1. In advance, gather a bunch of magazines or other pictorial literature, or ask group members to bring their own.
2. Gather a collection of craft materials.
3. Instruct your group to select and cut out one or more images and/or quotes that represent a goal or something that they would like to accomplish in regard to the well-being of the group (or another objective.)
4. Allow 30 to 45 minutes for your group to paste a collage of images to create their vision board.
5. When ready, invite group members to share their vision boards with others.

A vision board is a visual aid that reflects your group’s norms, motivations, and goals. It’s a representation of what’s important to the well-being of your group and a focal point on what they want to achieve.

They help add clarity to your group’s goals and inspire well-being. They also ignite good feeling emotions which help keep groups motivated, inspired and connected.

The primary purpose of the project is to inject a sense of belonging and team bonding. The visual components of a vision board will help spark ideas and motivation as well as invite connected conversation.

You have a few options here. To start, you can gather images from magazines or personalized images from the group, print them out from the internet and then use these to paste on your board.

The key to this task is that your group can successfully visually express their norms and goals with the variety of images they have chosen,

A helpful tip is to explain to your group what a vision board is and how it can help them.

Necessarily, you will need to introduce a set of parameters. You can have one person place their image on the board one at a time or complete the task in small groups.

You can also have each person create their own mini vision board to share with the group.

As others are sharing and pasting their images, you can have the rest of the group jot down insights and thoughts on what they think the image stands for and expresses.

Be sure to allow time to invite your group to reflect on what they experienced during the activity. Conversations about motivation, community, effective communication, individual goals, group goals as well as individual well-being and group well-being are all great conversation starters.

For convenience, you could choose to cut out a bunch of images and quotes/words in advance. For virtual programs, you can share a folder of images with the group. You can choose one initiative for the group’s collage or leave it open to them.

Magazines that work great for this activity include any health and wellness, fitness, and mindfulness issues. Some goals for your group may be to keep calm and focused or to manage stress in a way that feels good. These magazines offer some great images and quotes that are sure to empower your group.

It may be easy for your group to choose images that represent physical objects or material things they want but invite them to connect with how they want to feel and what images represent these feelings. An example would be with an image of money or a fitness model. Instead of focusing on wanting to be a millionaire or getting six-pack abs, think about how those things would make you feel? Secure? Confident? Strong?

It’s also useful to invite conversation around perspective and how similar images may have a different meaning for the individual and the group.

You could integrate Vision Board as part of a well-designed SEL program to develop your group’s ability to manage their emotions, thoughts & behaviours effectively to achieve personal and group goals.

Specifically, this activity offers ample opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

• Identifying Emotions
• Linking Feelings, Values & Thoughts
• Identifying Personal, Cultural & Linguistic Assets
• Recognising Strengths, Prejudices & Biases
• Experiencing Self-Efficacy
• Having A Growth Mindset

Self-Management

• Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
• Setting Personal & Group Goals
• Taking Initiative
• Use Planning & Organisational Skills

Responsible Decision-Making

• Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
• Making Reasoned Judgements
• Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
• Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

The ability to set goals and gather the necessary resources to achieve them are intimately connected to one’s health and well-being and mindset. That is to say, if one is feeling hopeless, it is very difficult to garner the energy or enthusiasm to aim high or imagine what is possible in life. A vision board exercise not only puts these aspirations into existence but also creates an enduring memory of one’s commitments which can be referenced over time, not to mention embedding accountability for one’s actions.

In a sense, the process of creating a corporate vision board is akin to the benefits of developing an agreement about behavioural norms. You may consider creating a whole-of-group vision board that reflects the thoughts and aspirations of your group in regards to how they want to be with each other, not to mention, squeeze full value from one another. For example, a montage of powerful images may be more inspiring than a list of words and phrases pasted to the wall.

• Ubuntu Cards: Use UBUNTU Cards to inspire creativity.
• Unexpected Images: This is a more intuitive approach. Start with all of the images on a table face-down. Then, as members of the group approach the table they don’t know what the images are. Invite group members to choose an image to paste on the collage, leaving the images open for interpretation. The idea here is to invite a sense of trust in whatever image is chosen is the image that the group member/group needs. For example, picking a random image will invite an element of surprise. Finding ways to connect a random image to the purpose of the activity is a fun way to define your group goals/norms intuitively versus thinking about them beforehand. Allowing spontaneity and fun in trusting that what wants to reveal itself, will!
• Personal Vision/Dream Boards: Use this exercise to define future goals, stress/management and well-being. Have each person create their own and then share it with the group
• One Image: Invite your group to choose just one image to capture the essence of their vision.
• Corporate Focus: Vision-boarding is a powerful strategy to invite groups of people who work together to get on to the same page. Invite each team member to contribute one image which captures what they (a) bring to the team or (b) what they are willing to be responsible for to achieve their vision, etc.
• Open the Virtual Adaptation tab to learn how to present this activity online.

• Search for pictures on the internet using stock photo sites like pexels.com, unsplash.com, or pixabay.com. Save them to your computer and upload them to a shared platform such as Google Drive or padlet.com. You’ll need to set up padlet on your end beforehand and share the link with your group.
• Alternatively, you could invite each individual in your group to search for and collect their own digital images to create their vision boards.
• To assist in sharing process, allocate your group members into smaller Zoom breakout rooms.

A vision board helps athletes to perform at their best. By adding a visualization and a vision board to your daily routine, you will become more motivated to achieve your goals. Let’s get started…

Dr. Joe Dispenza confirms that our bodies cannot tell the difference between what we see in our minds and what we see in our reality, meaning that there is true power in visualizing what we want and how we want to feel. Vision boards help get us to our goal quicker. It keeps us connected to the feelings of the goal and vision which is the purpose of this next activity…

Images and words create feelings that help motivate and inspire us to be our best and connect with each other. Can you think about how powerful a photo memory is or an empowering magazine photo?…

Have you ever heard of the Law of Attraction: Vision boards are based on the Law of Attraction – the idea that your thoughts affect the results you are getting in your life…

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after playing this creative goal-setting exercise:

• Did you notice similar images?
• What image stuck out for you and why?
• Which image do you feel is the most important and why?
• What are some ideas in ways our group can use this tool?
• Were there any challenges your group faced in this exercise?
• Did you feel connected to the group before this exercise?
• Do you feel more connected to the group after this exercise?
• What have you learned about this tool?
• What have we learned about the ways we are motivated and inspired by images and each other?