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STRATEGICPLAY
T H E C R E A T I V E F A C I L I T A T O R ’ S G U I D E V O L U M E # 3
D I A G N O S T I C C A R D S
Jacqueline Lloyd Smith, MA, MBA, CMCStephen James Walling, CEC
Copyright © 2017 by Jacqueline Lloyd Smith and Stephen J. Walling. All rights reserved.
LEGO® Copyright
LEGO. and LEGO. Serious Play. are trademarks of the LEGO Group 2015.
This book is not approved, authorized or endorsed by the LEGO Group. LEGO., the LEGO. logo, the Brick., Knob. configuration and the Minifigure. are trademarks of the LEGO Group. 2015.
LEGO. Serious Play. trademark guidelines: www.lego.com/en-us/seriousplay/trademark-guidelines
This book uses and builds on the LEGO. Serious Play. Open Source Guide made available by the LEGO Group under a Creative Commons licence (‘Attribution Share Alike’ see creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for licence details).
DISCLAIMER
Although the authors have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at the time of going to print, the authors do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.
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WHAT’S ON YOUR LANDSCAPE?
PREFACE
We live in a world that is changing faster than ever before. We are facing problems that are more global in nature, messier, and more difficult to resolve. And while we can see the world needs more creative thinking to solve these complicated problems, it also seems creative thinking is on the decline. Through research, we know children lose their ability to think creatively over time. We also know creative thinking is directly related to problem solving.
Many organizations are on missions to try to keep play alive in the classroom because they know children learn best through play. We are on a mission to help adults keep play in their lives. We know that adults, like children, think better when they are under less stress. They are more likely to let go of being right when they
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are laughing and not taking themselves so seriously. When adults open up and feel less guarded, they are more likely to say what they think and believe. They are more likely to consider new and different possibilities and ideas when they are more relaxed and open to change. For all these reasons, we use play and playful tools in our workshop-based approach to transition and change.
We have worked in over 11 countries this year alone, and we see time and again that most cultures value the arts and creativity. However, we also see that when school budgets get tight the arts programs are the first to go. We frequently see a similar attitude in leadership teams. They believe if work is creative and fun, it cannot be work. People only apply themselves if work is hard and boring. We know the opposite is true. When people are having fun they are more engaged. When they are engaged and enter a state of flow, this is where they are more likely to do their best work. When they work at this intense level, they are thinking harder and better. This is where group genius thrives.
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We developed these cards drawing from over 10 years’ experience working with organizations, communities, and individuals, while applying the methods and materials of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a methodology created by the LEGO® Systems Group. Over time we have heard thousands of stories, all represented in 3D models using LEGO® bricks. This is where we got the inspiration to make the cards.
We know humans have an innate ability to draw meaning from visual tools. Storytelling and story making are skills that have been handed down from the beginning of mankind. From cave painting to story boarding to puppets, almost every culture has some form of knowledge transfer using these highly visual tools. It is also true that as humans, we find visual stories easier to understand and retain. Most people are visual learners and everyone appreciates a good story.
Through neuroscience, we know our brains are limited in the ideas we can remem-ber or explain; but we can write, draw, and build things that hold stories and meaning. The ability to capture a story and transfer knowledge to another person is what has allowed humans to evolve over time. We can use these tools to explain
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and transfer knowledge to others. The ability to use 3D models allows us to create a placeholder in our minds so we can free up working memory for other tasks.
We had a great time making these cards. We collected all the stories our clients have told us through metaphorically building with LEGO® bricks. We gleaned the best ones and clustered them into categories to make it easier for facilitators to find relevant cards. We do not believe these cards take the place of building with LEGO® or attending a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop; however, these cards are a great tool to conduct an initial diagnosis of the current situation. They are funny, which immediately gives your clients permission to discuss issues that might be underneath the surface. They are a great marketing tool to use in the first meeting, with teams, or with a larger group at a conference.
Our hope is these cards will not only facilitate a better quality of conversations, but they will also open up dialogues about issues that would have otherwise con-tinued to be hidden.
We hope the cards will allow for people to understand two things. First, we want them to see the power of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology and to understand that it is fun and engaging. Second, we want them to see how the cards hit issues they are either dealing with right now, in the past, or likely will in the future. We also hope these cards will give clients the message you can help no matter how messy or complicated their issues are. We want people to see the cards give them permission to tell their stories, no matter how unpopular or challenging they might be.
This is the first group of 9 people to test the cards in January, 2016 - Whistler, BC, Canada.
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PREAMBLE
When we first developed these cards we had some ideas about how we might use them with our clients. We prototyped the first set a year ago and held them in our hands. We then worked to improve the ideas and finally shared the outcome with a small group of practitioners during our Playing with Strategy Advanced LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® training on January 21, 2016, in Whistler, BC, Canada. We had 9 people attending the training that week and they were the first to hold a set of 45 cards in their hands. They laughed as they saw the cards, beaming as they used them to display what their clients were dealing with. Immediately, they had more ideas and suggestions. These 9 people – the first test group – were so encourag-ing and so engaged that we went on to create more cards and write this book. To this group, we will be forever grateful.
