CONFRONTING THE ELEPHANT
There are many ways in which we interfere with someone’s ability to think creatively. Doubt, fear, or being a “naysayer” can deflate a team’s energy when generating ideas. The Confronting the Elephant exercise is an opportunity to acknowledge all of the “elephants” in a room and bury negative thinking at the inception of a project’s ideation process. This is an activity that should be conducted prior to a separate brainstorming session. Confronting the Elephant can be especially useful when discussing unaddressed or contentious issues.
Source: Adapted from Gamestorming
What to do
- Decide on an upcoming project you would like to focus on.
- Prepare separate flipchart sheets for each of the questions below. Post them around the room prior to starting, along with one labelled “Elephants.”
- Before brainstorming, ask participants to answer as many of the following questions as they can about the chosen project. Ask each person to write their answer to each question on individual post-it notes.
- What do I dislike?
- What could go wrong?
- Could this end in disaster?
- What are my fears?
- What are the risks?
- What are my concerns?
- What makes me roll my eyes?
- What am I tired of hearing?
- Ask participants to post their answers under the appropriate questions around the room.
- Ask the team to vote on their top three answers for each question by dot voting (provide each participant with three dots to vote).
- Now, place the three answers receiving the most votes on the flipchart paper labelled “Elephants.” This provides the team with an opportunity to voice unaddressed issues.
Debrief
(following the activity)
- What were the challenges that prevented teams from pushing ideas forward?
- What would happen if we removed these barriers for teams?
- How could you apply this exercise to work that you do?