Random words!

To associate your thoughts with different words is a effective tool to improve your ideas. This method helps you shift and change perspectives. To develop thoughts or already existing ideas further, it is often effective to associate them with another element, like words, articles or stories. This method encourage your imagination to create different perspectives and new angels on your idea or the problem you are facing.

Purpose

This method encourages your imagination to create different perspectives and new angles on your idea or the problem you are facing.

Instructions

Prepare with a lot of different random words, short stories or tweets. Sit together around a table and show one word, tweet or story for 1 minute. During that one minute, each member in the group writes whatever he or she associates with the word, tweet or story on post-its. The outcome should be as many crazy associations as possible. If the team gets stuck – change word, tweet or story. Continue this process until you feel that you have enough associations. This method could be followed up by trying to combine your associations with your already existing idea or trying to come up with new ones. Read about how to proceed with the process here. (LÄNK)

Do

Think big
Write the first things that come to your mind
Think the opposite
Use a lot of different random words, tweets or stories, preferably that have nothing to do with you idea, problem or focus questions.

Don’t

Stay to long at one word. If you get stuck, just change.

Example

A group is tasked with finding solutions to the question “How could kids be encouraged to play more outside?” Random words are used to associate to the question. How could the word “pillow” be related to that?

These are examples of outcomes

You produce a giant pillow that the kids can play on outside. When they get tired they can take a nap.
You give kids pillows so that they can have pillow fights.
You put the kids indoor toys in a pillow so the have to build a “koja”.

The new ideas can be related in many ways. Around meenings, memories, smells, think big, small, quantity. Relate both close and distant.

Facilitator’s role

The facilitator is there to give the group instructions for the task. The facilitator is responsible to change word, tweet or story when the group needs it to be changed. The facilitator’s role is to inspire the group members to think big and wild and to present/follow the do’s and dont’s.

Reflection questions

How was it?
Did you feel that this was valuable for our project?