Method Tag: brainstorming

  • Negative brainstorming

    Negative brainstorming

    Purpose

    This method encourages you to explore new solutions through negative thinking. This gives you new angles on plausible solutions, from using the things you thought where not useful.

    Example

    A group is tasked with finding solutions to the question ‘How could you make children and grand parents understand each other more?’ In negative brainstorming the group tries to find the worst solutions, and then transforming these into useful solutions.

    These are examples of bad solution:

    • To build a wall between old and young people.
    • To put them in two different buildings so they never meet.
    • Make a machine that really distracts the youngsters so they don’t want to spend time with the elders.

    A transformed bad solution would be:

    • Create a retirement home with a kindergarten in the middle. The elders could then come by and help when they have time.

    Facilitator role:


    The facilitator is there to give the group instructions for the brainstorming session. It is the facilitators role to make sure that the work is conducted according to rules and frameworks established by the group.

    Reflection questions

    • How was it to brainstorm on really bad solutions?
    • How can this be used in different contexts?
  • Idea Speed Dating

    Idea Speed Dating

    Purpose

    This is a great way for a group to quickly come up with many ideas and to have people build on other’s ideas. The end result is a beautiful mural of thoughts that can be used as inspiration throughout events now and in the future.

    Instructions

    • Find a table (or series of tables) that is big enough for everyone in the group to sit around. People should fit tightly, and be shoulder to shoulder along all sides.
    • Place a large roll of paper that covers the entire table.
    • Make sure that everyone has something to draw with. Try having lots of colours.
    • Have the facilitator start playing music. Each person must start writing down an idea about the topic at hand.
    • After about 2 minutes, the music should stop. Everyone should take a step to their left so they are in the position that their neighbour was previously in.
    • The music starts again, and people must now build off of their neighbour’s idea.
    • Repeat steps 5 & 6 until the whole roll of paper is covered in ideas!

    Do

    • Stay open and positive during idea generation sessions.
    • Be creative with how you represent your ideas. Drawings & prototypes are encouraged. The bigger the better.

    Don’t

    • Judge ideas during idea generation sessions.
    • Write negative comments, or cross things out.

    Facilitator role:

    The facilitator’s role is in starting & stopping the music, and making sure that people are properly moving in the right direction. The facilitator also decides when the session is over.

  • Switch it brainstorm

    Switch it brainstorm

    Brainstorming in a group can be a very effective way to come up with a lot of ideas, but the method also has many limitations and obstacles to overcome in order to generate good results:

    • everyone tries hard to make their own voice heard so that they forget to listen to each other
    • the noise makes it hard to think
    •  it is easy to implement the “yes and” verbally but it is much harder to control your body language
    • the solutions that the group come up with are very similar since they are inspired by each other
    • in the end you have a lot of ideas but they are only sparks and need a lot of development

    Purpose

    This method gives you space to come up with ideas and develop your own thoughts individually before presenting them to a group. Everyone gets a chance to make their ideas heard, you will end up with a bigger spectrum of solutions and during the meeting you will have more time to develop the ideas.

    Instructions

    This method can be used by a group of 2-6 people. It is better to keep it small, otherwise it will be hard to hear everyone out within the time frame.

    5 min: Idea generate individually.

    20 min: Get together in the group to share you ideas with each other. Everyone votes for the idea they like the best through idea voting and the best ideas are then developed together by the group through regular brainstorming.

    5 min: After the sharing and development of the best ideas is completed the group separates to further idea generate individually for 5 minutes more. You can either focus on coming up with new ideas or build on ideas from the previous sharing.

    20 min: Get together for the last time to share your individual thoughts and once again develop the ideas the group likes the best. Before finishing the meeting, write down the best ideas the group came up with to develop further in new sessions.

    If possible it can be a good idea to present the problem to the team a couple of days ahead of the workshop to give them more time to think about and develop ideas prior to the meeting.

    Because the ideas are generated individually the members wont be as biased from hearing others’ thoughts and the ideas will be more distinct from each other. When gathering in the group to share ideas everyone will have something to present and it is not only the person who talks the loudest that will be heard.

    Do

    • Present your ideas swiftly and concisely so that everyone will have time to share their own.

    Don’t

    • Come up with and share new ideas during the 20 minute sharing period.

    Example

    A group is tasked with finding solutions to the question “How could kids be encouraged to read more books?”

    After a quick gathering to go over the guidelines of the session the group splits and everyone finds their own corner where they think about solutions to the problem for 5 minutes.

    When the group gathers again everyone shares what they came up with. To present they show quick sketches they made on a piece of paper and explains it with a few sentences.

    The solutions span from anything from applications and games to interactive books and rewards. Everyone presented their ideas within 1-2 minutes and they now have 10 minutes left for voting on their favorites and develop them.