It was the feedback from this first group that gave us the idea to build multiple sets that could be mixed and matched within some common themes.
We continued to build on the ideas everyone imagined that day, adding new ideas in a circle of collaboration and excitement that continues to grow each time we take the cards out of the box. For that reason, we want to stress that the activities suggested here are limited only by time. These were the best ideas we had while we were writing this book, but clearly it is in no way an exhaustive list. In fact, as this book goes to print we are adding more ideas and will likely have more even as we push that final send button.
PURPOSE AND BENEFITS
The idea behind these cards is they can be a useful tool in helping you to understand how to design and develop effective LSP workshops. However, the cards alone are an excellent marketing tool. They quickly illustrate how people use the LEGO® bricks to tell interesting metaphorical stories. The cards are easy to carry to workshops and they are less expensive than using LEGO® bricks, but these cards do not replace the act of building. My friend and doc-toral student at Arizona State University, Camilla Jensen, captured it perfectly when she said, “The cards are diagnostic. The LEGO® workshops are more prescriptive.” For that reason, have fun with these nice visual and hands-on cards, but remember the actual benefits of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® can only come with the building, making, and hands-on, brains-on activities that come with using the bricks.
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You may look at the cards and think, “Wow, these are all kind of negative.” That is quite true. We realized along the way that positive cards, although interesting, were not as relevant because people can just tell you when things are going well. The more difficult and challenging conversations are around the deficits, when things are a mess. No one has trouble saying things like, “We have great team-work,” or, “Our values are amazing.” We quickly saw there is no need for cards that convey the positive.
MIX AND MATCH
We have made decks consisting of 25 cards. Each deck has a different color and we identified themes. Chatting with people in the field who use selection criteria, we have learned that using more than 25 cards could lead to people becoming confused. So for that reason we have now created 8 sets of 25 cards. You are more than welcome to mix and match as you see fit and for your purposes. We only used the color backs to help us identify issues often associated with demo-graphics. Please use these sets as you like, there are no hard and fast rules here. Knowing you have 25 cards in each color deck might be helpful to you for clean-up and keeping track of the cards.
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ONLINE OR VIRTUALLY
We are hands-on, face-to-face people. However, we also realize you will need many cards to work with a large group and you may have people on teams in different locations. So for that reason, we are developing an online virtual tool ready to go. If you want to use the cards, please send us an email at [email protected] with the subject line: “ONLINE DIAGNOSTIC CARDS.” We will be happy to help you.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND IDEA SHARING
We welcome all ideas and suggestions and hope that people will add to the social media we have started and use #Whatsgoingon? #LEGODiagnosticCards on Twitter, and of course follow us @traininglsp or visit us on Facebook @StrategicPlayTraining. We want to know about the ideas you have generated and any stories about what you have found helpful when you use these cards. Let’s get some good buzz going and share our ideas with the world.
Please test out these ideas below too and let us know if you have any new ideas you think we should add to the mix.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 What’s Happening Now? 1
Chapter 2 It’s Your Money 4
Chapter 3 Tell Us a Story 6
Chapter 4 That’s Not the Real Story 9
Chapter 5 Name that Card 12
Chapter 6 And on it Goes… 15
Chapter 7 Cardification 17
Chapter 8 Storyboarding 20
Chapter 9 A Picture Tells 1,000 Words 23
Chapter 10 Pet Peeve 26
Chapter 11 God of the Universe 28
Chapter 12 Where Am I Now? 30
Chapter 13 My Secret Card 32
Chapter 14 How Others See Us 34
Chapter 15 Root Cause Analysis 36
Chapter 16 Visual Retrospective 38
Chapter 17 LEGO® Improvisation 41
Chapter 18 3DHaiku 43
Chapter 19 Can’t Find It? Build It 45
Chapter 20 A Picture Tells a Thousand Words 47
Chapter 21 What Happened? 50
Chapter 22 Mix Us Up 52
Chapter 23 Superhero/Kryptonite 54
Chapter 24 Cards to Close 56
1
1WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
WHY USE
This activity can accomplish a few things. During an individual meeting, it lets the person you are working with focus and reflect. When we ask people, “What’s going on?” they usually tell us what they think we want to hear, or they tell us the party line. Sometimes they simply do not really know what is happening and they have difficulty explaining their story. The story can be so circuitous and elaborate, they end with the feeling that no one will be able to help.
As the facilitator/coach it is your job to help them better understand where they are now, where they might like to go, and options of ways to get there. This fast-card sorting activity can accomplish that quickly, and with a sense of humor too. It is amazing how much clarity people find after a few minutes with the cards. Just pick the set you think applies to the client situation.
PURPOSE
To diagnose a situation quickly and easily to help clients tell their story.
