Card work

Open card work

Some topics cannot simply be talked about. The question “What's on your mind?” is often met with a shrug – even though things have long been stirring inside. This is where card work comes in: picture, motif or word cards act as projection surfaces. What we see in a card is connected with what moves us. The card becomes a prompt for conversation, not the result.

The three steps

1. Choosing: which card appeals to you – and which one puts you off? Both are telling.
2. Placing: where does this card go? In the centre, at the edge, next to which other card?
3. Interpreting: what does this arrangement tell you about your topic?

As the cards are laid out, a picture emerges that can be read like a map: centre and edge, closeness and distance, order and disorder reveal something about inner structures. And because the cards are moved by hand, the body comes into play – insights become more tangible and easier to remember.

Card work can be used independently of any particular method: when clarifying goals, in a first coaching conversation, in work on values, in teams and in large groups. It noticeably lowers the threshold for getting started – you talk about the card first rather than about yourself – speeds up finding the topic and opens up spaces that closed questions would shut.

What the tool can do

• Included card sets: picture cards with images, questions for changing perspective, roles and viewpoints, values, strengths and resources, feelings, needs and sentence openers.
• Laying cards: drag a card from the list onto the board or click it. “Draw at random” places a card, face down if you wish. “3 / 5 / 7 face down” lays out covered cards for an intuitive choice, “all face up” the whole set for a deliberate one.
• Turning over and selecting: double-click shows a card large, the F key turns it over. Mark chosen cards with M and clear the rest away with one click.
• Capturing associations: every card has a note field; the text appears beneath the card, with the first line emphasised.
• Layout templates provide fields: past – present – future, current state – path – goal, perceptual positions, dreamer – realist – critic and more. A field can be moved together with its cards.
• Rounds: “+ round” copies the board – for a second look from a different perspective, say, or for the target picture. This makes the progression visible.
• Changing perspective: interpret the same card from different viewpoints – place a role card such as “my team”, “a neutral observer” or “me in five years” next to the picture card, or start a new round and write the notes from that point of view.
• Your own card sets: add images – they are scaled down and cropped to the chosen format – or create text cards line by line. Sets can be exported as a file and passed on.
• Saving and export: a *.kartenarbeit.json file holding all rounds and the custom sets used. Export to PDF, PowerPoint, LibreOffice Impress, Visio, SVG and PNG; the card log as a CSV file lists every card of every round together with its notes.

A note on image rights

Please use only images you hold the rights to. Card sets bought from publishers may generally not be photographed, used digitally or passed on – not even inside your own tool. The motifs supplied here are simple drawings of my own and, like the tool itself, are covered by the GPL.

What it is good for

As an opening for sessions when the topic does not yet have a name. For self-reflection. And particularly in online formats, where a physical card deck cannot lie on the table – here the tool replaces something that would otherwise simply be missing.

An important qualification

In coaching, the cards serve as a prompt for reflection and conversation, not as a diagnostic instrument. Choosing a card says nothing fixed about a person. Coaching is not psychotherapy (§ 1 (3) of the German Psychotherapy Act).

Your data stays with you

The tool is a single HTML file that runs entirely in your browser. It loads nothing from the internet and sends nothing. Your boards live in your own files, your own card sets in this browser's storage. The tool is free of charge and is free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL-3.0-or-later).

Related tools

Whatever the cards bring to light can be taken further: inner voices in my inner team, relationships on the systemic board, a pending choice in the tetralemma. You will find an overview of all tools under Resources.

If you would like to experience card work within a guided process, get in touch for a free initial consultation – in personal coaching, business coaching or in the facilitation of groups.