Mind Meld: See the Tree from the Forest

One of the world’s favorite game is Mind Meld, despite everyone having their own name for it. Some call it Convergence, some call it Collision. Some call it Mind Melt (with a “T”), which accidentally works better because now I’m thinking of our brains melting into goop and making a group stew.

Mind Meld is the game where one person thinks of a secret word (“apple”); another person has a secret word (“machine”); then both say “1–2- (apple!)/(machine!)”. The next round, two more people think of a secret word that connects apple and machine (“juicer!”, “iPhone!”).
If they hit the same word, they do a victory dance:
 — It is a mind meld!
 — It is a mind meld!
 — It happens all the time!
 — It happens all the time!*

I’m not saying there’s one right way of doing Mind Meld. But I do believe all exercises have a spirit of playing that makes their teaching points more effective.

THE CLOSE CALL.

Sometimes we get very close but don’t hit the exact same word, and this happens for a succession of rounds. For instance:

1. Mouse! / Santa Claus!
2. Hole! / Reindeer!
3. Chimney! / Sweden!
4. Fireplace! / IKEA!
5. Carpenter! / Pencil!
6. Hammer! / Comics!
7. THOR! / MARVEL! 👈
8. Hulk! / Iron Man!
9. Avengers! / Black Panther!
10. Vision! / Dr. Strange!
11. Captain America! / Captain Marvel!
12. …

Did you see? On Round 7, the rhythm changed. The players realized that they had hit on the same idea (“Marvel Superhero Comics”), and they start listing characters in The Marvel universe. But they can’t hit the Mind Meld because they are chasing each other’s tails, like ouroboros.

The Downside: At this point, you’ll notice the game slowing down and players are not playing as freely. Players get tentative because it’s so close — they don’t want to spoil this connection! They start hesitating or get frustrated. They get precious.

Why: This happens because they are TOO close. There are way too many possible connections. For example:

• Iron Man + Hulk (1 concept) are connected through many things: Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, …
• God + Hammer (2 concepts) are connected through one obvious thing. You’re already thinking of it. THOR.

It’s like when you are in the same forest, there are too many trees… you can’t find the same tree.

Remedy: What you can do, is to move OUT of the forest. When you are farther apart, the connection becomes more unique.

it’s hard to find the same tree.
sometimes you need to step into another forest…
…to find the common tree

(Absence make the connection go stronger?)

As a note, never be afraid to move away. There are exercises for foraging around an idea and world building (I Am A Tree, Scene Painting, Word Association are). But Mind Meld isn’t that. Mind Meld is an exercise to teach us to be alert and random connections happen at seemingly improbable times.

Plus, we are training ourselves not to get frustrated, but to back up (acknowledge we failed) and try again. We train ourselves not to be precious. And we build confidence, that another opportunity will come. Another scene will come.

And when/if it does hit, boy oh boy the connection will be more genuine and be a bigger cause for celebration. And we are living true to the words of the victory dance.

— It is a mind meld!
— It is a mind meld!
— It happens all the time!
— It happens all the time!*