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.
The main purpose of this activity is to remind and reflect on what group members or participants have been through and to create a collective experience and shared story. Every individual will gain a shared idea of what the group has been through together. Use this exercise at the end of a project or program as a way to reinforce learnings, celebrate highlights and create closure.
Prepare by rolling out a long piece of paper (5-10 meters) on the floor or on a wall. Draw a timeline representing the period of a project or team experience. Include dates and a few key events, but not more.
In some spaces, it will not be possible to use candles. In this case, have participants place post-its instead.
Ask participants to draw in elements of their experiences. They can include their highlights and lowlights of the journey, as well as insights, emotional highs and lows, challenges, successes, frustrations, stories and surprises, situations, learnings, and anything else that meant something. An alternative is to do this step using images from magazines. Spread out a large pile of old magazines, along with scissors and glue. Participants do the same as above, but using magazine cut-outs rather than drawings.
Put on music while participants to this. Give enough time that the paper becomes as full as possible (about 15-30 minutes, depending on the size of the group and length of the timeline)
After the map has been created, ask participants to walks around the map, reflecting in silence on the experiences they have shared. Ask them to begin thinking about the most important moments for them, individually. Give about 5-10 minutes for this step.
Finally, have participants sit or stand around the map in a circle. Then, one-by-one, participants place a candle (a tea light) on the moment that has been the most important to them. After placing the candle, they briefly describe the moment and its significance. Continue until all participants have placed a candle and shared.
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 to 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.