Try our simulation: The Balloon Effect™ [BETA]
Overview
Imagine you are in a group setting and you have an idea. Maybe it is not even a group setting but, rather, you are just with one other person. You get excited about the idea and share it. Will it be received with 'wow, that's a great idea' or 'hmm, that's interesting, can you tell me more' or will it be met with 'that won't work,' 'that's a dumb idea,' or other phrases that, in an instant, pop your balloon. All of your energy and enthusiasm crushed in less than a second and, instead of moving to 'yes and' world, you suddenly find yourself in a 'yeah but' world. The idea is doomed. The goal of the simulation The goal of this simulation is for the user to experience how much energy (and even courage) it can take to share an idea versus the energy it takes pop someone's balloon. You will use your spacebar on your keyboard or a button on your mobile device to blow up a balloon. You will also have the opportunity to take a pin and pop someone else's balloon. In both cases our goal is for your to feel the impact that The Balloon Effect has on innovation and, more importantly, on people. Reflection questions after you go through the simulation 1. How did it feel to have your balloon popped? 2. How did it feel when you popped the balloon? What did you think of the expression on the character's face? 3. Which took more effort: blowing up the balloon or popping the balloon? How does this relate to sharing an idea and reacting to ideas? 4. Have you ever seen this type of experience happen at work, home, school, on TV, or other environment? How do you think it affects the person who shared the idea? How about the overall work or school environment? 5. Imagine you had to keep playing the first part of this simulation over and over and over, i.e. you keep blowing up balloons and they are constantly popped. Would you want to keep playing? How does this relate to people and their willingness to share ideas based on the environment or culture of their workplace, school, or home? 6. Imagine you were new to a company and you saw a coworker share idea that was immediately popped by your boss. Your boss then looks at you and asks, 'do you have any ideas?' What would you say? 7. What do you take away as the overall lesson from this activity as it relates to innovation and, more specifically, how it impacts the overall culture of a company? |
Note: You must use the latest version of either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to play via the web. Apps for playing on a mobile device are available by clicking on the icons below. If you need to download Chrome or Firefox you can do so by clicking on the respective icon.
It may take about 10 seconds for the game to load if you are playing via the web depending on download speeds. |