🐴 Building the Future—One Giant Puppet at a TimeBlog Post Title Four

We started with 15 strangers.
A dusty barn.
Some plywood.
And a wild question: What if we built a Giant Puppet together in five days?

Thanks to the Stanford Creative Design Thinking process—and a heap of courage—we did just that.

💭 From Idea to Horse Puppet (in Five Days Flat)

Design thinking taught us to empathize, prototype, and iterate. But the biggest challenge wasn’t tools or time. It was trust.

When you’re building something from scratch—especially something strange, joyful, and massive—you have to get honest, fast. About what you know. What you don’t. What’s not working. What might.

It’s not just engineering.
It’s emotional architecture.
You’re not just cutting cardboard.
You’re cutting through fear.

🧠 Real-Time Creation = Real-Time Transformation

Design thinking only works when you respond to what’s really in front of you.
Not the perfect plan.
Not the ideal team.
Not the fantasy version of yourself.
But this team. This moment. This day.

Imagination meets execution in real time.
And suddenly, something magical happens:
A group of strangers becomes a crew.
A sketch becomes a skeleton.
A barn becomes a theater.

And five days later?
We weren’t just builders.
We were believers. In each other. In what’s possible.
In a puppet horse with a six-foot wingspan and a lot of heart.

🌎 A Puppet Isn’t Just a Puppet

When we opened the barn doors and invited the community in to see what we’d made, folks didn’t just see wood and wire.

They saw a future.

They saw 15 people who didn’t know each other last week, now cheering each other on.
They saw joy. Risk. Grit.
They saw social repair in motion.

🧵 Because the Future Isn’t Built Alone

We believe that creativity is more than a luxury.
It’s a form of leadership.
It’s a way of listening.
And it’s the only way we’re going to build something better—together.

This summer at BarndosOnly, we’re not just training Fellows.
We’re rehearsing a new way of living, working, and trusting again.

And sometimes? That starts with a Giant Puppet.

Want to join us at the next build, brainstorm, or barn-raising?
Follow along. Or better yet—grab a glue gun. We’ve got work to do.
And trust to build.