Talking Deck at CoLab
Talking Deck: a new tool for shaping conversations in Exeter.
The Talking Deck is a selection of cards – including symbols, words and place-based images – carefully chosen to help people speak about the issues that are important to them. The tool was co-designed, with volunteers, staff and people with lived experience, over a series of workshops. The packs are currently being trialled by staff and volunteers at CoLab, Julian House, Devon Mind and New Leaf.
The tool was developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Exeter (Catherine Leyshon and Shukru Esmene from the Social Innovation Group, and Lorraine Hansford from the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health), Colab Exeter, Devon Mind and artist Hugh McCann, funded through an ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) award and the Interreg 2 Seas HAIRE project.
The IAA helped to translate the main principle of HAIRE’s Guided Conversation tool (using meaningfully co-designed visuals to facilitate wellbeing-related conversations) into a resource that suited our working culture and the individuals who use our wellbeing hub.
CoLab’s Joint CEO Fiona Carden said: “Listening and co-production has been at the heart of this project. We’ve created these together with people from all sectors and walks of life. The cards are a way to facilitate conversations and help people find a way forward without getting to crisis point. People want to be listened to, first and foremost. To be seen and be validated.”
University of Exeter researcher Professor Catherine Leyshon said: “Seeing the Guided Conversation transform into the Talking Deck has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding process. Transferring our tools into new settings to help different groups and organisations always depends on successful co-design. We have worked alongside staff from Co-lab and people with lived experience to produce something that can genuinely help people to have more in-depth, productive conversations about their needs, aspirations, hopes and fears.”
University of Exeter researcher Lorraine Hansford said: “It’s been really exciting to hear people’s reactions to the new cards. Support workers who have tried them out reported back that they were surprised how well such a simple tool opened up conversations, and helped people to talk about things that were important to them that they hadn’t raised before.”
So far, feedback from users of the Talking Deck has focussed on how the cards help facilitate conversations that are led by the individual, rather than the staff member.
Workers commented that using the cards had given them more insight into people’s interests and concerns, and "opened different doors" for people to talk about what is important to them, with issues sometimes emerging that would not necessarily come up in standard assessments used by the organisations.
A support worker at Julian House said: "I was sceptical at first... I was quite surprised at how it was more powerful than I thought."
Another said: "It’s another way of communicating with people, pictures have a connection to memories. For people who are vulnerable, talking can be intimidating, and it can bypass that in a gentle way."
Listen to Fiona Carden discuss the Talking Deck on BBC Radio Devon here (1:26:00).
If you are interested in using the Talking Deck in your organisation then please contact Fiona Carden (fiona.carden@colabexeter.org.uk).