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IFVP Institute

IFVP InstituteIFVP InstituteIFVP Institute
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IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Master Certification™

 Introducing the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Master Certification™ Program.


Increase your visibility as a Visual Practitioner with the IFVP Institute's Visual Practitioner comprehensive certification.



Why do I need a certification?

Call For Standards

Path To Certification

Path To Certification

Over the years, we have repeatedly said that people have been called for standards and a process or program to achieve certification. We have discovered that many people worldwide either require a certificate before getting hired or would benefit significantly from being certified by being first in line to get hired, paid more, or continu

Over the years, we have repeatedly said that people have been called for standards and a process or program to achieve certification. We have discovered that many people worldwide either require a certificate before getting hired or would benefit significantly from being certified by being first in line to get hired, paid more, or continuing to enrich their individual credentials. In the global spirit, we want all our colleagues to be able to utilize their gifts. 

Path To Certification

Path To Certification

Path To Certification

 The pathway of this program is a comprehensive evaluation process that recognizes individual skills aligned with the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency Model™. This model was developed with visual practitioners’ community members. The IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency Model™ has been the base of several aspects of 

 The pathway of this program is a comprehensive evaluation process that recognizes individual skills aligned with the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency Model™. This model was developed with visual practitioners’ community members. The IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency Model™ has been the base of several aspects of professional visual practice assessments.‬‬ 

The process has five steps:

  • Statement of Interest
  • Qualifying Application
  • Assessment 1 - video and documents
  • Assessment 2 - live oral assessment
  • Results and Feedback

Amplify Your Impact

Path To Certification

Amplify Your Impact

 Increase your professional visibility and become part of a global community of visual practitioners dedicated to advancing visual thinking, visual communication development, conscious processes, education, and social issues.‬ 

Earning the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Master Certification™ carries much weight and proof of accomplishm

 Increase your professional visibility and become part of a global community of visual practitioners dedicated to advancing visual thinking, visual communication development, conscious processes, education, and social issues.‬ 

Earning the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Master Certification™ carries much weight and proof of accomplishment and expertise, as determined by seasoned practitioners in their chosen field.

Pathway to certification

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

 INIFAC, International Institute for Facilitation, is the world leader in professional facilitation certification, with the highest standards and competencies. Through its certifications, partnerships, and sponsorships, it advances mastery in facilitation, helping individuals, groups, and organizations worldwide achieve collaborative results.

‪Collaboration to achieve greatness‬

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

 This collaborative effort takes advantage of our symbiotic relationship with INIFAC. We are close fields that often overlap. Visual practitioners frequently incorporate process design and facilitation into their work, and more and more facilitators are including graphics in theirs. 

The IFVP Institute has negotiated a proprietary assessme

 This collaborative effort takes advantage of our symbiotic relationship with INIFAC. We are close fields that often overlap. Visual practitioners frequently incorporate process design and facilitation into their work, and more and more facilitators are including graphics in theirs. 

The IFVP Institute has negotiated a proprietary assessment structure with INIFAC that allows for awarding an internationally recognized certification based on the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency ModelTM 

Get Certified

What is The International Institute for Facilitation-INIFAC?

Get Certified

 Complete the process and earn industry-recognized global certification as an IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Master Certification™.‬‬ 


Join our mailing list to learn about this and other visual practitioner certifications.


IFVP INSTITUTE VISUAL PRACTITIONER MASTER CERTIFICATION™

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IFVP Institute Visual practitioner competency model™

 

The IFVP Institute is the broader educational arm of IFVP (International Forum of Visual Practitioners), a membership organization focused on the businesses and learning opportunities for visual practitioner members. The mission of the Institute is to advance the development and application of visual thinking and practices overall and, to amplify the collective impact of visual practices on education and social issues.