2 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
METHOD
Take a deck of cards and sort into three piles:
a Always happens
b Never happens
c Sometimes happens
Now take the “Always happens” deck and sort again, taking the top three cards.
Now take the top three and put them into order of: 1, 2, 3. This can be priority order or just the order the storyteller chooses.
DEBRIEF
This activity can be followed up with questions such as:
1 Can you tell me more about this card and why you picked it?
2 What’s really happening?
3 How might things be better? What do you want to see?
MODIFICATION ONE
You can have a small group of people each doing this at the same time. If a senior team all think different issues are a priority, this activity really fleshes this out and gives you a chance to have a conversation about why people see things the way they do.
MODIFICATION TWO
You can have a small group work with one deck at their table. Then when the groups have made their decision you can have the groups present to the other groups what they discussed, along with their findings. This activity allows for you to help align a large group, or at least have a large group listen to and understand each other better.
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2IT’S YOUR MONEY
WHY USE
This activity gives people the chance to think through values and priorities for what they would like to change, either in their lives or at work.
PURPOSE
To diagnose a situation quickly and to have people reflect on importance of prior-ities. When people identify a number of issues they may need a way to also think about what should be done first, either dependencies or bottlenecks, or maybe elephants in the room.
METHOD
Take a deck of cards and have people write on paper the amount of money they are willing to spend to address their issues. You can set the amount at 100, 1,000 or 1M, it’s totally up to you. Participants decide what they want to spend on their top issues. You can let them use the sorting system below and then address one or two stacks:
I T ’ S Y O U R M O N E Y | 5
4 Always happens
5 Never happens
6 Sometimes happens
Or you can have them use all 25 cards and allocate the funds where they see the biggest need. Some people might use all their money on one issue—others will spread the money out.
DEBRIEF
This activity can be followed up with questions such as:
1 Can you tell me more about where you spent your money and why?
2 Why is it important to you to prioritize this way?
3 If things were solved in this order, what might change?
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3TELL US A STORY
WHY USE
This activity has been designed for storytelling, exploration, and imagination devel- opment.
PURPOSE
To get people to think quickly on their feet, to make forced connections, to see things in a different way, and to experience being in and out of flow.
METHOD
Choose a participant to be the storyteller. Ask them to shuffle the deck. Then ask them to take out six cards and lay them on the tabletop. Ask the storyteller to read the cards aloud. The facilitator asks a question and the storyteller tells a story about the cards.
T E L L U S A S T O RY | 7
The storyteller has two minutes to think of a story. They can put the cards in any order they like and tell a story. The story can be themed by the question, which might be:
1 Why did you choose your line of work?
2 What is the best thing about working where you do?
3 Why did you start your new business?
4 What’s so great about living in the town where you live?
The storyteller than tells a story that last a few minutes, using all the cards they turned over.
DEBRIEF
You can ask the participant why they thought you asked them to do this. Their answer will be the right answer. This is their own thought process and reflection. If they say, “So I can learn to think more creatively,” your answer is, “That’s right.” You will be surprised to hear what people come up with in the debrief. We learn something new every time.
MODIFICATION
As with the activity above, you can use this activity with one participant, or a small or large group. With a small group, you can have each person do the same thing, one at a time, until everyone has had a turn at their table. With a large group you can have tables work alone, until each person at every table has had a chance to tell their story.
You can create your own questions or use the ones that we have designed for this activity. It is hard, but the hard is fun.
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4THAT’S NOT THE REAL STORY
WHY USE
Use this activity after “Tell Us a Story.” It pushes people further out of their com-fort zones by taking a storyline—the one that was just told—and making them see it in a new way. Our brains are hardwired to make sense of things. When someone tells us a story it can be difficult for us to later change the story or change our mind. Maybe someone tells you a problem is impossible to fix or that someone is not trustworthy. It does not matter if this information is real or not, our brain records that knowledge and it is harder to create a new story.
PURPOSE
To help people see things from a new perspective and to illustrate how difficult it can be to change a story or write a new story. This can apply to gossip, a bad brand or product, or a poor customer experience.
1 0 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
METHOD
After the activity called “Tell Us a Story,” leave the cards on the table. Keeping the same cards, ask people a new question. After telling the first story, it is much more difficult to use the same cards to make up a different story. The participants will want to stick to the same elements from the first story to make the next story. We equate this to water running downhill. Your brain likes to use the same neuropath-ways and it is difficult to resist telling a similar story. For this reason, it is best to ask people questions they already know the answers to. If they give you the wrong answer, they will not want to change their minds. You can use this application to explain multiple behaviors in the market, workplace, community, world, etc. Such is the power of gossip or the power of a positive brand story.
