Practise Mental Gear Shift

Shifting between conventional thinking and an open, exploratory and creative mindset can be very difficult. This exercise will make it easier.

  1. Feel the red track: Lay out a set of Dialoogle cards in front of the participants and ask them to find a picture card that says something about how they feel in their daily work when they have to be efficient, result-oriented and action minded. – Everybody keeps his or her card after having told the group about it.
  2. Feel the green track: Ask the participants to find a new card that says something about how they feel when they find themselves working in an explorative and creative group where thoughts and ideas are allowed to fly free. Everybody keeps his or her card after having told the others about it.
  3. The third part of the exercise takes place in a new and different environment. Take the participants for a walk outside, e.g. on the beach. They bring their two picture cards, and you bring the rest of the cards. (If you have an extra set of Magnum cards, it is a good idea to bring new images into play).
  4. If you are on a beach, ask the participants to stick their ‘red’ and ‘green’ cards into the sand to form two parallel rows – making a path of two to three meters between the green and the red cards. Make sure that the images in the two rows face each other.
  5. White Space: You stick the extra picture cards that you brought along into the sand in the path between the two rows. All images must face the same way so that the participants can stroll between them and select one picture card that brings out the feeling of switching off the autopilot, letting the mind fly free, and waking up all senses – their White Space.
  6. When everybody has found a card they tell each other about their choice and their White Space.

Remove the cards in the middle of the path and ask the participants to stick their White Space cards into the sand. A photo on the mobile will be a useful visual memory.

The outdoor part of the exercise will work just as well on grass or tiles, where the cards lie on the ground.

Innovation

Innovation

Innovation is discovering, developing and applying new ideas in known workflows and processes. Give innovation a boost with images.

Hjernen

Brain

90% of the brain’s sensory input comes from visual sources. Images start thought tracks in the brain. If they cross each other in new combinations, new ideas emerge.

Kreativitet

Creativity

Creativity unfolds when we use imagery and try to combine different and seemingly independent motifs with each other.