Collaboration Exercises

Presentable, Adaptable, Creative Process Model

2011-01-25T14:41:41Z

Teach art (quickly) before asking participants to apply it...

2010-12-14T05:14:33Z

Many of us run individual perspectives activities designed to allow participants to communicate their thoughts and feelings in a different way. Specifically, we are moving them away from black text in bullet points and toward the use of strategic models that communicate more effectively.

There's a recent learning Aaron Williamson, Doug Cheek and I stumbled on when we were in a time-crunched sitation. We wanted to change the introduction to an individual perspectives activity:

Work with a graphic facilitator to teach graphic recording, and go back-and-forth with a scribe about what they think about when they draw a model (Aaron Williamson, a Canadian by background, explained the sport of curling using a real-time model) (3 min)
Write up and explain the 4 elements of strategic modeling (or some similar perspective on what the basics are) - Actors, Annotations, Relationships, and Frame (2 min)
Have participants run a quick practice with using paper and pen under their chair. In two recent events of approximately 20 participants we had them do "Draw the process of making toast", then "Draw how you get dressed in the morning" (2 minutes to draw, 90 sec to share with neighbor, 90 sec to debrief)

Then move into an individual activity that asks them to put their perspective onto flip chart paper or a white board - typiclally this activity asks for their point of view on problem they are trying to solve or what strategy they are clarifying.

Doug, Aaron, and I did this on two recent short events with a biotech company and were blown away by how much faster and better their models were after just one practice session. And it doesn't take ANY extra time.

If you have time, you should do a more indepth training or explanation up front. I know a lot of us are working on what that experiential training for non-artists is. Very cool stuff.

The key is that everyone gets in a quick rep without the pressure of putting up their perspective, as a model for all to see, on something important. This practice rep greatly mitigates a big pressure element of individual perspectives: can I actually draw a model successfully.

The 10 minutes you lose in the build up you get back because they can do their models and perspectives in 15 min, not 25.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Exercise

2010-09-20T15:08:25Z

Looking for ways to get your team to understand the importance of details, instructions, and following a process? One of the best exercises to do this is call the PB&J Exercise.

Follow these links (downloadable PPT) for the instructions and process flow guidelines.

Finally, teams turn in their completed process flows of list of instructions and as one whole group, a "chef" tries to create the sandwich while the facilitator reads the instructions from the worst teams flow/instructions. Laughs all around, but a very powerful point.

Inventions: Photo Guide Setup

2010-09-01T18:36:13Z

Inventions. A corner stone module of DesignShops. Here is a photo guide for the Map Layout, Tools Table and Materials Table.

And don't forget to read about how to write the assignment and deliver the module: Inventions Collaboration Exercise

Download all the assignments, photo guides, rules etc. from one zip file!

And click for more - to see the most comprehensive shopping list ever created! (compliments of Nicole Brandon)

The End of the (physical) Environment Role

2010-07-23T02:02:17Z

Automatically moving tables and walls according to the event design. It is remarkably close...

And marker-less scribing...

The Electric Scribe from Alphachimp Studio Inc. on Vimeo.

Tips for Designing Large Events

2010-07-08T20:10:36Z

In February 2010 Capgemini engaged with a pharmaceutical company to help organize their entire US sales force to prepare for the launch of a new drug. The final participant count for the session was 2,500 people and the facilitation team consisted of 77 knowledge workers and 22 facilitators. Here are a few things we learned about facilitating mega-events.

Parallel is the way to go. Divide the group into logical chunks and run each one independently in parallel. This gives each group the ability to adjust the time they need to do their work. Too much structure will ensure things get out of whack.

Self-capture when possible. The cost of properly supporting this many people is very daunting for the consumer, so in order to keep the costs down we had to limit the facilitation team in each room to one facilitator, one PF and two KWs. This worked because we had the participants do as much of the capture of their own sales plans as possible.

Keep it simple and centralized. One of the most memorable aspects of this session was the complete implosion of an online tool that had been developed by a third-party vendor. Capgemini’s response and subsequent implementation of a simple Excel back-up plan really saved the day in this instance. This reminds us all to keep it simple, especially when dealing with large groups. In addition, another thing that helped us manage such a large group was to centrally project all assignments and inputs and have the facilitator manage communicating them to the groups in each room.

Know your partners and over-communicate with them. Mega-events come with many cooks in the kitchen, and working well with the event planners and production companies that are involved is very important. Capgemini’s role in the planning of this event became providing structured communication and planning among the vendors in order to ensure the session was successful.

Leave lots of time for questions. Quadruple the amount of time you think you’ll need to answer the questions the facilitation team will have. We are all very inquisitive people by nature and are used to having a high-level of knowledge about the events that we do. When the information is concentrated in just a couple of ‘lead’ people there needs to be a lot of time set aside to go over in detail the proceedings and procedures for the event. It’s only fair to the teams in each room to spend a lot of time on this.

I hope this was interesting. As you no doubt noticed there is nothing earth-shatteringly brilliant here. Facilitating huge events is more about getting the balance or formula right. I would love to hear about any tips and tricks that others have used to facilitate mega-events.

Cartoons for Better Collaboration

2010-06-28T17:16:26Z

Scribing/visual facilitation/graphic recording is one of the best ways to create group synergies, common understandings, visuals for clarity and progression forward.

A slight tangent on graphic facilitation is the pure-play use of cartoons. Jesse van Vraagje is one of the most experienced cartoonists in Europe as well as on the of best real time cartoon makers during collaborative events.

Watch this video of him creating cartoons during a synthesis conversation:

Cartoons for Collaboration from Brandon Klein on Vimeo.

NPR, Android, A Scribe of Our Own

2010-06-17T01:46:57Z

Heather Willems and Nora Herting run Imagethink. They would never brag about this here, but I think it is pretty impressive, and only represents a piece of what they have been working on.

Heather scribed in the new TV Commercial for NPR that advertises for their new Google Android Application. Here's the video:

NPR Android app promo from Small Mammal on Vimeo.

Whiteyboard, Like IdeaPaint, But Portable & Inexpensive

2010-06-10T00:45:15Z

IdeaPaint might be one of the best inventions for "meeting spaces" (conference rooms.) But there is a new small player on the market: Whiteyboard. As the founders put it:

"WhiteyBoard was born in 2010 to attack one major problem; Heavy, Expensive Dry Erase Boards. With our team of chemists, we came up with an ultra inexpensive white board that sticks on to any wall, weighs less than 2 pounds and gets you working in seconds. No installation, no heavy lifting, no breaking the bank. WhiteyBoard is already being used in hundreds of offices, classrooms, and kids rooms around the US."

Watch it in action below. Then buy some.

Building a Bigger Better Breakout with Kinetic Energies Walls

2010-06-08T03:49:58Z

Kinetic Energies Wall Solution is used often in mobile collaborative events. It is an excellent solution for many of us. If you rent directly from Kinetic, it comes in large card board boxes that need to be stored during the session. Don't know if this is a brand new concept but during my last event the team created more space to collaborate and bigger breakouts to fit the conference center tables.

It's an easy cost effective way to increase the useable space in a session and add a richness to the breakout. The only downside is the dividers aren't very mobile, so you'll need to think through transistions if you need a wide open space for any of your modules.

Supplies Needed – The wall shipping boxes, clear packing tape, a roll of butcher paper, some heavy duty foam core, and a few nice green plants.

Uses – Break out plaques, Assignment posting, extra writing space, and a great sound barrier between breakouts.

Here are a few pictures of the solution: