Newfield News Voices Spotlight on the JICT Images Story Jane, Irene, Carol, and Tom's Co-Creative Venture

Have you played with the JICT Images?  Lots of Newfield folks have had the opportunity recently to explore how images can take you to the heart of the matter, bringing the emotional realm easily into your coaching with groups or individuals.  Take a look at this image.  What comes to mind?  Are you the little girl in the pink boots taking that big step all by herself or the hand reaching down to provide support?  This image taps into that soulful place in each of us.

This image is one of 72 evocative images from JICT Images, Journey with Intuition & Creativity to Transformation (©2010), which was created by four Newfield certified coaches.  Jane Kerschner, Irene Kelly, Carol Harris-Fike, and Tom Hatton met in 2005 at their first Newfield training.  Since that meeting, Jane, Irene, and Carol have held a virtual, weekly “wisdom circle” to support them through the development of their coaching practices and their lives.  Tom approached the group in 2007 from the other side of the pond in Ireland and invited them to consider doing a project together.

During their discovery phase, Jane shared a slideshow of stunning photos that her photographer husband, Chaz Kerschner, had produced.  They thought about their work with groups and individual clients who struggle with getting in touch what they really cared about and recognized the power of images to evoke deep, emotional thoughts from the heart.  The foursome knew they were on to something when every time they played with a few images with friends, colleagues, and clients, there were amazing results.

“Being on to something” and “making it happen” are two very different things.  How many great ideas have been left on the drawing room floor?  Naiveté about what was involved, delight with working together as a team, and a really dynamite idea kept the team going.  They spent over a year in creation, choosing 72 powerful images from the collection of Chaz Kerschner with some additional photos from Carol’s personal international collection.  The next step was creating the “just right” question for each image that would touch the soul and inspire a remarkable response.

So many powerful questions were abandoned that they also designed a manual to offer all the questions for use with any image as well as a guide to support users.  You might say the creative process felt like this image from the collection—expansive, fulfilling, and enlightening.

Generating the tool was the fun part, but there was so much left to do!  Starting an LLC, manufacturing, packaging, and marketing each presented a huge learning edge and challenge.

Carol, Jane, Irene, and Tom persevered through endless conversations over an entire year.  One such conversation was about what to call the tool.  In case you hadn’t guessed, JICT comes from Jane Irene Carol Tom, but that wasn’t very exciting.  So using the letters we chose words that captured the essence of the product – Journey with Intuition and Creativity to Transformation.  Tom left the group for personal reasons before the final production steps were completed.  Finally, their baby was brought to market on August 2010, and all three felt like they had reached the summit.

Within the past six months, coaches, consultants, group facilitators, teachers, professors, and many other people have purchased JICT Images to support their work.

The biggest surprise for us has been that often group facilitators or coaches ask for support in using them.  We have become keenly aware that our wisdom as coaches and former educators is a much-needed service we can offer.

Supporting people to design uses and create methods for using the images powerfully in their work brings us satisfaction and joy.  We’ve supported users to identify optimum times to use the cards, create situations that allow participants to tap into the deep emotional places that reveal otherwise ignored issues and take the group (or individual) to deeper places.

Visit the JICT Images website for more information and upcoming free webinars to learn more about this work.

JICT Images: Tool for Transformation
By Jane Kerschner, Irene Kelly, Carol Harris-Fike

Images awaken the heart and imagination.  They sometimes bring forth memories that come from some deep reservoir or inspire new ideas and possibilities.  Using images with clients and teams allows us to capture shared moments and bookmark feelings and ideas so that we can return again.  Thomas Moore in his book, Care of the Soul, says, “Once we have entertained an image, it is always potentially present to our gaze.”  Images add the dimension of magic to our work.

Imagine that you have been working with the CEO of a small company and now she wants you to work with her leadership team that has been exposed to very little professional development.  You have three hours to build a relevancy story with the team and the CEO. In your design, you begin with an icebreaker/activity that uses images to get to the “heart of the matter” quickly and powerfully.  As the team members sit down at the conference table, they find 25 colorful, evocative JICT images spread out over the table.  You ask each of them to select an image that will help them express why they are on this leadership team.  You actually go first to introduce yourself, describe why you are here, and model the activity.

Using this image above, you explain that the work you do reveals the possibilities for teams to strengthen relationships and increase their capacity.  Together we will discover what is beyond the sharp, uncomfortable, and limiting view as well as work together to reach beyond the rocks to the wide-open sea.

One by one, the team members share their chosen JICT Image and express what they care about in their work, what matters to them, who they are, and, perhaps, what has been missing for them.  This personal, meaningful sharing creates a sense of intimacy and connection between team members.  It offers a platform to open awareness, build new energy, and generate greater capacity within the team.

These images can just as easily be used with an individual client, colleague, friend or family member to become metaphors to enrich communication, step out of the story, and/or begin to imagine things differently.  From this new context, our imagination is free to release emotions and beliefs about the story.  We are able to play and explore a new realm not trapped by our situation’s limitations. When we bring our new eyes to the situation, we shift in how we see things and new possibilities show up.

A few years ago, a client, who was grieving the death of her spouse, had great difficulty determining a new path alone; her desire for acceptance and a new life seemed unattainable. She randomly chose the JICT Image of the reeds and water.  After several moments of reflection, she shared that the image allowed her to acknowledge that things really are cloudy, messy, and unclear right now.  And as she continued to study the image, she also saw that there was something beyond the clouds and the “messiness;” she was able to now see that there were possibilities.  She left inspired to examine how the clouds and the mess may be serving her to open the pathway to her new life—or not.  She said, “Before this inspiration, I was stuck; now I have hope.”

JICT Images act as a midwife to bring forth conversations of care, relevance, meaning, aliveness, connection, and what really matters to people.  Their power is in bringing a team or group of people together quickly, as it takes people deep into places that would not have been possible otherwise.

JICT Images has now been successfully used in seminars and as a support to group coaching sessions with all kinds of organizations—from high school students to nonprofit boards to government agencies and business groups.  They have even been used as a round robin to inspire guests at a Thanksgiving dinner to share their gratitude.  And they have been used to create fun and facilitate folks getting to know each other at a groom’s dinner.  We could go on and on.  Are you beginning to see the possibilities?  We are continually amazed at how JICT Images move individuals and groups to “the heart of the matter” in such a short time.

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