IFVP Institute has created a compendium of Competencies, which is meant to set a standard that defines advanced Visual Practitioner skills and talents. The purpose is to offer a path to learning and growth for aspiring practitioners, which, at the end of a curriculum, can lead to certification, for those who want or need it.

history of visual practitioner competency work

 

    This robust compendium of Visual Practitioner Competencies represents years of work. In 1995, when the IFVP was born, several people gave a lot of thought to what might be included in a guide for aspiring practitioners, but those thoughts never took off or materialized. Many attempts were made along the way after that to define what we do and what it takes, but each time, it was beyond our ability to undertake what was required to carry that out. Our field is complex and rich and grows with each experience and we realized, it was going to take a real concentrated effort to focus in on what we actually had.


   Fast forward to around 2017 when the effort was picked up in earnest. This time, the traction was there. Many people contributed over the next 4 years to this bottom up, grassroots project, including studying 17 documented models. To define the IFVP’s competencies for a visual practitioner, we didn’t begin with a blank canvas.


   We kicked off with an Open Space discussion in New Jersey at IFVP 2019. Then, a handful of interested volunteers formed a working group*. The working group was a diverse group of individuals that represented the many roles and backgrounds of our industry, from academia and business, independent contractors, small firms, and large companies, and graphic recorders and visual facilitators.


   The working group followed a method of developing competencies originally designed by Bob Eichinger and Michael Lombardo at the Center for Creative Leadership. Their method has been used to create thousands of competency models for businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. 


   We looked carefully at the work of many leaders and thinkers in our industry who defined what it takes to be a visual practitioner in their own way, including David Sibbet, Brandy Agerbeck, Kelvy Bird, Ole Sorensen, Susan Kelly and the competencies used by a few visual practitioners agencies in the U.S. This gave us a library of about 300 competencies. 


   We narrowed down the list by identifying synonymous and near-synonymous competencies (like “listening” and “hearing”) and keeping the word that appeared most often (in this case, “listening”), and the tools, abilities, skills, practices and uniqueness of this field. Then, as individuals, we asked ourselves: which of these are the most important competencies for a visual practitioner to have? We each defined “important” in our own way to maintain a diversity of perspectives. We ranked them in order of importance, and were surprised to find how much we agreed with each other, despite our different views and interests. The compilation of our individual results became the final list of 12 and then distilled to 7 core competencies encompassing common elements that define the work of a professional visual practitioner.


   We shared the list with both IFVP and IFVP Institute’s board of directors and with a few leaders in our industry for their initial feedback. They had some great questions and great ideas, and they all agreed with the final list.

   We’re happy to share the IFVP Institute competencies with you now!

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This image reminds us that our practice is integrated around a dynamic interaction with purpose. Everything is in motion and formation and emergence, and our participation is not a simple recording of a separate static event; rather, it is an active part of the way the event serves purposes that are often emergent and ongoing. The very act of our drawing and the visual aids we utilize affect the process we are embedded in. 

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visual MODEL

The IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competencies

A. FEEL: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and MANAGEMENT

A. FEEL: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and MANAGEMENT

A. FEEL: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and MANAGEMENT

  

  • A.1. Self-awareness: demonstrates self-awareness (strengths, challenges, presence, influence, lived experience). 
  • A.2. Remain present: possesses the ability to maintain focus on the current moment and refocus attention to remain present. 
  • A.3. Self-management: demonstrates self-management (reactions, biases, energy management, needs). 
  • A.4. Cultural competence: possesses the ability to respect, appreciate, and interact with cultures or belief systems often different from one’s own. 
  • A.5. Unbiased listening: listens and captures people’s expressions without altering content or ideas. 

B. KNOW: EXPERTISE

A. FEEL: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and MANAGEMENT

A. FEEL: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and MANAGEMENT

  

  

  • B.1. Business expertise: has business knowledge to support the process and delivery of services. 
  • B.2. Professionalism: models a professional attitude. 
  • B.3. Adaptive anticipation: has the ability to anticipate and adapt to client needs. 
  • B.4. Professional growth: builds and maintains professional knowledge for continued growth. 

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

  



  • C.1 DO: SKILLFULNESS -  Basic Skills 
  • C.1.1. Legibility: writes legibly. 
  • C.1.2. Drawing skills: draws identifiable objects and figures. 
  • C.1.3. Preparation: Understand the range of tools and materials needed for each type of engagement. 
  • C.1.4. Group-oriented capture: understands how to manage time and space for capture according to the group’s needs and knows how to build and visualize an agenda. 