DEBRIEF
First, ask everyone how the activity made them feel. Then explain the idea above and ask if they can think of one example in their personal or professional world were this could be applied. Ask them what they could do to avoid telling or com-municating the “wrong” story or what they can do to better understand the power of a good story. If you have tables, ask the people at each table to answer the following questions:
1 What happened? (This is their personal reflection on the challenge.)
2 What does that mean? (What did we learn or understand from doing this activity?)
3 Now what can we do? (How might we change our actions, policies, or expectations from the lessons we learned?)
MODIFICATION
If you want to add another layer of fun and difficulty, ask everyone to leave their cards but move over a seat. They will have to use the new cards to tell a story for the same question, but the story must be new and different.
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5NAME THAT CARD
WHY USE
This is a fun activity that gives people the chance to create a common language for talking about issues and concerns, while playing and building relationships.
PURPOSE
To laugh at some bigger issues that could also be things that have been “unspeak-able,” our elephants in the room.
SUPPLIES
The facilitator will need to keep time, so a timer set for one minute can be helpful.
N A M E T H AT C A R D | 1 3
METHOD
Pair off the participants. Person one is the dealer, ask them to shuffle the deck. Person two is the guesser. Ask them to pick 7 – 10 cards without looking. The dealer then takes the cards and, one-by-one, describes the issue shown on the card to the guesser. The dealer can use all the words they like but they cannot read the title or use a word in the title. As soon as person two guesses correctly, the dealer can place the card down and go to the next card. The facilitator will call, “Time’s up,” after one minute. That card is now dead and the dealer needs to take card two. The game continues for seven-minute passes. You can choose to extend the time to 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes you can let the dealers and guessers switch roles.
DEBRIEF
1 What did you learn about yourself?
2 What did you learn about your partner?
3 Was this easy?
4 Was this hard? Why?
5 Did you see any issue that might be relevant in your work?
MODIFICATION
You can switch people up. First let them pick their partners, they will probably choose someone like them or a friend. Then you can match them up by putting different demographics or workplace positions together.
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6AND ON IT GOES…
WHY USE
This is a fun activity that brings into play using our imaginations and working together with our team, while making our teammates look good.
PURPOSE
To recognize the team is stronger together and the strength of one person comes from the team. This is a team activity and it is best played with 5 – 9 people; how-ever, bigger groups also work. It helps people learn to say, “Yes and,” and suspend judgement. All the rules of improvisation are at play in this fast-paced card game.
METHOD
The facilitator takes the deck of cards and shuffles it. They hand the cards to the participant who wants to start the story. The first person gets a card and then starts to tell a story about the card they have. The second person continues the story with a new card. The story should continue to be seamless as each person
1 6 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
picks up a new card from the deck, handed to them by the facilitator, and adds to the story. The facilitator chooses when the story is over and can end it at any time, starting a new story or closing.
DEBRIEF
1 What did you learn about yourself?
2 What did you learn about your team?
3 Was this easy?
4 Was this hard? Why?
5 What principles could you apply in your work?
MODIFICATION
If you have a group that found this activity easy, you could run the same game using just one card; have the group build on one story. This can be a very interest-ing way to get a group talking about issues that might be on the table, but that get sidestepped or avoided. Again, use your imagination to think of all the ways this can be adapted for your group process.
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7CARDIFICATION
WHY USE
This is a fun activity that brings into play using our imaginations and supporting others’ ideas.
PURPOSE
This activity illustrates the power of brainstorming, suspending judgement, agree-ment, supporting others, and going for wild ideas.
METHOD
Round one
The facilitator takes the deck of cards and shuffles it. The facilitator takes one card out of the deck and shows it to the group. The group then comes up with as many words as it can about the card. A scribe captures the words and writes a list of words without editing. The scribe documents all the ideas and suggestions.
1 8 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
Make sure people allow the scribe to capture their ideas. Then listen for the group to slow down. If should sound like popcorn: slow in the beginning and then stead-ily faster. As soon as the popping stops, stop the activity.
Round two
The facilitator takes out a second card and the group repeats the first activity.
Round three
The facilitator now asks the group to take the words and cluster words or ideas that go together. Add words where you need in order to complete some sentences.
Do not tell them the next step. Wait until they have some statements and then ask them to finish the sentences. Here is where you can make variations, with some examples below:
� In our organizations we never…
� To make money in life we must remember to…
� We could always count on…
� Never ever…
� If you don’t get the results you want, just…
� One thing I learned at our last retreat was…
DEBRIEF
1 What did you learn about yourself?
2 What did you learn about your team?
3 Was this easy?
4 Was this hard? Why?
5 Were there any new ideas or thoughts that could be used in what we are doing/ working on/problem solving?
C A R D I F I C AT I O N | 1 9
MODIFICATION
You can also apply the word clusters to things like:
� Writing a love letter about the brand.
� Writing a note to the group/team, telling them why you need a team holiday.
� Writing a letter to the organization, telling the leadership team about something new they could be doing to help with staff engagement.
� Writing a letter to a product to explain why it needs to go and what will be replacing it.
� Write a letter to a town or community and explain why you love living there.
� The sky is the limit—you just need to use your imagination.
