Use This Playful Exercise to Open Up Creativity, Imagination, and Openness in Teams

Smiles Are Included Too

Increase Play and Creativity in Teams

Llamas are great because they look great in polka dots!

Last week, I spoke at Building Business Capability #bbc2024 on the topic of play and using LEGO Serious Play to engage teams, and it was a blast!

One of the exercises I asked participants to do is called Llamas and Lions.

Technically any animal can work (or object/person).

Here's how it works:
1. Pair people up
2. Ask one person to be the llama, and the other the lion
3. The lions start first - they are to list all of the reasons lions are great and each one has to start with "Lions are great because..."
4. The llamas count with their fingers so the lions can see
5. Start the activity and a 45 second timer
6. Stop the activity and take a pulse of the room to see how many people got..
7. Ask for some examples of what the lions shared
8. Note that most, if not all, of the examples are things that are true about lions
9. Expose that the lions made up a rule that everything they said had to be true - provide an example of something that is made up, such as: Llamas are great because they look great in polka dots!
10. Repeat the exercise, but flip this time, llamas list, lions count, 45 seconds
11. Re-assess the quantities/counts
12. Get some more examples- note that these will be silly and there will be a lot of smiling in the room.

A little bit of play can go a long way. Next time you need an ice breaker for your brainstorm or team building, give this a try. It will put people in a place of heightened creativity, imagination, and overall openness to ideas.

And if you want a really powerful activity that uses LEGO's... Contact us! These llamas have a few tricks up our sleeves. 🦙🦙🦙