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

C. DO: SKILLFULNESS

  

  

  • C.2 DO: SKILLFULNESS - Facilitative Skills 
  • C.2.1. Adaptive performance: has the ability to anticipate and adapt while recording and facilitating. 
  • C.2.2. Categorization: captures content by way of listening and organizing. 
  • C.2.3. Active listening involves actively discerning different listening levels to capture critical information about the group, process, and ideas. 
  • C.2.4. Page layout: Understand page layout - from free flow to format. 
  • C.2.5. Information design organizes information with clear sequence and connection in ways that assist in effectively navigating the content and agenda. 
  • C.2.6. Hierarchy: Understand the hierarchy of content. 
  • C.2.7. Pattern recognition: discern relationships and patterns in content. 
  • C.2.8. Visual Communication: understand how to use graphic elements and color as connectors and containers. 
  • C.2.9. Documentation skills: understand how to use formats, templates, and metaphors.
  • C.2.10. Group dynamics: Understand group processes used to find collective meaning and pivot as needed to achieve the goal. 

quotes

 

“I'm so excited to see these competencies come together, and thanks to the IFVP Institute for championing this work! Defining what it means to be a visual practitioner allows us to better articulate our work to clients, orient new people to the field, and provides a framework for all of us to deepen our skills. I'll be using these competencies as a guideline for improving my work, and to help grow the skillset of my team members.” 

Tanya Gadsby




 

“Models, such as the work in progress by the IFVP Institute, provide an exciting opportunity to further distinguish our profession and, moreover, bring us ways to clearly articulate how we grow in our purpose, our calling.

Such prospects excite me for our field. This enthusiasm led me to jump in, without hesitation, when receiving the invitation to contribute for a short time in the efforts of imagining how visual practice unfolds uniquely and collectively in our discipline. 

My wish for the future of this work is that we all might see ourselves, and unique developmental pursuits, in service of growing in our purpose, and as a community of practitioners.

Congratulations to the IFVP Institute on arriving at this moment. Onward and upward.”

Erin Gordon



 


"As a former IFVP Institute Board member and volunteer with IFVP over the years, I’ve participated in the conversation and process about naming some general core competencies with interest. To me, the process of reflecting upon and refining some competencies for our field is meaningful, because the roles of our work as visual practitioners is ever evolving and changing. When I was with the core working group, we wanted to explore many threads from many diverse people and perspectives. For me this is what it means: when I am a visual practitioner doing my best possible work what am I asked to embody, sense, create and feel, now and and stretching into the unknown future? 

Personally, I think reflecting on what each of us consider “core competencies” and a process of developmental evaluation can help our field with these conversations. And it’s not about setting a bar to keep people out, or to keep people in. It’s also not about making everyone the same, but instead about having frameworks/language that can hold multiplicities of experiences that each of us bring into this work/practice. It’s about engaging in the conversation of what makes the magic of our practice more visible at multiple levels: to ourselves as practitioners, with all the people and relationships in the room, with our field and colleagues, and even to the broader impact we ripple into systems and the world. 

Engaging in the conversation about core competencies helps give us a framework to start from - not end with. For me it’s not a checklist, it’s the beginning of engaging in many reflective conversations I hope to have for as long as I am doing this work.”

Sam Bradd




 

"In my previous career, I helped to facilitate the design and adoption of countless competency models for organizations and government agencies. More than any other model I’ve seen, the IFVP Institute’s competency model was designed with the intent of assisting the individual practitioner in growing their skills, sharpening their craft, and sharing the value of what they do."

Brian Tarallo




FAQ

  FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  

Visual Practitioner Certification TM. Why is this important?


• Thousands of visual practitioners worldwide depend on individual approaches to obtain their skills, resulting in inconsistent terminology, expertise levels, and potential client outcomes.

• There is an urgent need for a consistent standard and guidance from an accredited source to evaluate the knowledge and expertise of practitioners in this unique and rapidly growing industry. The IFVP Institute, a partner of the IFVP, provides such a source. 