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8STORYBOARDING
WHY USE
If you have never used a storyboard before, this is a great activity for working out a sequence of events to tell a story of either a service or a product. The story here is built using the consumer’s or user’s experience.
Use it to better understand the experience of a user, or to convey a future story about an experience you are building.
PURPOSE
To better understand a user experience or to see things from the consumer’s point of view.
SUPPLIES
You might like to add sticky notes or index cards for adding words or drawing additional ideas, so small fine-tipped markers are also helpful.
S T O RY B O A R D I N G | 2 1
METHOD
The facilitator gives the participants a specific challenge or task. It is best to tackle user stories in small segments. It might be something like, “Think of the cus-tomer experience when going to the zoo. Using the cards, explain the experience when purchasing the ticket.” You can use any small segment of the experience to examine.
Let people select the cards they need. You can make it fun by saying they need to use at least one card from each deck, or whatever rules you want to include.
DEBRIEF
You can conduct a debrief by asking questions such as:
1 How did you decide where your story started?
2 Which activity was a transitional or turning point?
3 What was the experience like for the end user?
4 What new learning or insights did you and your team discover?
MODIFICATION
If you have a large group, you can have multiple tables working on different ideas. Using the zoo example, one group might examine ticket sales, another could look at using the washrooms or even buying lunch. You can decide what you want to examine.
If you do work with a large group, let them figure out the sequence of the story and have each group present in the order the end user would experience.
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9A PICTURE TELLS 1,000 WORDS
WHY USE
When you want people to do some quiet and private work, a nice reflection to find insights.
PURPOSE
For reflection, problem solving, insight development, storytelling, imagination, and creativity.
METHOD
1 Lay all the cards down on the table and ask people to look at the cards and pick any two (that have LEGO® people in them) they are the most interested in exploring.
2 After everyone has made their selections, ask them to write down a list of words that each card brings to mind. Now ask them to choose between the cards, picking the card that has the richest or most interesting story for them.
2 4 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
3 Ask them to write down everything they notice about what is happening in the picture. Have them circle three of the most interesting things, or things they think are key.
4 They will now add to the list what they see and what they do not see but imagine might be happening behind the scenes. They then circle three of the most interesting things or things they think are key to the picture.
5 Have them add to the list what the people in the cards might be saying if they could talk. Ask them to circle the one or two things that seem the most important in what might be the narrative.
6 They add to the list words the people in the card might be thinking. Now they pick one or two ideas that explain the narrative of the card.
7 Have them add to the list what the people in the cards wish they could say but are afraid to, or what they have never had the chance to say before. Now ask them to circle the one or two most important things.
8 Ask them to pick the most important message that comes from the cards and, in a few sentences, write the story behind the picture on the card.
9 Now they will add a short caption that sums up the card message, one to a few words.
10 Ask people to partner up so they can share their experience.
DEBRIEF
Invite people to share their card and the caption they created. This can be a pow-erful activity, so let people choose whether or not to share. If someone has an insight about the activity they want to share they can share it now. Give people a chance to talk in small groups or to write a reflection in their journal.
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10PET PEEVE
WHY USE
To give people a chance to exaggerate and tell a story about someone or some-thing they struggle with or find challenging.
PURPOSE
To illustrate that all stories are great, to give people a chance to vent, to get any hostility out and on the table in a fun way. To laugh at ourselves. To get to know each other better.
P E T P E E V E | 2 7
METHOD
Ask people to find a card that represents something they really find annoying or bothersome, a pet peeve.
After everyone has a card, ask for a volunteer to show the card to the group and to explain why that card is their pet peeve. You can do this in short stories that take about one minute each.
DEBRIEF
Ask why they think you did this. All answers are useful, but you are hoping to have people see how the visual aid of the pictures brings up memories and helps people to tell stories.
MODIFICATION
This activity can be modified in endless ways by changing the question or the challenge. Use your imagination.
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11GOD OF THE UNIVERSE
WHY USE
Empowerment. To identify values and beliefs and to share information with others.
PURPOSE
To allow for people to have the power to decide what they might do if they could do anything.
METHOD
Ask people to find a card that represents something they would like to change in the world, their family, organization, community, school, life, etc. Choose whatever you might like to use depending on the group you are working with.
G O D O F T H E U N I V E R S E | 2 9
After everyone has a card, ask for a volunteer to show the card to the group and explain what that card means to them, why it’s important, and why they would change whatever it is they want to change.
You can do this in short stories that take about one minute each.
DEBRIEF
Ask people what they learned about themselves in this activity and what they learned about others. What values came forward? What ideas did this generate? What happens when we have a selection and we are asked to choose just one thing, one injustice? This mirrors priorities and actions; we cannot do it all.
MODIFICATION
This activity can be modified in endless ways by changing the question or the challenge. Use your imagination.
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13WHERE AM I NOW?
WHY USE
For current situation analysis, visioning, objective finding, and identifying key obstacles.
