Insights

AI Tools Exist to Boost Team Performance
Brandon Wetzstein Brandon Wetzstein

AI Tools Exist to Boost Team Performance

As we get more and more tools to improve efficiency and communication, it will become even more important for organizations to figure out how to empower teams to work together at their best. This is no easy task, especially in the face of more challenging ways of working; remote, hybrid, and distributed. My hypothesis is that the most important skills to build right now are people skills. The capacity to collaborate, innovate, and create together is where the true value will be in the coming years.

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Does Your Team Have an Air Sandwich Communication Challenge?
Brandon Wetzstein Brandon Wetzstein

Does Your Team Have an Air Sandwich Communication Challenge?

One of the biggest challenges that compounds the air sandwich effect is the level of domain expertise from a hierarchy lens. As leaders look at the forest, and operational staff looks at the trees. Someone has to figure out the transition between the two. The best fix? Finding common ground through empathy and understanding. True understanding from all levels allows for everyone to seek win-win scenarios because success is defined clearly for all.

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Joyful Team Building: The Inward Smile
Brandon Wetzstein Brandon Wetzstein

Joyful Team Building: The Inward Smile

When people receive, unwrap and start handling their own LEGO story building kit, there is this smile that appears on people's faces. Sometimes its big, sometimes small. But it's personal, for them. Like they've been brought back in time. They are sitting on the edge of play and there is this excitement and joy - not to a level of exuberance, but a more patient and expectant smile.

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How LEGO Serious Play is like Reese’s Pieces for Team Development
Brandon Wetzstein Brandon Wetzstein

How LEGO Serious Play is like Reese’s Pieces for Team Development

Some of the major challenges in group dynamics are the speed, pace, and focus of the individuals and group. This is why facilitated sessions are so valuable as they get people focused and paced similarly.  For us at IN8 Create, we love using LEGO Serious Play as our primary method. Like Reese's Pieces, It breaks down the session into bite sized rewarding segments.  I purposely use the term rewarding because for each challenge question, participants get to create a LEGO model and a story that's tied to it. 

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The Top 5 Commonalities That Arise From Our Team Building Events
Brandon Wetzstein Brandon Wetzstein

The Top 5 Commonalities That Arise From Our Team Building Events

Here are the five most popular commonalities that arise in our team buidling sessions:1. Pets - People LOVE their pets, and honestly like sharing info about them.2. Kids - Same as above3. Hobbies - Sports? Cooking? Interior Decoration? Yes! 4. Musical Instruments - I separated from hobbies as this group has a certain respect for one another 5. Vacations and Travel - Who doesn't love a good vacation?

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