Prior to the meeting, prepare A4 or A5 envelopes: you will need one per participant.
Choose an object that fits in the envelope:
- it should not be too easily recognizable
- it should speak to the sense of touch
The goal of the game is not to guess what is in the envelope!
People should really spend a few minutes FEELING the object.
Then let them find as many adjectives to describe it as possible:
- soft
- furry
- rubbery
- round
- etc
- Variation 1:
Choose the same object for all participants: this allows you to see how different individuals describe one and the same thing. - Variation 2:
Choose a different object in each envelope (limit to 2 to 5 different objects depending on the size of the group) – the bigger the difference the better: this not only gives different descriptions but a higher level of confusion (and fun) as people will wonder why someone describes a slick cube as furry and round. It will create ‘teams’ of likeminded people.
Benefits of this exercise: show participants
- that we all have different ways of looking at things (whether they are the same of different)
- that we have a tendency to ‘like’ people who describe something the same way as we do
- that different views (hence different people) make a brain storming session more interesting and productive
- that judging others by they opinions is silly and counterproductive