1The Challenge
What was the challenge?
EY GDS brought 30 senior leaders to Sri Lanka for two full days. A workshop for people this senior has to earn its ending as much as its beginning. Two days of reflection and discussion can leave a leadership group intellectually engaged but sitting apart — richer in ideas, no closer as a group. EY wanted the two days to build toward something shared, not just conclude.
2Our Solution
What solution did we design?
The Solar Fusion Challenge was placed as the closing activity precisely because it converts a workshop into a collective act. Teams assemble functioning solar lights, which are then donated to a community without reliable access to electricity — with NGO coordination handled by The Thought Bulb.
As a closer for a leadership group, it does something the earlier sessions can't. The two days build understanding; Solar Fusion turns it into a single, tangible, external output. Senior leaders who have spent two days examining how they lead end the programme by quietly doing the thing well — coordinating, dividing work, delivering a real object with a real recipient — and the result leaves the room rather than staying in a workbook. It sends people home on purpose rather than on a summary slide.
Solar Fusion closed Day Two, following Cosmic Laser, and capped a two-day arc that opened with Speed Networking, the Pyramid Challenge, and Relay Radio on Day One.
3How We Did It
How was the programme delivered?
The 30 participants worked in flexible teams to assemble their solar lights, guided by two facilitators, with each leader carrying a printed workbook across the two days in keeping with the learning-programme format.
By the time the group reached Solar Fusion, they had spent nearly two days working closely together, and the build landed as a natural culmination rather than a bolt-on. The lights were completed for donation, and the session closed the workshop on a note of shared contribution.
4Key Outcomes
What were the results?
The Solar Fusion Challenge closed EY GDS's leadership workshop with a collective act rather than a summary. Thirty senior leaders ended two days of individual reflection by building something together for a community outside the room.
For a group of senior leaders, the two days delivered both the inward work and an outward result — and sent people home having made something that mattered beyond the workshop.