• Having a standard can alleviate guesswork from clientele hiring from the visual practice industry and helps create best practices that can be disseminated.

• Earning a certificate carries much weight and proof of accomplishment and expertise, as determined by seasoned practitioners in their chosen fields.

• Competency models can be used to inform, develop, mentor, and certify individuals based on various skill sets traditionally found in the industry.


Wait, is IFVP and IFVP Institute different?!

Yes! They are separate entities with separate goals, governance, bylaws, and boards.

The IFVP Institute is a United States 501c3 nonprofit charged with visual practice's educational, scientific, and charitable development. It does not have a membership or any income other than donations or grants, and it advocates globally for the entire field of visual practitioners. The IFVP Institute also works to promote an academic and scientific base for our practice and actively encourages social applications of the field through shared projects.

The IFVP, for International Forum of Visual Practitioners, is a United States 501c6 nonprofit that promotes its members’ business interests, holds an annual conference, and maintains a website. Its sources of income consist of membership fees due yearly to be part of the organization and annual conference profit. 


What is INIFAC?

The INIFAC, the International Institute for Facilitation, is the world leader in professional facilitation certification, with the highest standards and competencies. Through our certifications, partnerships, and sponsorships, we advance mastery in facilitation, helping individuals, groups, and organizations worldwide achieve collaborative results.


Is the IFVP Institute in collaboration with INIFAC? Why?

The IFVP Institute has negotiated a proprietary assessment structure with INIFAC that allows for awarding an internationally recognized certification based on the IFVP Institute Visual Practitioner Competency Model TM. INIFAC is lending the IFVP Institute its expertise regarding best practices for managing the certification process.

This collaborative effort takes advantage of our symbiotic relationship with INIFAC. We are close fields that often overlap. Visual practitioners frequently incorporate process design and facilitation into their work, and more and more facilitators include graphics. Each retains their identities and value(s), while the symbiosis benefits both fields.


What is a Visual Practitioner?

Visual practitioners are a diverse group of professionals who employ various tools and methods, including custom visuals, diagrams, illustrations, storyboards, visual agendas, mapping systems, images, icons, drawings, multimedia, and more, to capture information, communicate ideas, stimulate creative thinking, and accelerate decision-making. 


What is a Graphic Recorder?

Graphic recording is the real-time translation of conversations or presentations into text and pictures. Graphic recorders do three things simultaneously: listen for critical ideas, synthesize them, and document them visually. They are usually called scribes, visual note-takers, graphic artists, etc. They use large format paper or foam boards for analog work and iPads® and tablets for digital work.


What is a Graphic Facilitator?

Graphic facilitation combines group facilitation and graphic recording. The graphic facilitator leads groups and individuals toward a goal, usually using visual aids like templates, flip charts, posters, or graphic recordings to support the process of leading the group.


Why do I need a certification?

It is important to note that having a certification is by no means required to be a professional visual practitioner. However, earning the distinction of a certificate could provide credibility, enhance your visibility, and provide evidence of accomplishment and expertise, as determined by seasoned practitioners in their chosen field. Having a Visual Practitioner Certification assessed and issued by an international professional certification body is valuable in countries requiring certification to hire government contractors.


Isn’t the certification going to box people in?

We believe that certification is a personal choice that only affects the practice of those in need. There is no judgment; it is one of the pathways a professional chooses to follow. How many great facilitators or coaches do you know that practice with no IAF, INIFAC, or ICF certification? The fact they don’t have a certification doesn’t hold them back, and they deliver great work and grow and develop as professionals without that. The same rationale applies to visual practitioners. Certification is not mandatory to be a visual practitioner.


Why do we need standards in the visual practice field?

Over the years, we have heard repeatedly that people have been calling for standards and a process or program to achieve certification. We have discovered that many people worldwide either require a certificate before getting hired or would benefit significantly from being certified by being first in line to get hired or, paid more or continuing to enrich their individual credentials.

In the global spirit, we want all our colleagues to be able to utilize their gifts in this unique and rapidly growing industry.

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