Creativity Technique: Give and Get

While reading the recent Harvard Business Review article, Leadership Summits that Work, the authors introduced a technique to drive collaboration that 1. I hadn't heard of before and 2. Was actually pretty clever.

To read the complete article, click here:

https://hbr.org/2015/03/leadership-summits-that-work

Here's the process:

1. Use "Give and Get" as part of a breakout session, ideally with 30 to 60 people.

2. Label to charts, one "Give" and one "Get".  Hang them on opposite walls.

3. On each chart, each participant is assigned a column with her or her photo, name, function, business unit, and location at the top.

4.  In the "Get" column, each participant posts a card that completes this sentence:  "If I could get help in one area that would make me and my team more successful in the coming year, it would be...".    Examples of potential "Gets" include help developing a new product feature, reconfiguring a plant layout, or adjusting a customer contract."

5.  In the "Give" column, the participant completes the sentence "If I could name one area in which my team and I have developed expertise that may be useful to others in the company, it would be...."

6. After all the Give and Get cards have been posted, participants are given Post-it notes and asked to circulate around the room.  If a participant sees a get that she or someone she knows could address, she leaves a Post-it with a message about how she might be able to assist.  If she sees a Give that could be helpful, she places a posted with a message under the card.

7. After the meeting, all the Gives and Gets are recorded and distributed for follow-up.

In a variation presented in HBR, you can also trade rooms with another breakout to generate more connections.  I think if I was a participant, that would become both tedious and overwhelming, but might be worth a try.

One of the most important pieces of this process, however, is the followup.  If you don't distribute in a timely manner, or if contact information for the benefactors/recipients isn't clear, the whole process falls apart.

Worth a try!