Posts tagged Iiro
Mental Model Game at Hamburg
Apr 4th
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
Loads happening here – What’s up with the Monkeys?
Apr 22nd
Hiphophei,
sorry for the silence with our blog. It’s plenty of things going on in here:
Couple weeks back we started a good big project with Johanna called Apps4Finland. It’s done for Finnish Internet Democracy Association (Suomen Verkkodemokratiaseura ry) and we are the coordinators for that. A good challenge, and interesting case with a hot topic of Open Data. Also we are very happy that it climaxes in the MindTrek conference in Tampere, which is the biggest IT/Geek-conference in Finland. Nice to get involved into new spheres.
Another big thing that just kicked off is Team Mastery 3. We got 10 people on this exciting journey organized by Partus Ltd. I am coaching it together with Mimmu, with whom we have been e.g. to the SoL Global Forum in Vienna and to the Young Leader Training of Team Academy back in 2005.
Henna is right now in Iisalmi working with young aspiring students, future leaders and entrepreneurs, from various vocational schools. She is the headcoach of a 24hr entrepreneurial camp. Creating the learning environment there.
Johanna is maybe having the most fun of us all. She’s being a teampreneur for her friends who have their own commercial garden. And now it’s the busiest time of the year as the spring is here so loads of seeds to be planted. That keeps Johanna busy during the days this week. “The most important thing in life is gardening, and even that is not so important.” Old Zen wisdom goes.
Janne has been doing a learning environments with our partner Business Arena today working on the local innovation ecosystem of Central Finland.
Janna and Tatu did a journey to Kokkola last friday and Tatu has been typing fingers on fire proposals for co-operation for the regional council as well as for the univ of Applied Sciences over there. Let’s see what we can cook up.
This Saturday there’s a BarCamp in Helsinki. Me and Henna will be there of the Monkeys. Very interesting to see based on my experiences with hosting Open Spaces such as the Un-conference in Jyväskylä last Friday with Jane Porter. It was great to host a pretty revolutionary event made in co-operation between the Jyväskylä’s two universities.
Next week we have about 20 people coming from all over Europe to visit Finland. It’s a gathering of people with spark in their eyes to learn something about Systems Intelligence and how to deal with uncertain times. Very excited about this co-creational jungle trip with CoMind fellows.
I wonder what I am forgetting. Oh yes, we’ve got a new Monkey into the office. Iiro is a DJ, and about to graduate from Team Academy before the midsummer. He’s finishing now his thesis about exporting Finnish educational model into abroad. I am very honoured to get his energy and expertise into the Monkey Business. You are most welcome Iiro!
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