This activity helps participants to challenge silo mentalities by forcing them to work collaboratively to complete a task. The task is a painting task, in which each team (or individual) will only receive some of the colors they need to finish. In order to meet all the requirements of the task, they will have to negotiate for resources from other teams or individuals.
- Give each team (or individual, depending upon the size of your group) several colors of paint (poster paints work well).
- Teams or individuals should get different color combinations so that no one group or individual has everything that he or she needs. Recommended color combinations are:
- Team #1 – Black, white, red and yellow
- Team #2 – Black, white, blue and yellow
- Team #3 – Black, white, green and yellow
- Team #4 – Black, white, red and blue
- Give each team or individual enough paintbrushes for each team member to participate in the painting, a large sheet of paper (a flipchart works well for groups), something to mix their paint on (a piece of cardboard or a paper plate) and several small cups with water in them for rinsing the paint brush.
Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes.
Activity: 20 minutes
Debrief: 15 minutes.
- Tell participants that they are going to work in their teams to produce a work of art with the supplies that you have given them.
- To be judged successful, each team or individual must paint a picture of Noah’s Ark complete with the rainbow that was God’s promise never to flood the earth again. (You can choose another theme if you like; the only essential element is the rainbow, because it uses all the color combinations that will force the teams to break out of their silos.)
- The rainbow must be at least one-third of the picture, and it must contain all the colors of a rainbow (which can be remembered with the acronym ROYGBIV – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).
- The picture must fill the paper.
- They will have 20 minutes to complete their paintings.
- (After they begin, observe how they solve the problem of not having all the right color combinations for the rainbow. You may want to bring out your observations during the debrief. When the 20 minutes are up, have the groups answer the debrief questions below. Then, discuss their insights as a large group. Emphasize the need to share limited resources so that everyone could succeed. This is not a competitive activity.)
- How did you resolve the problem of not having enough colors to make all the colors of the rainbow?
- How willing were the other teams to share their paint with you?
- How willing were you to share your paint with them?
- Why was this difficult at times?
- How is this like sharing limited resources in the work environment?
- What could you do to make it more likely that individuals and groups would share their resources for the greater good of the organization?