PURPOSE
This activity is designed for individuals, teams, and groups to analyze, reflect, share, and decide what they need to do to move forward.
METHOD
Lay all the cards on the table. Give people a sheet of paper with four squares:
Square One: Where am I (or we) now?
Square Two: Where am I (or we) going next?
Square Three: What obstacles will get in my/our way?
W H E R E A M I N O W ? | 3 1
Square Four: What actions can I (we) take now to ensure I (we) will overcome obstacles?
Find cards that answer these questions and place the cards into the squares. After all the cards are in the squares, create a story that tells what is happening.
DEBRIEF
Have people tell their stories using the cards as prompts.
Ask them these questions:
1 How did you know which cards to pick?
2 How did you know where the cards should go?
3 How did you build the story?
Modification
You can do this with individuals, with teams, and with small groups. It can be about them, about the team, about a community—anything you want the story to be about. It all works.
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14MY SECRET CARD
WHY USE
For reflection, new points of view, insight, and focus.
PURPOSE
To provide a focus for discussion and a point of reference for reflection.
METHOD
Lay all the cards on the table, picture side down. Ask people to pick two cards each, but do not show them to anyone.
These cards are now their “secret” cards. In a notepad they should write down information about their two cards. Then they put away their notebooks until during the session they identify where the idea behind the card is present, either in the content or the dialogue. They make a note in their book for later use.
M Y S E C R E T C A R D | 3 3
At the end of the session ask people to reference their notebooks. Each person then can share their cards and if they saw their card issue appear in some way. Or they can share if there is any new learning about the card that came in the retrospective.
DEBRIEF
It is amazing how the subconscious mind works with this type of activity. People consciously and subconsciously apply meaning in so many ways. Ask people to find a partner and share the information from this activity with their partner. Ask the pairs if they would like to share with the group.
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15HOW OTHERS SEE US
WHY USE
For reflection, new points of view, insight, and focus.
PURPOSE
To provide a focus for discussion and a point of reference for reflection and change.
METHOD
Lay all cards on the table, picture side up. Ask people to pick cards in response to the questions below:
1 How do others see us?
2 How do we see ourselves?
3 How do we want to be seen?
H O W O T H E R S S E E U S | 3 5
Or
1 How do people see our brand/service/product?
2 How do we see our brand/service/product?
3 How do we want to be seen?
DEBRIEF
When you ask these three questions, people will rarely use the same card three times. This activity gives people a chance to reflect on how they show up in the world as an individual or as a team.
The process that follows this discussion is a great one for considering improve-ments, either to functioning or to communicating messages. There are countless ways to move forward from here.
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16ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
WHY USE
People frequently do not really understand what is happening in a situation—per-sonal or professional. When we ask, they may give us quick surface answers they have not really thought out. The danger with this questioning and answering pro-cess has to do with the brain. The brain hates ambiguity and prefers certainty. Once people give an answer to a question they may become invested in finding proof to support their ideas. However, it is usually quite helpful to take a deeper examination into what might be under the behaviors or actions on the surface.
PURPOSE
To really understand what might be happening—the problem below the problem.
R O O T C AU S E A N A LY S I S | 3 7
METHOD
1 Lay the cards on a table, face up.
2 Participants select the cards that best represent the situation happening right now.
3 After they have a few cards in hand, ask them to cluster cards that are somewhat related.
4 Ask participants to place their card with the most relevant or “key” picture indicating what is happening now, in the center.
5 Now ask them to consider the distance of where they place their other cards or clusters.
6 The cards will now become a visual mind map or a ladder with cause and effect.
DEBRIEF
The story of why the cards are placed where they are is the beginning of an inter-esting conversation. In this process you can begin to see dependencies, gaps, space, relationships, and other important information that may or may not come to light in any other way.
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17VISUAL RETROSPECTIVE
WHY USE
After we complete a project, we might forget to look back and see what happened, what we learned, and what we might like to do differently. In agile, we often use ret-rospectives to provide feedback loops for continuous improvement. These cards provide a perfect tool for conducting a retrospective.
PURPOSE
To help support conversations that share insights and improve communication and learning to help teams function more highly.
METHOD
Lay out the cards and ask some simple questions:
1 Pick up one or two cards that explain what happened during this project and tell us about it.
V I S UA L R E T R O S P E C T I V E | 3 9
After everyone tells their stories, ask the next question:
2 What do you think it all means? What did we learn?
Again, if needed, people can pick up cards and use them for answering this ques-tion. After everyone has told their stories, ask the next question.
3 What should we do next to improve?
You might like to capture the learnings on a flip chart. Alternatively, you can also make a big circle with tape on the floor—or table—and create a pie with sections.
In each section you can have your question on an index card, in writing large enough that people can easily read it.
Now ask people to put their cards into the sections. After they place their cards you can ask everyone to answer the questions above. They may or may not indi-cate or point to the cards, but with the cards there as visual prompts people can feel more at ease to tell their stories.
