amount of time, my group surfaced numerous deep and broad connections, and unexpected relationships and insights in discussing a trademark sample from my work.”
FAQs
How do I pay? We take credit cards, or we can invoice your organization.
These times don't work for me. Do you have additional courses scheduled in 2024? We will schedule more Basics courses during spring, summer, and fall. If Noon - 2pm EST doesn't work for you, please write aneta@haileygroup.com to share your preferred times. We're tracking interest and may be able to offer a new time slot later this year.
I want my whole team to take this course. We can meet this goal. If the scheduled times don't work for you and your team, and you have at least eight people, we can set up a separate course. Reach out to aneta@haileygroup.com for more information.
I'm a healthcare professional; can I earn CME credits? Not through this course, but you may want to consider our sister course, co-founded and co-directed by Dabney Hailey and Corinne Zimmermann, Training Our Eyes, Minds, and Hearts: Visual Thinking Strategies for Health Care Professionals and run through Harvard Medical School. We currently plan to offer it again in fall 2024. Reach out to dabney@haileygroup.com to be put on the announcement list. Registration through Harvard will be open later this year.