First Impressions

Part Two

Descriptor Cards Collage Exercise

Finding the words

Now that you have been contemplating your views and opinions in non-verbal formats by assembling the image collages, let’s try romping through some different neural pathways.  For this second exercise in the “First Impressions” set we’ll transition into building a word collage. Let’s see what your speech and language center areas have to say.

Studies have shown that our emotional instinct can be swift and decisive, yet sometimes rational thinking will steamroll over what our heart wants.  My intention is to create an opening in which our rational administrator has an all-hands off-site with our heart’s desires, our body-based wisdom.  We need a two-way dialog going on here between logistical efficiency on how to accomplish our goals and why we are even doing these tasks in the first place.  This exercise is intended to open that dialog. 

Allow at least one hour, maybe more, of uninterrupted time and a large area on which to spread out and arrange the cards.  There's a card set provided for your use: if we’re working remotely, you’ll need to print out the PDF at the link below then cut down the word cards manually. The quality of our results hinges on your engagement in the exercise.  This is the most important of the exercises, so go full out on this one.

This Descriptor Cards Exercise is modified from an exercise in "Career Distinction" by William Arruda.  

Dealing the cards . . .

Head & Heart read-through

 

Just read through the full stack all the way through in one sitting.  YES, you really do need to do this part first.  (If you are clipping down the cards from the PDF, that counts, assuming you are reading the words as you go.)  Some parts of your reaction to the terms will come faster than others.  Your rational response will be more swift than your heart’s response, so put them on fair footing by giving your heart a chance to get in the game.  It is important that all of the ideas be put into your train of thought in one sitting with no interruptions and that the exercise is completed immediately after reading all of the cards.  (OK, maybe a three minute bio break, but not more, OK?)  Your brain should be forced into overload so that choices will feel like a relief. 

Second Sort

 

On the second pass, sort cards into five piles:

  • VERY important to me

  • Important to me

  • Roughly neutral

  • Not that important to me

  • Actively dislike / disagree

Capture Dislikes

 

Arrange the cards of the "Actively dislike/disagree" pile in any way you like and take a readable digital picture.  Bundle them all up in a band or clip.  Set them aside.

Thin the ranks

 

Bundle all of the cards in both the "Not that important to me" pile as well as the “Roughly neutral" pile together.  Set them aside — no arranging, no picture.

Collect your thoughts

 

Using the "Very important to me" and "Important to me" piles, arrange the cards into clusters of related ideas.  You may have hubs of core concepts with cards around it as they relate to each other for you.  Some cards may bridge ideas, or they may line up in sequence for you.  The arrangement can be any shape, as large or as small as you prefer, and cards can be as interrelated or as distinct as you prefer.  Yes, making up your own cards is ok, too, if an important concept is not represented in the set.

Capture the results

 

When you are satisfied with your arrangements, take digital snapshots of the collage arrangement.  Again, verify we can read the words clearly.  Upload them —including that Actively Dislike set— to DropBox, Google, via text message, or in whatever way we’ve agreed for this project. 

stack the deck

The deck of cards . . .

The deck of Descriptor Cards is a 9 page document in PDF format. These pages will need to be cut down into the individual cards for use.