Advising a Government Agency on Innovation Through Play

The Methods We Explored

Our Exercises:

• The Duck Challenge – this challenge illustrates the diverse number of ideas within any team and also how we can utilise our thinking process to offer a number of solutions to any given problem.
• Sharing ideas – this exercise shows the power of sharing ideas instead of holding onto them (which is a natural impulse). Sharing ideas within a team exponentially increases the number of opportunities that may result.
• Taking ideas from the plausible to the ridiculous – this way of thinking comes very naturally to some but not to most of us. The great thing about amplifying your idea to the point of ridiculous is that you are more likely to find the sublime within this process. The sublime is what makes a good idea into a great idea or even a game changing idea.
• Dreamers, Builders, Critics – This exercise allows us to wear different hats and is essentially a slimmed down version of Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. The technique allows us to focus on creating ideas without judging them, moulding the ideas into something workable and then critiquing each idea once it has been allowed a chance to breathe.
• Improv skills – Introducing the idea of “Yes and” allows us to exercise our creative thoughts together and build on ideas which helps our minds to keep going with fresh ideas.
• Almost Brainwriting – for this exercise I split the 50 delegates into 10 teams of 5 members. The initial problem was “Can we afford to run this project?”. The exercise meant that the first person in each group would write something down and pass it to the second in their group. The second person would respond to what the first had written as the new problem, the third would then respond to the second person’s writing as the new problem and so on down the line. My favourite sequence was the group who had the following sequence: Get more money – Rob a bank – Hire a getaway driver – Steal a car – Avoid the police. That was a team that had embraced taking the idea to the ridiculous level.
• The Lotus Blossom Technique – this technique takes some time so we only had a moment to look at when it is useful and how it works without the time to try it out. This is a technique that generates 64 possible solutions to the core problem and is useful in facilitated practice.
• Lego Serious Play – This was introduced to the delegates as a possible method for creating divergent thought using the various application techniques within the method.