The ideation session by nature can be a free wheeling event: ideas flowing, brains-a-stormin’ and creativity pouring forth. Yet, working without a net, the ideation session can be a very confusing affair – worse yet: a highly unproductive mish-mash. Lots of post-it notes and easel pad sheets with indistinct scribblings, but not many concrete solutions.
So while the goal might be unleashing unbridled creativity, it’s advised to meticulously plan for every eventuality – recognizing that ultimately serendipity and unexpected lightening strikes of genius are most likely to occur within well-defined spaces. A rigorous approach to ideation allows for productive detours: never straying too far afield, nor feeling bound to the illusionary safety of the well-worn path. Innovation and process, afterall, share a healthy respect for rigor with an equal contempt for falling into the trap of foolish consistency.
So, in the spirit of creative process, here are 10 strategies and tactics to help bring some discipline to the challenging area of brainstorming:
1. Pre-session homework assignment. While sometimes a “fresh brain” is best suited for the ideation process, other times we want to start to get the pump primed in advance of the actual event. In the latter cases, a pre-session assignment will get the participant thinking and engaged – and then provide a meaningful “sharing” exercise to help kick-off the festivities. A homework assignment might include a store audit, or a diary reflecting the participant’s experiences “through the eyes of the consumer.”
2. Pre-session survey. Oftentimes limited space leaves many important voices absent from the ideation process. A great way to increase inclusivity and provide a meaningful structure to the outset of the brainstorming process is to field a quick pre-session survey. The survey not only generates some pre-session anticipation/buzz, but sharing of the results at the outset of the session typically creates great excitement, spurs discussion/debate and provides meaningful insight for the ideation.
3. Focused objective. This is one of those recommendations that it so obvious that oftentimes it gets overlooked: a) state the session goals at the outset, b) keep it simple and c) keep it clear. A focused objective is critical in providing that singular beacon that the team can come back to in order to re-orient themselves when the direction of the day may get muddled. Post in the front of the room, or pass out laminated sheets – just don’t forget this simple detail.
4. Detailed agenda. Recognizing that few would venture into a full-day, or multi-day, meeting without an agenda, the key word here is “detailed.” Every key discussion, break and exercise should be well defined in terms of goals and timing. Here the facilitator must guard against fruitful – yet ultimately tangential – dialogue veering the broad goal of the session off course. The agenda will help to keep everyone from delving too deep or straying too far at time when it is most imperative that the overall movement is forward.
5. Designed Ideation Exercises. Simply keeping the group “on track” isn’t enough – the goal of a successful ideation is to make the session engaging and productive. For this, we turn to experiential, highly creative and engaging interactive ideation exercises. Working as a broad group, as mini-teams and as individuals, these tools drive ideas to push and pull concepts, approaches and inspiration. In a past edition of Cloverview we explored the specific exercise of ‘Forced Perspective’. Regardless of how many exercises you’ve planned in your agenda, it’s always smart to have a few in reserve. These ‘hip pocket’ exercises can pinch hit, supplement, or work in tandem with other exercises. Always be prepared!
6. Designed Worksheets. With exercises driving a multitude of fresh new thinking and ideas, the last thing that you’d want is to lose this precious resource of the brainstorming process – and that’s why the Worksheet is so critical. A well-designed Worksheet not only guides the team through the exercises, it helps to stimulate new thinking, and provides a clear and concise tool to organize the thoughts and ideas for retelling – both at and following the session. Consider engaging professional design resources for the Worksheets – not so much to make them aesthetically appealing, as for optimizing their functionality.
7. Stimulus. The biggest enemy of the daylong ideation is lethargy. Thinking hard, staring at words, listing to talking, trying to imagine new things for long periods of time – while certainly exciting – can also be exhausting. To guard against mental and physical fatigue it’s recommended to use as much stimuli as possible. Collage building, food tasting, music, product samples, etc., help to stimulate a range of senses – thus awakening the room and the participants. Physical stimulus does the trick as well: encourage movement by changing teams and tables at each exercise.
8. Evaluation. Certainly one of the goals of the ideation is volume. The process should ideally generate many, many of those aforementioned post-its and easel pad sheets lining the walls of the brainstorming room. So, what now? The key to an effective in-session filtering tool is to clearly identify the key success criteria at the outset of the day – that is, what are the 5-6 factors that the group should use to evaluate the creation and selection of opportunities? Reintroduce these criteria at critical times throughout the day (or even have the list available as a handout) to ensure that the team stays focused on the end game.
9. Closure. The team has, undoubtedly, worked extremely hard: giving their time, energy and ideas to make this session a success. Yet, by the end of the day, the results aren’t always quite crystal clear. The room is a mess, literally and figuratively: a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas, fragments of genius and insanity mixed with half-eaten sandwiches and scribbles on post-it notes. It isn’t a pretty sight. Provide a summation – a sense of closure – and a clarification that work still needs to be done. These fragments of ideas will still need to be developed, optimized and dimensionalized in a meaningful way.
10. Post-Session Shared Space. The brain doesn’t stop thinking even when the session ends. Creating a shared on-line space provides a place for the team to continue to ideate, but also expands the ideation to include others who might not have been able to attend. Here top ideas can also be fully developed and dimensionalized, and, as necessary, prepared for critical steps.
Too often the brainstorm is viewed as an ‘easy’ solution in the business world these days. ”With enough people and enough caffeine,” the thinking seems to go, “we’re bound to come up with something.” But trying to make a successful ideation happen without the proper set of tools not only will fail to deliver the expected results, but can also waste a lot of time and resources. The above tools can’t guarantee that you emerge your next ideation with a billion-dollar idea, but using these techniques certainly will help to ensure that you avoid many of the most common mistakes in your next session.
Illustration courtesy of oylerdp
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