Article Contents
"Build your own Coaching Tool" - the story of the first project What makes your work special? What problems do you solve with your clients? What role does moderation work with cards play in this? How did the idea of developing your own card set come about? What was the development process like for you? What did you enjoy the most, what was difficult? How do you use your own card set now? What role does it play in your organisational consulting work? Your own coaching tool - something for you too?
Since 2018, we at metaFox have been developing card sets - and now also other products - for coaching, facilitation and therapy. When I talk about our work as co-founders, it turns out that many people think we spend our days picking out pictures or questions. We do that sometimes and for me personally it's one of the best parts of our work.
But a lot of time and energy also goes into everything around the creative product development process:
- Licenses for images and models, or the assurance that these are not necessary.
- A team of designers and creatives who can turn ideas and concepts into beautiful colours, layouts and production data.
- Partners who can co-design and produce high-quality product components (and many of you would be amazed at how difficult it is to print a stylish and sturdy cardboard box).
- The infrastructure of partners and software to transport boxes of coaching tools around the world.
- Warehouses to keep the products in stock and the ability to send them to end customers from there.
- And and and...
I think this complexity is the reason why many coaches and consultants speak in the subjunctive in conversations with me when they say something like:
"We've always wanted to design a card deck like this - we've long since developed the concepts in our work with our clients."
metaFox co-founder Tobias with coaching cards
"Build your own Coaching Tool" - the story of the first project
In autumn 2023, I had the pleasure of meeting Kim Wlach, the co-founder of the organisational consultancy "Berg & Macher" from Munich. At that time, she was already a customer and user of various "deep pictures" picture impulse card sets - but only 95% happy: in order to use the cards perfectly with her customers, you would have to combine different sets and perhaps even bring in one or two pictures from your own work practice. What's more, Christmas was almost upon us again and, the Berg & Macher team thought, such card decks would also make the ideal gift for employees and partners.
Kim approached me with the idea of developing her own set for customers and partners - and that was the start of a wonderful collaboration. But find out the full story here in the interview with Kim:
What makes your work special? What problems do you solve with your clients? What role does moderation work with cards play in this?
At Berg & Macher , we support medium-sized companies in mastering the path to an agile and dynamic corporate structure. We guide our clients through the various phases of transformation to build a resilient, future-proof and culturally strong organisation.
In order to master the transformation to an adaptable organisation with a strong corporate culture, we work with our clients to analyse and develop their organisation in five areas of organisational development . We see ourselves as consultants and companions in the process, helping organisations to develop from the inside out.
Used in workshops, individual or group discussions, the cards provide prompts for open discussions about the strengths, challenges and potential of an organisation. The 5 categories of the card set support the identification of fields of action based on the Berg & Macher® 5-field model and the development of a common perspective on an organisation.
Berg & Macher GmbH I Barbara Gandenheimer
How did the idea of developing your own card set come about?
As organisational developers, we already came into contact with the metaFox card sets in 2022 and used some of the reflection questions in workshops with our clients or in the context of our own organisational development. We really enjoyed using the card set, but not all of the questions suited our work on the organisation, which is why we wanted to replace some of them.
The idea of developing our own set of cards arose in parallel with the desire to develop a special Christmas gift for our customers and partners - one that would support them in their daily work. As we enjoy working with the cards ourselves, we decided to approach metaFox and develop our own edition.
Berg & Macher GmbH I Barbara Gandenheimer
What was the development process like for you? What did you enjoy the most, what was difficult?
The development process was above all quick and uncomplicated for us. It only took 3 weeks from the idea to the print-ready digital card set. This was also due to the proactivity and pragmatism with which Tobi and his team approached the project, as well as the quick coordination in between.
We already had the questions in our heads. Thanks to metaFox's preparation on a digital whiteboard, we were able to transfer the questions very quickly and supplement them with suitable images for the reflection cards.
Project board after two weeks of design sprint
Shortly before Christmas, we were still struggling with time pressure because the delivery of the parcels was delayed. There was a real risk that we would not be able to send the card sets to our customers on time. Here, too, metaFox really got stuck in and tracked the delivery to our office door together. As a result, we were able to send the gifts in time for the holidays. And our customers were delighted with the gifts - some have even asked for more and we are now planning to offer them in the shop together with metaFox.
How do you use your own card set now? What role does it play in your organisational consulting work?
We primarily use the cards as an icebreaker at the beginning of workshops and especially in the first phase of the stocktaking process, because this is where we shed light on various aspects of the organisation and work out the organisation's needs. The cards help to open up the "space". In addition, we now have our own workshop space in Munich, which we also rent out to external parties, where we offer the card set as an icebreaker.
In addition to the questions on the five fields of action, we have also included personal reflection questions in the card set. They encourage the team to exchange ideas and get to know each other.
Your own coaching tool - something for you too?
We at metaFox also really enjoyed this project - and left the impression that Berg & Macher are certainly not the only ones who can make good use of their very own card set.
Whether it's to tailor content to your own target group or your own working model, or to give participants a hands-on experience of your own brand: if you're interested in creating your own coaching tool, take a look at the following offer and sign up:
