What are some creative ways to incorporate art into team workshops?

In my experience presentinga workshop using simple and approachable material such as collage . Will allow the the workshop leader to introduce and foster and will be fully explored from a creative perspective during the collage-making experience, leading to increased fluency of ideas, flexibility of thinking, exploration of originality, and development of an ability to elaborate on existing concepts to support a progression in successful problem-solving. In addition, there is the potential for broadening the integration with social engagement.

While sharing feelings is important, creating art together offers another form of expression outside of the "I feel" version of communication. Offering simple ways for people to be creative together you build a third point they can collaborate on with joy - something that is unlikely to create conflict, and more likely to create a bond.

Something I've found useful in taking the pulse on an idea or a question is to use color. Ask that everyone have a red, yellow and green object nearby. Now take the temperature of the room or those appearing virtually in a Teams/Zoom setting. Ask your question, then ask all those who agree to hold up their green item, all those with questions hold up your yellow thing and finally, all those who disagree, please hold up your red object. Now you have the temperature "pulse" of your question. Proceed from there as needed. Likely starting with the yellow and questions.... it's up to you and how much time you have as to how you take it from there. This isn't art making per se, but it brings color, optics and levity to decision making.

Incorporating art-focused activity in training is one pretty easy. For example, if you ask participants to team up and visually depict a learned concept, that's always a great way to foster collaboration and team-building. List-based activities (where participants have to create a list of answers to a prompt or question) also help to inspire art-focused responses too. The team has to select one item from the list and make a visual representation of it. Another approach I use is to borrow from the design-thinking process, particularly the IDEATE phase of the process. It allows creativity & free-thought, removing limitations and barriers; urging teams to imagine ALL possibilities. It's a great way to include art-based activities.

Brainstorming, often characterized by verbal exchanges, can be enriched by incorporating art into the process. Visual brainstorming, where participants use sketches, diagrams, or mind maps to capture ideas, encourages divergent thinking and fosters a more inclusive environment. As team members contribute their artistic expressions, new perspectives emerge, and innovative solutions are more likely to surface.

In essence, effective facilitation of art activities is an art in itself. By combining meticulous planning, thoughtful facilitation, and skillful debriefing, facilitators can transform art activities into powerful tools for personal growth, team building, and organizational success.