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"plaintext": "Most every workshop begins with a tense mood."
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"plaintext": "Sometimes it’s curiosity, sometimes it’s anxiety, and sometimes it’s the silent hum of busy people wondering why they’ve been pulled into yet another meeting."
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"plaintext": "I’ve learned that the first 10 minutes determine everything that follows. If people start tight, self-conscious, or stuck in “work mode”, collaboration becomes mechanical and the outcomes are less exciting."
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"plaintext": "Creativity demands a certain looseness — social, mental, and emotional. So before we do anything serious, I like to ask everyone to make something completely unserious: a Squiggle Bird."
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"plaintext": "It’s fast, silly, and absurd — but it works every single time by resetting the energy in the room, unlocking creative thinking, and reminding people that good ideas rarely start polished."
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"plaintext": "A birdy intervention"
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"plaintext": "Squiggle Birds is a fast fun drawing exercise I love to use at the start of workshops with stakeholders that requires creative thinking."
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"plaintext": "Each participant gets a pen and a post-it note and I ask them to quickly draw a loose and fluid squiggle. Then they must rotate the post-it note, looking for a form that feels bird-like, and then quickly add three simple elements: eyes, a beak, and legs. Nothing more."
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"plaintext": "Finally, they give their bird a name and a short backstory — what kind of bird it is and what its special ability or unique trait might be. "
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"plaintext": "Once everyone’s finished, we go around the room and share them."
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"plaintext": "The simplicity is deliberate. No skill required, no right answers. Just some silly and unexpected play."
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"plaintext": "Squiggle birds taps into a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia: our brain’s tendency to find patterns and familiar forms in noise, like seeing faces in clouds."
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"plaintext": "By looking for “the bird” within a random squiggle, participants engage the part of our minds that recognises patterns, metaphors, and stories."
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"plaintext": "The constraint of only adding eyes, a beak, and legs prevents overthinking and encourages playfulness. Everyone knows what birds look like and they're surprisingly easy to find in squiggles."
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"plaintext": "Rotating the post-it is crucial. It forces people to view something from multiple perspectives, breaking rigid thought patterns and gently opening people up to reinterpretation, curiosity, and flexibility — exactly the mindset needed for true creative work."
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"plaintext": "What begins as doodling becomes a small rehearsal for recognising possibility in what (at first) appears to be chaos."
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"plaintext": "Play as social glue and hierarchy leveller"
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"plaintext": "Workshops often bring together people from every level of an organisation — from workers to managers to C-suite execs."
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"plaintext": "Within minutes, Squiggle Birds has people laughing at their misshapen bird drawings, comical names, and silly stories. Atmospheres shift from polite formality to shared amusement."
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"plaintext": "That collective silliness is very powerful. In environments where people are used to performing competence, it gives permission to be curious, imperfect, and human. It resets the room."
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"plaintext": "Before any structured activity begins, the group has already built the foundations of some psychological safety and trust — the real and very necessary conditions for creativity to thrive."
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"plaintext": "Many of my workshops involve sketching wireframes, mapping flows and journeys, and visualising concepts. Squiggle Birds quietly sets the tone for that work: we’re not here to make art; we’re here to communicate with clarity. It provides that essential reminder that creativity is about communicating intent not precision."
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"plaintext": "The constraint (only eyes, a beak, and legs) lowers the bar on “good enough”, so that people stop polishing and start expressing."
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"plaintext": "In 10 minutes it teaches a few non-negotiables:"
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"plaintext": "Speed over neatness: we’ll move quickly, iterate, and refine together; perfection isn’t the goal."
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"plaintext": "Clarity over polish: a rough mark that others can understand beats a neat drawing that says nothing."
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"plaintext": "Visual beats verbal: short text is easily misinterpreted; a simple sketch anchors a shared understanding."
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"plaintext": "Safety to show unfinished work: the silly birds normalise imperfection: sketches feel low-stakes and collaborative."
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"plaintext": "Practically, this means that for the rest of the workshop people are comfortable making rough sketches, labelling parts, drawing arrows, and talking through intent. The bar is simple and low: can someone else grasp the idea well enough to discuss or build on it?"
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"plaintext": "Read this simple guide to run Squiggle Birds at your next workshop, or even better, get in touch with me and we can do it together."
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