A resource kit you can use to apply creative collaboration and unleash potential in your team or organization.
Tools to inject energy into the process, get people moving, and have fun.
Tools to unleash creativity, discover valuable insights, and develop new products and services.
Tools for personal development, reflection, self-awareness and how to integrate learning and grow.
Tools focused on implementation, and driving and supporting change in organizations.
Tools to build effective teams - foster trust and openness for better collaboration.
A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of lego, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.
Organize participants into groups of 5 - 7. Each group sits around a table with a box of lego. Ask participants not to touch the lego until the activity begins.
Prepare the assignments in step 3 beforehand
Give the instructions: Your task, as a group, is to build a structure with these Lego bricks. In a moment, each of you will get a piece of paper, where your individual assignment is written. You may not show or tell your assignment to the rest of the team.
You will have 20 minutes to build your structure. You may not speak during the building process. You must continue building until the time is up. I will announce when the time is up.
Hand out the “assignments,” one per participant (see the list below). Remind participants that they must not show their assignment to anyone else.
Assignments Print these and cut them up.
You are the only one allowed to build (put bricks together) in the first 3 layers of the building.
You must make sure that layers 3 and 4 only consist of yellow bricks. You have to make sure that layers 2 and 6 consist of exactly eight bricks.
You are the only one allowed to build (put bricks together) in rows 5 and 6 of the building.
You have to make sure that a maximum of eight bricks are used in the 3rd and 5th layers of the building.
You are the leader of the group.
You have to make sure that the building is no higher than a maximum of eight layers. If people stop building when they have reached the eighth layer, you have to make sure they continue building in the layers below.
You have to make sure that the bricks that are next to each other in layers 1, 6 and 8 do not have the same color.
You have to make sure that there are, together with you, two others and only two others who build in layers 4 and 8.
You have to make sure that only a maximum of 3 participants build (put bricks together) in layers 4 and 7.
You have to make sure that there are only red bricks in the 2nd and 5th layers of the building.
You have to make sure that the first layer (layer 1) of the building consists of exactly 10 bricks.
Once everyone has an assignment, begin the time and let participants start. If needed, remind participants that they are not allowed to speak during the building process.
After 20 minutes, tell participants to stop building. Invite them to guess the “assignments” of the other members of their group. Explain that they may now share their secret assignments with each other.
As a final step, debrief the activity by reflecting on how the groups worked together. Use reflection questions such as:
Additional
What would have happened if...
The purpose of this simple exercise is to demonstrate three key principles useful for creativity and idea generation: quantity is a condition for quality; building on the ideas of others; the ideas we come up with are usually all the same. The format is simple, with small groups standing and drawing apples. At the end of the exercise the whole group reflects and draws out learnings and reflections.
IDOARRT is a simple tool to support you to lead an effective meeting or group process by setting out clear purpose, structure and goals at the very beginning. It aims to enable all participants to understand every aspect of the meeting or process, which creates the security of a common ground to start from. The acronym stands for Intention, Desired Outcome, Agenda, Rules, Roles and Responsibilities and Time.
A short activity to run early in a program, focused on sharing fears, anxieties and uncertainties related to the program theme. The purpose is to create openness within a group. The stinky fish is a metaphor for "that thing that you carry around but don’t like to talk about; but the longer you hide it, the stinkier it gets." By putting stinky fish (fears and anxieties) on the table, participants begin relate to each other, become more comfortable sharing, and identify a clear area for development and learning.
A team-building activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavor to move from one end of a space to another. It requires working together creatively and strategically in order to solve a practical, physical problem. It tends to emphasize group communication, cooperation, leadership and membership, patience and problem-solving.
This workshop aims to help participants define, decide and achieve their goals. By supporting participants to envision where they want to be in a number of years on a holistic level, and defining the steps that will take them there, participants get a clearer picture of the action they need to take.
This exercise is useful for bringing groups together, to create interpersonal bonds, and to build trust. Participants stand opposite each other and have 30 seconds to give appreciative feedback to the other person. The group rotates until everyone has given feedback to everyone else. It is often used as part of wrap-up activities, to create an energized feeling to leave with.