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Powerful framework for problem solving

3/27/2017

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Problem solving is a common training topic. It is also often “hidden” beneath other topics, such as team building or conflict management. And even more often, it is something that many trainers need to use in everyday life to deal with any issues that arise.
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One of the great frameworks for problem solving comes from NLP. This framework does not focus so much on the steps of working on a problem, but instead it deals with changing the perspective with which one is seeing the problem, its causes and possibilities for solutions.
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Trainers Toolbox team hopes you will find these five problem-solving frames valuable, practical and powerful!
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About authors of the article
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Eva Simona Kulenović
A psychologist by trade and organization enthusiast by nature, Eva's mission and hope is to help others bring more color, play and joy into their everyday lives. In this quest she draws inspiration from her experience working in higher education, managing the HR department of an IT company and delivering youth trainings.

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Mirna Šmidt 
Founder of Trainers Toolbox, trainer passionate about learning,  getting things done, creating great training content and delivering it in an enthusiastic and energetic way.  Being trainer since 2008, Mirna developed rich knowledge in positive psychology, NLP, evidence based training, coaching, and many other innovative trainer's tools and techniques. ​​Next to Trainers Toolbox, she is also running Happiness Academy. Read more about Mirna at www.mirnasmidt.com. 

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TwentyOne Toys - Toy for Empathy

1/12/2017

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My adventure with the empathy toys started by a TEDx video; one during which Ilana Ben-Ari presented the outcomes of a school project which turned into a business idea.

The original assignment was: design a navigational aid for the blind and how a visually impaired person might get others to help them answer them. By making the toys, they realised that from a tool meant to engage conversation and bridge blind and sighted folks, they actually created a learning tool designed for people of almost any ability and age, as well as a facilitation tool for workplaces of every shape and size.

Toy for empathy, from TwentyOneToys, is a blindfolded puzzle game that can only be solved when players learn to understand each other. The company elaborated guidebooks to help game masters, facilitators, to carry on the activity ensuring participants would get the maximum out of the experience.

For students, the games proposed are designed to reveal the relationship between empathy, creativity, and learning. For organisation, it’s a toolset which generates discussion about the role of empathy and communication in the workplace. They expected insights’ domains are in creative dialogue, teamwork & collaboration, making connection, improved performance, and more authentic interpersonal communication.

About incorporation in training, it's a communication game by excellence. For trainers, it’s a great tool to use in a classroom. I personally used them as: 
  • get-to-know activity: a moment during which some participants were invited to put themselves, even for few minutes, in other person’s shoes;
  • Connection enhancer: one of the benefit of the activity is that eventually people succeed. So by removing time constraint, you encourage participants to communicate on a good enough level for them to succeed in communicating;
  • Knowledge transfer practice: how to communicate what you know to someone else. I tweaked a bit the rules, giving more time for the one having the information to prepare how s/he would transmit it to the other side;
  • Communication practice: by enforcing the time pressure, the participants had to master their communication skills to ensure the task would be successfully done;

This could be used on Conflict solving, Innovation, Intercultural communication, Emotional Intelligence to name a few from their manual for organisations. One can adjust the rules according to the point s/he wants to make. 

I used my set on trains, busses, Leadership Summer School, YTA and other NGO events. Of course, the key to all the game lies in the debriefing, when participants extract their own learning from the experience. It is quick enough to be able to repeat the experience and most of the times, the second time happened to be significantly better than the first.

Here is a video from 2013:
I have been lucky enough to be in touch with the TwentyOne Toys team, providing feedback at the launch of the product. We also discussed elements such the advantage or not of playing in mother language and other findings. They are pretty cool fellows.

You can find more details about the tools here: http://empathytoy.com/
About author of the article
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Herve is  an IT Development Engineer, Life Coach and Freelance Trainer with broad experience in managing IT technical projects, strategic development and organisational transformation initiatives in international environment.

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    Trainers Toolbox

    Mirna , initiator of Trainers Toolbox, is a trainer in love with training tools and innovative games, positive psychology, NLP, and everything that makes learning more impactful and engaging. 

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