“Toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are preludes to serious ideas.” - Charles and Ray Eames
Industrial designers, inventors, philosophers of creativity
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Copyright Š 2018 Twenty One Toys Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the authors -- except in the case of certain noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. (Still, it might be nice if you asked first.) Twenty One Toys Inc. 720 Bathurst St. Toronto, Ontario M5S 2R4 Canada hello@twentyonetoys.com
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The Future of Work is Human This Empathy Toy™ Facilitator’s Guidebook is designed to help you build empathy into your work, bringing 21st century job skills to life through play. Empathy – that ability and willingness to consider someone else’s perspective – is key to unlocking innovation in business, and successful collaboration within and across different industries. Employees with empathy are able to better understand their customers’ needs, better connect with their clients, work better together in teams, and respond better to change in the workplace. Skills like empathy and creativity are difficult to teach. You can’t crack open a textbook and study your way to empathy. We learn empathy through our experiences with others, beginning with play. And we have to practice throughout our lives to keep these skills sharp. Empathy is a lifelong learning process, guided by play. Think of this guidebook as your starter kit. It’s your starter kit to proving that work and play are not opposites. When we value play in work, we’re able to build resilient, creative, collaborative and empathetic teams. We’re able to make our core values tangible, so that we can not only understand them but live them out every day. That’s why leaders are investing in playing with empathy, because to keep up with the demands of the 21st century workplace, play is vital. Let’s start! www.twentyonetoys.com
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Table of Contents Empathy as the Foundation of Innovation
Page 6
The Empathy Toy™ Introduction
Page 8
Facilitation Tips for the Empathy Toy™
Page 10
Game Scenarios Page 15 — 51 Quick start
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Basic Gameplay
Page 15
Modifying Basic Gameplay
Page 19
Gameplay for Multiple Groups
Page 27
Advanced Gameplay
Page 33
Designing Multi-Game Arcs
Page 39
Tips for Modifying Game Rules
Page 49
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Empathy Toy™ Workshop Themes Page 53 — 69
Collaborative Communication
Page 54
Effective Teamwork
Page 56
Building Cross-Functional Teams
Page 58
Diversity and Inclusion
Page 60
Promoting Empathic Leadership
Page 62
Leadership Skills in Your Whole Team
Page 64
Change Management
Page 66
Conflict Management
Page 68
Closing Thoughts
Page 71
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Empathy as the Foundation of Innovation Empathy – The ability to enter the mind of another person, to experience and understand feelings that are not our own. What does Empathy have to do with Innovation? Everything. Whether revolutionary, evolutionary or disruptive; whether a process, a service or an idea, innovation can only take place when you understand those you are designing for. As Tim Brown from IDEO puts it, “Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.” The most innovative organizations know this and build empathic methods and techniques into their business, not just to inform how they design, but also how they work together as a team. Professionals are recognizing more and more that in order to keep up with the growing demands of the diverse 21st Century workplace, social and emotional skills are not “nice to haves”—they are vital for building and growing winning teams.
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The Empathy Toy™ Introduction
How Does a Toy Teach Empathy? The Empathy Toy™ is a blindfolded puzzle game that can only be solved when players learn to understand each other. Players must recreate each other’s puzzle patterns without sight. Instead they must use only use their words to describe abstract shapes with no name. To succeed, players must create a common language, understand each other’s perspectives, and tackle the problem collaboratively.
One toy set = 10 puzzle pieces (5 dark puzzle pieces + 5 light puzzle pieces)
The puzzle pieces can connect to form over 9,000 unique shapes. During gameplay, players work together to describe and build nameless, abstract shapes out of these puzzle pieces. Afterwards, they discuss what happened during the gameplay, and reflect on how they can apply what they learned in the game to day-to-day life.
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Toys as Tools for Facilitation There are an enormous variety of ways to set up, play, and debrief with the Empathy Toy™. In every case, the underlying goal remains the same — to provide a tangible experience that helps participants better understand the challenges and strategies surrounding creative collaboration. This guide contains a variety of framing ideas, game scenarios, and debrief topics. These are the raw materials that you can use to build unique workshop experiences, and expand upon your existing workshop structures.
