Ever notice that when you have a teambuilding or brainstorming session that the conversations are usually centered around "the few". Yes, the stats will say that 20% of the people speak for 80% of the time.
Hell, they practically dominate the sessions.
Tough luck, your wonderful ideas never surface. So much for your contribution. Remain in the background, withhold cooperation with whatever process changes or improvements the session developed coz' you had no input. Who cares, it wasn't my idea anyway!
The most creative, innovative and unconventional ideas usually come from those who have to face the issue everyday.
The problem is how do we create a level playing field where EVERYONE is given an opportunity to express their feelings, perceptions and issues without fear of reprimand by superiors, ridicule by peers and prejudice?
Is it possible to somehow create a NEUTRAL zone where all levels of personnel in the team share all these openly and without fear?
LEGO blocks, used for so long as a toy that promotes creative thinking has now been found to have practical merit in teambuilding through CONSTRUCTIONISM (by Seymour Papert).
It's really a word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_%28learning_theory%29
LEGO Serious Play (registered trademark by LEGO) training methodology allows a trained facilitator to run teambuildling and problem solving sessions designed to elicit "100% talk", metaphorically speaking.
The "100% talk" results in stronger sense of ownership of the solution including the committed actions.