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18LEGO® IMPROVISATION
WHY USE
This is a fun activity to get everyone feeling more confident, to build creative thinking skills, to practice feeling accepted, and to think quickly on our feet.
PURPOSE
To show how quickly our brain works when it has a visual.
METHOD
People need to volunteer for this activity. You can make it as complex or as easy as you like depending on your group. You will need some type of time keeping tool. One minute is usually long enough for the story. You may need to allow for a minute or two of thinking before the story starts. The rounds get harder, so allow people volunteer as it goes along or just stay with the first round.
4 2 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
ROUND ONE
1 Pick a card from the deck.
2 Now tell us a story about this card, with or without using any of the words that appear on the card.
ROUND TWO
1 Pick two cards from the deck.
2 Now tell us a story that includes both cards and how they are related.
ROUND THREE
1 Let those watching come up with a word or two and add that to one or two cards. Have the storyteller come up with the story.
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193DHAIKU
WHY USE
This is a fun activity to get everyone feeling more confident, to build creative thinking skills, to practice feeling accepted, and to think quickly on our feet.
PURPOSE
To show how quickly our brain works when it has a visual. It is also a fun way to push people out of their comfort zones.
METHOD
Ask people to pick up some random cards, around 3 or 5.
Explain what a haiku is for those who have never written one before. A haiku has three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the last line has five again. They do not rhyme.
4 4 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
The haiku is created by using some of the words that appear in the cards. If anyone can create a message, even better. Have some fun with this.
DEBRIEF
Ask if anyone wants to read theirs. There is usually someone who really wants to read their haiku. Give people time to think. End when everyone has read their haiku or you run out of volunteers.
VARIATION
You can also mix the word cards with the picture cards for new and interesting ways of creating Haiku’s.
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20CAN’T FIND IT? BUILD IT
WHY USE
This is a fun activity to get everyone feeling more confident, to build creative thinking skills, to practice feeling accepted, and to think quickly on our feet.
PURPOSE
To show how quickly our brain works when it has a visual. It is also a fun way to push people out of their comfort zones.
METHOD
If people comment that they can’t find a card that they want, it just isn’t in the deck. The facilitator asks them to build the missing card using an assortment of LEGO® bricks. People usually need only a few minutes to build and a few min-utes to explain what they built. When they are telling their story, make sure people listen to the story teller.
4 6 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
The deck of cards includes blank cards, which people can use as a space to for-mulate their own ideas. They can write their ideas on sticky notes or they can take photos, which they will add to the deck; they can use a paperclip to attach these.
Everyone will need an assortment of LEGO bricks and Minifigures. The partici-pants will also need some blank cards to document their own ideas. After building, everyone will share their stories with the group. The builder alone gets to tell the story; others do not get to interpret the model.
Note: Always have people build with LEGO® before they write the words down on the cards. We do the building first because people might build something that’s even better when they build, tell the story, then document.
DEBRIEF
After the story has been shared you can ask the storyteller if they said something a bit differently from what they thought they might say while they were building the model. This is a great way to help people understand the power of the sub-conscious mind. As we build, our hands connect with our brain and our brain connects with our hands. In his book on Play, Stuart Brown notes that the brain looks for a hand and the hand looks for a brain and the medium is play.
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21A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS
WHY USE
This is a great activity to help stretch people’s creative thinking skills. The skills of improvisation, which are basically great life skills, are tested here.
PURPOSE
To show how quickly our brain works when it has a visual and a word card. This is a lot of fun, and we always let people volunteer for this activity.
METHOD
The deck of cards includes word cards, both negative and positive. Ask people to pick at least one picture card and one word card, without looking at the deck. They then have 30 seconds to look at the cards and tell a story using both words. The rules are that we (the audience) will clap and cheer and congratulate all attempts.
4 8 | S T R AT E G I C P L AY
DEBRIEF
We do a few rounds before any debrief happens. The debrief might sound like this:
� What did you think of the activity?
� Why did you feel the way you did about this activity?
� Why did you react the way you did to this activity? (Use their own words here: exciting, fun, scary, etc.)
� How did the people listening to the story feel?
� When do you have to think this quickly?
� How might thinking this quickly help you in the future?
VARIATION
You can add more cards and more words as you go along.
You can add partners into the “scene” who can work together
To speed up the storyteller’s thinking, you can add words in real time as the story unfolds.
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50
22WHAT HAPPENED?
WHY USE
This activity can be used as a great debrief or a feedback loop for a retrospective or a post-mortem.
PURPOSE
To gain more insight and deeper learning. In Agile it is a great tool to use for a retrospective. In any group work, the cards can provide information or help pull information for consideration and conversation.
METHOD
Ask people to think about a situation that has just occurred. Then ask them to find one word card and one picture card to help tell the story of what they experi-enced. People tell their stories one at a time until everyone has had a turn.