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Game Scenarios If you give a child a ball and a playground there’s no end to the creative games that they can conjure. But as that child grows up, they discover that there are specific types of balls for certain types of games. These games all have different rules, and learning to follow these rules, they are told, is an important part of growing up. As adults, we are well-versed in rules, sometimes to the detriment of our ability to see creative opportunities. This is why it is important to approach the Empathy Toy™ with a beginner’s mindset – the same mindset that allows a child to see a ball as a source of inspiration rather than something bound by rules. This section of the guidebook provides a number of game scenarios, but stops short of prescribing a set of definitive rules. And if you approach these scenarios as the playground they were intended to be, your workshops will be all the more creative.
Game Scenarios Basic Gameplay
Page 15
Modifying Basic Gameplay
Page 19
Gameplay for Multiple Groups
Page 27
Advanced Gameplay
Page 33
Designing Multi-Game Arcs
Page 39
Tips for Modifying Game Rules
Page 49
Game Scenarios
Basic Gameplay If you are new to the Empathy Toy™, it’s best to start with basic gameplay and build from there. We’ve outlined a series of evolving game experiences in the following pages.
1 group: 3 – 10 players
Minimum to start
1 toy set: 10 pieces (5 light pieces + 5 dark pieces)
Choose one player to be the “Builder”, one to be the “Guide” and the rest of the group becomes the “Observer”. You, as the Facilitator, build a puzzle pattern and give it to the blindfolded Guide. Builders are given loose puzzle pieces. They must assemble the pieces to match the Guide’s pattern.
Builder
The Guide must then describe their pattern to the Builder (while blindfolded).
Guide
Observer
Observers pay close attention to gameplay. www.twentyonetoys.com
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Workshop Themes This section of the guidebook contains themes that have been piloted in a variety of workshops that have used the Empathy Toy™ as the primary facilitation tool. It should be noted, however, that the content contained on the following pages is offered as a jumping-off point. It is meant to be combined, modified, and added to based on your facilitation style and the unique needs of your participants.
Workshop Themes Collaborative Communication
Page 54
Effective Teamwork
Page 56
Building Cross-Functional Teams
Page 58
Diversity and Inclusion
Page 60
Promoting Empathic Leadership
Page 62
Leadership Skills in Your Whole Team
Page 64
Change Management
Page 66
Conflict Management
Page 68
Closing Thoughts
Page 71
“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing as building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help... If you want the people you work with to do extraordinary things, you really have to understand what they value.” - David Kelley Co-founder of IDEO
Let’s Play!
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Workshop Themes
Collaborative Communication Introduction We don’t tend to notice when our communication breaks down until we see the results of the miscommunication (for example, when misinterpreted instructions are acted upon). The Empathy Toy™ is a way of visualizing the process of communication. The goal of this session is to help participants better understand how the communication process unfolds with their colleagues so they are able to address communication issues before they lead to negative consequences.
Sample Framing Questions: 1. How do you know when you are being understood? 2. What are the common barriers to effective communication you face at work?
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Sample Framing Arguments: 1. Effective communication rests on the ability to understand the person, and not just what you are asking them to do. 2. We have a tendency to assume that our colleagues understand things the same way we do, and this affects our ability to provide effective communication.
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Recommended Game Scenarios This theme is best explored in games in which both the Builder and the Guide are blindfolded. In these games, players must work to refine their oral communication in the absence of visual cues. • •
Basic Gameplay (page 15) Multiple Builders (page 22)
It is also very helpful to play multiple games, allowing players to test and refine different communication techniques. • •
Different Games in Multiple Groups (page 30) Comparing Communication Strategies (page 40)
Tip for using these scenarios: • When playing the first round, use players who have close working relationships. This will demonstrate the fact that even colleagues who often work together can improve their communication skills.
Sample Debrief Topics Investigating the unique communication style of the players: 1. Get the players to describe their communication style. How was this style reflected in their approach to the game? To what extent did this style complement the other player’s approach?
Discussing communication challenges: 2. Describe moments in which the players had different interpretations of the same instructions. Did they discover they had different interpretations? If so, how? If they didn’t, why not? 3. How did the players help each other when they were confused?
Discussing the role of empathy in communication: 4. What did the players do to adapt their tone/language/approach to help another player better understand? What allowed those adaptations to take place? 5. What forms of non-descriptive communication did the players use (ex. Providing comfort/encouragement, cracking jokes etc...)? What effect did these types of communication have?
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