31 brave people came together for an “Innovate or Die” event on 10 March in Hamburg, Germany, hosted by a German-Finnish crew, one of them from Monkey Business. Super Monkey Iiro Kolehmainen. It looked like everyone survived, and yeah, even had some serious fun.

One crucial tool we used was Monkey Business’ the Mental Model Game. It supports the process of recognizing one’s own and other people’s ways of seeing the world, and helps appreciate the different viewpoints.

Really interesting to see how the form of a game impacts people’s conversations. Maybe Marc Prensky provides some good thoughts on this phenomenon in “why games engage us”:

Now what happened during the Mental Model Game? Put simply, the participants shared their views about open inquiries, so questions like “what’s the difference between craziness and genius?” or “are we alone in the universe?” They talked in various constellations, for example large groups, smaller groups or individually, and they captured key insights. Initially, questions were given by the hosts, later the participants generated their own. Here are some juicy bits that people in Hamburg reflected:

Everything can be questioned what I had thought I knew
Don´t think just with your own head
Think crazy
Everything is changeable
Ideas are formed in the “connecting room” – don´t create any borders for yourself
Perspectives, perspectives, perspectives
People see things even more differently than I thought
It is important to have fun in life!
Again I learned quite a bit about myself
There is no limit for human creativity

The dialogue in the group reached a good level, and when one of the participants brought up the question: “What is the core of a human being”, it arose so much interest that it became the basis for the birthgiving phase of the workshop (conversion). This was guided by the question „if the inner core of the human being is so important, how will I incorporate it into my business?“

Participants’ creativity did not even stop at biblical quotations when Jesus, surrounded by his apostles, did a headstand, and remained in that position for the rest of the Last Supper. A really good way of shaking one’s mental models, isn’t it?

Thank you Monkey Business for playing the Mental Model Game with us in Germany, let’s continue this good cooperation in the future.

Writer is a friend of Monkey Business and enthusiastic of Team Academy

Theresia Warwitz

Related posts:

Mental Models Game Workshop – Mielenmallipeli Brazil update: Mental Models and workshops that are not workshops Mental Models Game Games and Learning with Crazy Feedback