W H AT H A P P E N E D ? | 5 1
DEBRIEF
This activity is a debrief so at the end we simply say, “Thank you.”
VARIATION
1 Add more cards
2 Have people tell their story to a friend or partner
3 Have a small group share their stories with each other and then summarize in a large group debrief.
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23MIX US UP
WHY USE
During workshops or training sessions, friends or groups will sit together. This is fine, except for when you get that negative group that likes to sit at the back table. They may try to avoid being engaged; or worse, they may try to cause disruptions.
PURPOSE
To create new seating arrangements, to introduce new people to each other, and to create energy and excitement in the room.
METHOD
1 Create a deck that has the same number of cards as you have people in the room—make sure you have two of each card.
2 Shuffle the cards and let people see this is random. Hand out the cards as people arrive (if you are doing this as an opener) or during the session.
M I X U S U P | 5 3
3 Give each person one card and ask them to go find the other person who has the same card; they will do this is in silence.
4 When they have found their matches you can run another pair activity.
DEBRIEF
1 Now that people are mixed up you can have them find a new table where they can sit together. You can ask them to introduce themselves to each other.
2 You can ask them to tell the other person what they hope to get out of the event or anything around this theme or the theme of the workshop, e.g., “What is something you love about your work?”
VARIATION
1 Add more cards to accommodate groups. You can use 5 of the same card to build tables.
2 Ask everyone to talk for 5 minutes about their card.
3 Have small groups share their stories together, and then summarize in a large group debrief.
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24SUPERHERO/KRYPTONITE
WHY USE
To allow people to share information quickly.
PURPOSE
To create a deeper level of intimacy within a group of people. When we run this activity, people love it. Who does not love talking about and sharing concepts that are so fundamentally important to who we are and what we are trying to do on the planet?
METHOD
1 Place all the cards on a table and spread them out so they are easy to see and read.
2 If you want to add some fun and humor, you can start by asking everyone to stand in their superhero pose.
S U P E R H E R O / K RY P T O N I T E | 5 5
3 Ask people to pick two cards from the deck.
4 The first card represents what they, as superheroes, fight in the world every day.
5 The second card represents their Kryptonite, the one thing that exhausts them and drags them down. It could be their pet peeves that suck up their energy.
6 When everyone has their cards, challenge them to form pairs or groups of four and to share their cards with each other.
7 Get ready with the camera and see if you can find people to volunteer to strike a superhero pose with their cards!
DEBRIEF
You can ask if they learned something new about a coworker or group member.
You can ask if they learned something new about themselves.
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25CARDS TO CLOSE
WHY USE
This is another fun way to close your event and help solidify learning and activate participants.
PURPOSE
We know people only remember about 20% of what happens at meetings, train-ings, and conferences. And to be honest, that statistic is generous. This is a great way to have people talk about what they liked, what they remembered, and what they might do to ensure they take action when they get back to the office.
METHOD
1 Take a deck of cards (you might like to stack the deck) and place them on the table, all spread out.
C A R D S T O C L O S E | 5 7
2 Ask people to find a card they can use to tell their story about something they heard that resonated with them. It might be something they want to take action on, tell someone about, or make a mental commitment to change.
3 When everyone has a card in hand, you can make a big circle and ask everyone to tell their story to the group. Alternatively, you can have people find one friend and share their stories with each other.
DEBRIEF
This is a debriefing activity, so at the end you can thank everyone for joining or inviting you. Be sure to also thank the organizer.
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CONCLUSION
We would love to hear from you. How did these activities work for you when using them in your own programs? If you have any ideas to add, we would like to include them in the next version or in our blog.
Email us: [email protected]
LOOKING FOR FRESH IDEAS?
Visit: strategicplay.com for updates and new ideas
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the following people for their help with this book and the production of the cards:
Andrea Brittan for her great editing of this book.
Mike Crane and Dylan Buyskes for the perfect photos used in this book.
Stacey Bodnaruk for helping with the graphics on the cards.
Jonathan Bannister for encouraging us and guiding us as we took this project from concept to market.
Sofia Jorgensen for her energy and enthusiasm as she helped us build some great early models, reminding us just how much fun playing with LEGO® really is!
Mike Ciebien, our office mate who loves LEGO® and didn’t make too much of a fuss when we made the biggest mess.
Camilla Jensen for reviewing the activities listed here and making sure we were not “living in our heads.”
The first group of 9 people who were so engaged and quickly asked for more cards and more decks, helping us see that we really did have a good idea.
Greg Hoehner, Singapore Jennifer Webster, Canada Susan Chiasson , USA Emay Cowx, CanadaSue Anderson, Australia Nadia La Russa, Canada Laura MacDonald, Canada James Roper, AustraliaKevin Rutherford, Dubai & USA
And of course, we must thank all the development people at the LEGO® Systems Group who come up with amazingly cool ideas for Minifigures and other interest-ing bricks that inspire us as we continue to create new tools to make the world a better place!
