Method

Method

Points of You® is a successful business venture (founded in 2006. by two creative Israeli entrepreneurs), one of the leading companies in the training and development industry - creating games that inspire people to search and find new points of view.

Today, indivuduals, proffessionals and organisations accros the world use Points of You® tools to support their personal and organisational development journey. During the last ten years these tools have found their application in numerous developmental approaches such as individual and team coaching, business meetings and conference facilitation, soft skills and business skills training, team engagement workshops, strategic planning, innovation and creativity workshops.

How did it all start?

Efrat Shani and Yaron Golan, founders of the business and authors of the Points of You® method, first met at 2002. at their coaching qualification course, at a time when coaching was starting as a profession inIsrael. As coaches they worked with both business and executive clients, as well as underprivileged and disadvantaged adults and youth who lacked resources and often did not even know about personal development. When they started coaching it was not only about helping businesses get better results. It was because they wanted to make a difference in people's lives. Both their persona and professional lives.

Regardless of who they worked with - executives or youth in need - it always felt that the coaching process is too verbal, logic driven, deductive. They asked themselves - "How can we make the coaching process more juicy, more fun? How can we address the same content that comes up in a coaching conversation in way that will bypass logic and go even deeper" They were dreaming about a tangible tool that will stay with their clients long after the initial activity has ended, igniting a more long-term accountability to their commitments.

How can they transform the coaching process into a more playful experience? This is how the idea came upon - to create a game! A game that will help people (individuals or teams) to look at their challenges from a new, expanded, different perspective. A game that will inspire new ways of thinking, help new ideas to be born, empower players to take action. In 2006. the first game was born - The coaching game. With time, new Points of You® tools were developed – 'Punctum', Inspirational journals and planners, 'Refresh' collections of stories, photo's and new coaching process layouts, as well as Training programs and workshops based on Points of You® methods and tools. ​

Since then more than 200.000 are sold in more than 140 countries accros the world. Points of You® tools are translated into 17 languages, there are more than 200 Points of You® certified trainers in 38 countries, and more than 50.000 people have participated in numerous workshops designed and facilitated based on the use of Points of You® tools and methodology.

​Points of You® is opening hearts and minds worldwide :)

What do we mean by Points of You®

The Points of You® name in itself carries a double meaning and a game of words - when we say engleskom jeziku izgovaramo 'Points of You®' ('Points/parts/elements of You') it sounds n the same time as 'Points of View' ('multiple perspectives / diverse view-points). Those two meanings embody the two key elements of these games - they help us discover and get to know in more depth different parts of ourselves, helping us in the same time to expand our perspective and explore new points of view on whatever the issue we are working through.

The games help people open up for thinking outside of the box. We can play on our own, with a partner or in groups. The goal of the game is to get a more in-depth understanding of a situation or a problem at a table, explore multiple divers points of view, ignite new insight, and at the end design our next steps.

The Points of You® method is in its essence a simple 4 step process (inspired by principles of therapeutic use of photography) that involves using photo's, music and words as creative tools for personal and professional development. These tools repeatedly prove to demonstrate an 'unusual' and, for many, often surprising and unexpected power in igniting new insight.

​Experience shows that, both in individual and in group process work, methods that use associative techniques uncover the essence of the issue faster, and in the same time lead to more creative and often much bolder solutions, supported with more accountable action plans. ​

There is no right or wrong way to play the game. You can not make a mistake. You can follow the instructions or follow your own intuition – The photos, words, stories and questions never fail in doing their part of the job.

Once you start using the game, you will learn how to create your own game-flow (coaching process lay-out chart) with ease.

In the "Tools" section on the Points of You® website new process charts are uploaded regularly. They are here to support your journey and you can download them for free, print-out and enjoy playing immediately :)

The Points of You® method

Every situation, person, object or opinion can be looked at from an endless number of diverse perspectives. In the same time, it is often an unexpetedly huge challenge to explore a situation from a new point of view, and embrace a perspective different from the one that we already know. Change usually starts only when we are finally willing to take into consideration a new way of looking at our issue. Our ability to do that is an important, and necessary, element of any journey of growth - being it an individual, team or organisational quest.

One of the key features of the Points of You® method is the integration or ''inter-connection" of the right side (the one that controls intuition and emotions) and the left side of the brain (in charge for analysis, structure and logic) The photographs directly appeal to our intuitions and feelings, and occasionally even bypass rational thinking, evoking reactions that we find hard to express with words. Words, on the other hand, mainly appeal to the intellect - they are often connected to how we look at things, our rational, analytical thinking.

Combining a photo with a word appeals to both the left and the right hemisphere of the brain. This simultaneous stimulation creates an extraordinary phenomenon - our rational and our intuitive responses work in tandem, merging and creating new associations.

Every photo in Points of You® is carefully chosen based on the developer's singular consideration of presenting the subject via visual element that is not related to the accompanying word in any obvious manner, in order to maximally stimulate the entirety of the thought system and our emotion.

The method is built in a way that is similar of a sine wave - at the beginning we are wide open and exposed to as many points of view as possible to have on specific issue in our lives that we want to work on. This can be a business strategy, team collaboration issue, partner/spouse relationship, romantic relationship, parenting, career, health, or any other issues that we want to address or make a decision upon. After we have succeeded in broadening our viewpoint, we start assessing our options and focusing the process towards choosing the most appropriate direction and developing a plan for action that will help us progress towards achieving the desired goals.