I know the intent is good (it is!) but this common notion that good design is a toolbox of fun little games really prevents the design function from getting taken more seriously. In the business world at least it ensures our seat at the kid’s table.
Once a person approaches and crosses that 10,000 hour mark, they no longer struggle to articulate their motivations and needs the way that a person at the 2,000 hour mark would.
I find this type of design playbook to be very useful when the average experience in the room is on the lower end. On the upper end of the experience spectrum (30,000+ hours), I've found it tends to turn more into facilitating a group therapy session. There's still room for activities and exercises but I use them sparingly.
I should also mention that I prefer to approach the extreme ends of the experience spectrum in separate engagements.
john gleese has a great take on creativity which i believe to be a fair criticism of what happens when you take yourself too seriously in business.
One way you know you're in a cult and being manipulated is that you or someone else is being singled out as an example of someone who's unwilling to adhere to whatever ridiculous stunt they're being asked to perform. The person asking them to do it is usually a psychopath using the oldest trick in the book: The ability to manipulate people by leveraging the innate human need for approval from the group.
And it's always those with emotional intelligence who are singled out for abuse. Of course, the psychopaths running the experiment also have "high EQ" - of a very particular and malevolent sort.
Rating: Cheap trick, poorly executed. 2/5. And not nice.