90:00 — DONE
That was ninety minutes.
Everyone made something, nobody looked at a phone, and for an hour the room ran on attention rather than seniority. Once is a very good afternoon. The rest of this page is what happens if you do it more than once.
What a session can be about
Each one picks a thing to practise, and a craft chosen to force it.
01 · Portrait sketching
Speaking up when you don't know
Everyone is visibly incompetent at the same moment and there is no correct answer to hide behind. Senior people are bad at it in front of their team, on purpose.
02 · Lino printing
Giving and taking feedback
Everyone produces a comparable artefact, then the room critiques to a set protocol. Low stakes because the work isn't their job, so the shape of the conversation gets rehearsed before it is needed on a deck.
03 · Zine making
Working across teams
One shared output with real interdependence and timing. Stations hand off to each other, so a slow station visibly stalls the room. People who only meet in Slack have to negotiate in real time.
04 · Bouquet building
Navigating disagreement
Two people, one object, genuinely different taste, and only one version can exist. The disagreement is real and the stakes are nil, which is the only safe place to practise it.
05 · Kintsugi
Sustained attention
One task, no device in the room, and a material that punishes rushing. For most teams it is the first uninterrupted hour in months, and they notice.
06 · Watercolour
Deciding under uncertainty
The material is irreversible. One cut, one pull, no undo, and incomplete information at the point of committing. Hesitating costs as much as a wrong call.
Why this one
Nobody has done this before
Everyone has been bowling. Everyone has done the escape room. Nobody arrives having already made a bowl, and that is most of the battle.
Nobody has to go anywhere
We come to your office with everything and take it away again. An away day is half a day gone once you count getting there and back; this is ninety minutes and they are at their desks afterwards.
Ninety minutes without a phone
We ask once and then leave it, because ten minutes in everyone's hands are covered and a phone stops being an option. For most teams it is the only stretch all month where not one person checks one, and they notice about twenty minutes in.
They take something home
Everyone leaves holding a thing they made. It ends up on a desk, and people ask about it for weeks, which is more than can be said for a scorecard.
You end up next to someone new
We pair people across teams and seniority rather than leaving them beside whoever they walked in with. An hour of being visibly bad at something together does more than a year of stand-ups.
Do it again and it compounds
Once is a very good afternoon. Three of them on one theme, a fortnight apart, a different craft every time so nobody becomes the expert, and each with less help than the last. That is where how they work together starts to shift.
What it costs
One afternoon, or something that sticks.
Get in touch
Tell us what you need.
£2,250 for a session, up to 20 people, anywhere in London. We reply within one working day with a date, a facilitator and the capability we'd suggest starting on.
CREDITED BACK
If you go on to a programme, the full pilot fee comes off your first month.