Introduce creative problem solving
Increase creativity, build empathy and break down barriers amongst participants with the Lego duck exercise.
What is it
This is an energising activity, where participants have 60 seconds to think with their hands and build the best duck they can with Lego pieces. After the exercise, participants will reflect on how and why the results differed across the group. This will lead to the realisation that there are many ways to reach a common goal with the same building blocks.
How to do it
1 Prepare the materials and work space
Prepare a Lego duck kit for each participant. This should consist of seven Lego pieces with different shapes. Get a timer. Identify a prominent display area for the finished ducks.
2 Brief the participants
Give the participants their Lego pieces and explain what the exercise is. Tell them that they have 60 seconds to make a Lego duck then shout "Go!"
3 Show and tell
Instruct the participants to put their ducks on the display area. Ask them to reflect how many different ducks there are and to share their thoughts on this outcome - how it happened, what it means. Remind them that, while not all problems and tasks are as easy as building a duck out of Lego, this group exercise does demonstrate that there can be many approaches and end results when designing for trust, transparency and control.
This tool and any associated downloadable assets are provided under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike CC BY-SA 4.0 International License.Related content
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