"Whenever an ambulance drives past me, I know I have to be careful today!"

I remember this statement and the exercise that went as if it was yesterday. 2016 in Berlin on a gloomy Friday afternoon during my training as a change process facilitator. We were given the task of choosing a question that was currently on our minds. To then go outside. To completely clear our minds and connect with the world. “Flirt with the world, and the world will flirt with you!” was the invitation. I do not remember the question I chose, nor do I remember my attempts to flirt with the world. But the subsequent debriefing and the comment made by a fellow participant “When an ambulance passes me on the way to a workshop, I know that today I have to be careful” is still with me today.

Team and organisational development is not just about the mind, but about a holistic experience.

There are sufficient scientific studies confirming that our minds have a limited capacity for absorption and that many decisions are influenced more by our gut feelings. Whether this is a good thing or not, it is important to make team and organisational development a holistic experience. This can even include hugging trees, and in the meantime I have a fan club of managers who remember exactly such a moment out in nature. Most of the time, however, it is about enriching discussions with creative, systemic experiences to undo our limited minds for a moment.

Would you like to develop your gut instinct? The following two ideas may be helpful.

Flirt with the world and the world will flirt with you.

Do what I did back then: Choose a question. Clear your head and walk around with open eyes and a relaxed jaw, without any expectations. Observe, take in your surroundings and only then consider what signals and messages you have received. A relaxed, slightly slack jaw helps you to be particularly perceptive and not to apply a first filter.

Interpreting postcards.

If you want to stay indoors, choose a question, breathe out and draw three cards from a stack of picture postcards without looking at them first. Turn them over at the same time and, without judging, think about what these picture postcards might tell you about your question. Finally, reflect on what new insights and ideas you have gained from these postcards.

Would you like to experience a gut moment as a team? The following two approaches are easy to try out.

Building an answer with Lego

As a team, choose a question such as “Where will we be in 5 years?” or “What are our qualities?” Without thinking too much about it, build an answer to this question out of Lego in at least two groups. Interpret each other's resulting works of art and formulate assumptions about what the other group wanted to show. Then present your works of art to each other and note down the most important statements and insights to make them more tangible.

Drawing a mythical creature

Everyone has a sheet of paper and a pen in front of them. Fold the paper lengthwise into three parts to prepare. Everyone chooses an animal that best describes the team's qualities without revealing what they have chosen. Draw the top part of the selected animal on the first part of the sheet. Fold the paper and pass it to another person, but make sure that the connection point to the already drawn part of the animal is visible. Draw the middle part, pass the paper on and draw the bottom part of the animal. Pass the paper on one last time, open the sheet you have received and take turns interpreting the mythical creature in terms of the shown qualities. Then discuss how you can preserve these qualities and what additional qualities you would like to develop and how.