KuS model

For thousands of years, people have been creating medicine wheels from stones to reflect inner processes. Before the Europeans arrived in America, there were about 20,000 such medicine wheels, which were places to replenish energy, places of healing and gathering experience and wisdom.

In more recent times the medicine wheel has been customized by Angeles Arrien ('The Fourfold Way'), and transformed for the work with groups and organizations by 'Genuine Contact^RM Program'. VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE^® developed the 7-step KuS model based on the medicine wheel. It works just like a compass providing orientation. Places can be defined; it highlights stages of the process and develops form and content:

	Input is a thought, an impulse, an idea, whether spontaneous or planned.
	If the input is strong enough, it transforms into an intention, to the place of strength, to the core of an action.
	Interior and exterior leadership assumes the risk and responsibility for the action and thus makes growth possible.
	The vision gives the intention a clear and bold direction; it bundles inner images to a model.
	The vision requires networking which supports the relationship network of employees who are able to identify with the intention.
	Management then puts the intention into the right form at the right time.
	Output finally shows whether the plan has succeeded, whether the intention has come to life.

In the book, “Wirkungsvolle Tagungen and Großgruppen” (“Effective Meetings and Large Groups”) by Rudolf Müller and Walter Bruck, Gabel Verlag, Chapter 7: Werkzeugkasten (Tool Box), the KuS model is described as follows:

Visual Facilitation - Using the KuS Model

Design by: Reinhard Kuchenmüller and Dr. Marianne Stifel
Areas of application: visual navigation and support of group processes. Able to be employed in individual coaching sessions as well as coaching in large groups.
Goal: “One picture is worth more than a thousand words” – this wise saying is actually realized in an interactive, 7-step model designed to navigate processes

Effects:

Well-being: Hand-drawn pictures trigger happiness, emotions and creativity in group processes, pictures which are drawn both by the visualizer as well as by the participants.

Activation of resources: Working with pictures makes everything visible; it lends an element of security and, in the form of ‘re-patterning’, arouses the inner images in people that are lying dormant. This in turn, creates identification, truthfulness and sustainability.

Work in small groups: The seven steps of the model are:

- Input
- Intention
- Goal
- Vision
- Employees
- Management
- Output

The steps are passed through (several times if necessary) and different methods are used in each case – a mixture of a small group and a plenum.

Orientation with regard to results: By means of visualization, the results are all visible wherever one is. Owing to the logic of the sequence of the 7 steps, the participants move ahead with a purposeful view to their goals. The inner logic depends on the situation of the individual; it searches for the core of the plan, the intention, and navigates these through the following steps of realization:

Instils rhythm: The clear division into 7 steps each with different activities puts rhythm into the sequences in a natural way.

Organizing oneself: The participants may operate spontaneously within the defined framework; they may modify methods, vary the time required. The prerequisite is the constant inner presence, the well-being of all involved and the discovering of common interests and solutions.

Virtuality: This has not yet been tried, but is feasible due to the clear structures.

Time frame: Depends on the goals and the size of the group, not less than one day

Sizes of groups: Flexible, ranges from individual coaching to a large group

Space requirements: None in particular

Helping aids: Navigation equipment of the visualizers, templates or similar for the painting actions in small groups. Presentation of results is live or projected depending on the size of the group.

Comments on the effectiveness: The KuS model is a continued development of the archetypal illustrations – the medicine wheels - transformed into a modern process language by Angeles Arrien, Harrison Owen and Birgitt Williams and complemented by us with two new additional steps. Places and processes become visible and comprehensible in a simplified way.

Basic statement: The interplay of the logical sequence of the 7 steps starting from the status quo up to the realization of the output, and the leeway within each phase allows for appropriate action which caters to the group, its size, orientation and intention. The visualization of all the steps makes it comprehensible and, in the end, sustainable.

First step: The visual facilitator acquaints the participants with the different steps of the model.

Second step: The visual facilitator establishes the methods for the 7 steps respectively following consultation with the initiator and the group. This might include a live visualized discussion, a visualized interview of a key person, supervised painting actions of the participants (possible up to 1000 persons), rituals, dialog, storytelling, working with metaphors.

Third step: The group is navigated through the 7 steps, reflecting on what has been experienced. Following the final step, a transition is made to the status quo.

Additional comments: Within the course of a large process such as a fusion, a change process inter alia, the participants may pass through the steps of the model several times, if it becomes clear that the settlements are not adequate.

We would like to draw attention to a particular feature of the model: the step, MANAGEMENT will only then be enlarged upon, if the management fully supports the action, if the vision of the intention offers perspectives and particularly, if the employees have been brought on board. Management then knows what is to be done and a number of hindrances can be avoided.

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