ReversED is an event The Lean Lab, an incubator for innovative solutions in education, creates. Five local school system leaders pitched their problems: Participants collaborated to design the solutions….. in 24 hours!
New teams were formed by problem/solution.
Sometimes the teams were made up entirely of people who didn’t know each other.
Strategically Playful organized creativity energizers and group mind activators for teams and individuals who could benefit from playful challenges.
One activity we facilitated developed “group mind” – a sensitivity to everyone in the group.
The video above shows what can happen during one of those exercises.
The Beta Blox startup incubator is a training ground for entrepreneurs as they unleash their new businesses to market.
Always on the look out for resources to make a difference to those in his incubator, Wes Bergmann, principle at Beta Blox, decided to try an emerging training in Kansas City that leverages skills developed in improv. During a several year period of focused professional development, Bergmann experienced a noticeable benefit from the many improv workshops he took.
He knew entrepreneurs could achieve more success with the improved “thinking on your feet” skills that he’d experienced (and seen others develop) in the improv training.
The morning of the first day of the 2015 Lean Lab Fellowship program, Strategically Playful organized activities designed to convert stress to positive energy, create a sense of connectedness, and enliven creativity.
The fellows were beginning a four and a half week Incubator Fellowship. They will be guided through a rapid process of innovation for a specific problem or challenge in education they have identified. The most viable of these solutions are then invited to join the 201 Incubator Fellowship program where their initiatives are piloted in local Kansas City schools.
Their skills in creativity and innovation will be critical as they build their solutions.
Often stress and fear of failure prevent risk taking and kill the willingness to take risks and try new things, all of which are essential for innovation.
Every year, The Nerdery creates the Overnight Website Challenge for “nerds” to “give their time, talent, and weekend” to build new websites and back-end systems to support area non-profits.
Project teams work 24 consecutive hours, on newly formed teams….. on new projects.
Needless to say, those conditions can cause stress.
I created late-night energizing breaks for teams to reconnect, relieve stress and boost their mood.
Nerd Russell Dempsey said, “The session helped our team perk up and get motivated to work together again. I noticed that the activities broke down the walls everyone naturally puts up, and after the session people started acting like a community instead of individual villages behind walls.”
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