Transnational Training Session

This a straightforward question that most people get frozen when they have to answer, and they look at each other, looking for what to say.

Here's how the exercise works:

You give the participants a bag with six LEGO® bricks. They have 30 seconds to build a duck.

When done, you create in a table a landscape of Ducks.

The big surprise is all Ducks are different from each other. People do not expect significant differences.

Some of them are very different.

The reason for doing this exercise is:

1. The aim is to demonstrate the varied range of individuals within the group to the participants.
2. To question how you communicate an idea that is in your brain but people interpret it differently.
3. You can have different mental models if the question refers to a bias.
4. All are Ducks; if the Duck represent a prototype of a project, the more diversity you have, the better.
5. You ask them to cluster the Ducks, and then the common elements of innovation appear connected to the touch-points of the design.

In only 30 seconds, you can extract a lot of information and put them on the track of cooperation by accepting the diversity of cross-collaboration thinking.

The exercise suggests four steps to observe team cooperation.

The exercise aims to analyse good, best, novel, and emergent practices when solving problems.

EXERCISE ONE

Sort the bricks by color

Do this as soon as possible.

Form piles of bricks by colour, plus a pile of "special" pieces: each team decides which pieces are "special"

DEBRIEFING

How long did it take to plan?

Did leaders emerge who led, and everyone else followed?

How were decisions made?

EXERCISE TWO

Let's build a tower.

-Must be at least 20 bricks high and built in the shortest possible time

-Must be composed of colours that repeat in a recognizable pattern

-The size of the bricks must not increase with height: no brick can be on top of a smaller brick

Debriefing

-How long did it take to plan?

-What was the communication pattern? -How many led and how many followed? -Decisions how were made?

-What differences did you notice from the previous iteration?

EXERCISE THREE

Let's build a vehicle

Each team has 30 seconds to decide which vehicle to build

Once construction begins, talking, writing or drawing is prohibited

Each person can only touch bricks of one colour, always the same

Debriefing

What differences did you notice from previous work?

What was the pattern of communication?

Did leaders and followers emerge?

How were decisions made?

And if, instead of 30 seconds, you had 5 minutes to plan, would things have gone differently? Did you benefit from the experience of the previous exercises?

EXERCISE FOUR

Building Construction

No initial planning

No talking, writing or drawing allowed

The building must contain at least 35 pieces and have a recognizable colour scheme

Each person on the team can only touch bricks of one colour

Periodically, facilitators will switch between teams and indicate members who need to switch to another team

Debriefing

What was the pattern of communication?

How many led, and how many followed?

In what way did you make decisions?

What differences did you find from the previous exercise?

Did you benefit from the experience of previous exercises?

1. One way to encourage team members to view their team from a different perspective is by asking debriefing questions highlighting each member's contribution to the work. This helps ensure that every team member feels valued and involved.

2. You observe the construction process, noting who builds what and the criteria they follow. This includes factors such as speed of construction and whether teams are building something new or using existing structures.

3. When team members are shifted to a different team, it's essential to consider their behaviour, how others perceive them, and how they may impact the new team.

4. During exercise, additional challenges may arise.