    After working as a group for 20 minutes everyone once again gets 5 minutes individually to come up with more ideas or develop the best ideas from previous sharing.

    When the 5 minutes are over the group comes together for one last 20 minute session to share their ideas and vote on their favorites. The best ideas in this round were more focused on how to reward kids for reading but also how to make them read by customizing books to fit the reader.

    Before the session is over the facilitator summarizes the best ideas for the group to make sure that everyone agrees and keeps the sketches for further development.

    Facilitator role

    The facilitator’s role is to keep track of the time and make sure that the group moves on to the next phase when it is time to do so. The facilitator also makes sure that everyone gets to present their ideas to the whole group so that no one feels left out and to summarize the result of the group’s discussions and keep the notes from the session for further development.

    Reflection questions

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

    Brain shifter

    Purpose

    Create new ideas that you never thought about before. Bonus: Laugh and have fun in your group while you learn more about yourself and the group.

    Instructions

    1. Start by putting up a large paper on a wall (at least A1 size)
    2. Get in to character by changing your mindset and try to think like another person. E.g imagine that you are a child, a lawyer, a salsa dancer or why not a superhero? The ambitious ones can also dress up as their chosen character to give extra effect to their brainstorm.
    3. Start by drawing your thoughts on the paper. Let’s say you have chosen to be a dancer, then you could for example dance salsa while you draw your ideas on the idea-mindmap. Be sure to take turns in the group.
    4. When the time runs out you should kill your darlings and select the best idea by using Idea voting.

    Do:

    • Think and play around as much as you can.
    • Use a lot of colors when you draw the mindmap.
    • Always build on the ideas of others in order to make this a crazy idea-mindmap

    Don’t:

    • Forget to challenge your comfort zone by choosing new characters.

    Timeframe

    Total time for the brainstorm will be 1 hour. A 45 minutes session with a 10 min break, 15 minutes to kill your darlings.

    During the break you need to do 5 handstand pushups times 3. Take a glass of water and start again. The purpose with this energizer is to get blood to your brain as well as helping you stay in shape.

    Facilitator role:

    Take time on actual brainstorm and to signal when it’s time for a break. The Facilitator should also bring props for the people in your group to fully get into their characters.

    Reflection questions

    • How was it?
    • Did you feel that this was valuable for your work? In what way?
  • The Lotus model

    The Lotus model

    Quick introduction

    This model keeps your idea organized by building ideas around 1 subject.

    My advice is to use this method after you have created a creative brief from your debrief, in order to know what your focus are. It can be a digital area, a word or anything else as long it works with the debrief.

    Instructions

    1. Start with an area of focus, e.g. Digital Media in the middle.

    2. Fill the center with your focus of choice.

    • Social Media
    • App
    • Interface
    • Flash mobs
    • etc.

    3. Create ideas around each individual subject. For instance – Social media.

    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Tumblr
    • etc.

    4. Choose the best areas of focus and create 8 new focus fields around this subject. The focus can become new ideas.
    5. Repeat the step until all areas are covered.

    What is interesting with this process is that you can get a tangible sense of direction from which you can create ideas. Once the lotus is unfolded you can pick out the section that is relevant for your project, and start to create a brainstorm or research session with the different focus areas.

  • Brainstorming

    Brainstorming

    Purpose

    The simplest reason to hold a brainstorming meeting is to increase the volume of possible ideas, and to also bring people together into the creative process. By distributing a problem across 5 or 10 people in a brainstorming process, in theory, you should be able to obtain a wider array of different ideas much faster than any one person could on their own.

    Instructions

    Place the group around a table. Make sure everyone have some post-its and pens. Discuss what framework or rules this brainstorming process will have. It is important that the whole group agrees and understands the boundaries and rules for the task, before you start. Then take 10 minutes to let the group individually write down their ideas and thoughts. Encourage wild ideas. When everyone is done, let each person present their ideas and put their post-its on a big wall or drawing board. If someone in the group has feedback, additions or opinions, let them make a red cross on that post it. When that person have presented their ideas, take two minutes to let the rest of the group give feedback. This method could be followed up by trying to combine different ideas or thoughts. This is how you proceed with the process:

    Do

    • Think big
    • Each idea is equally important
    • Focus on new angles
    • Allow and encourage crazy ideas.

    Don’t

    • Don’t critizise.
    • Don’t think that your ideas MUST be directly connected to your brief or problem
    • Don’t be to detailed

    Example:

    A group is trying to find a solution to the problem: How can we make school kids eat better food? They sit and talk and come up with different ideas – simple, complex, normal & crazy ones. Elaborate on each other’s ideas. Think sideways and from different angels. Some ideas might lead to a good solution that will solve the problem in a good way.

    Facilitator role:

    The facilitator is there to give the group instructions for the brainstorming session. It is the facilitators role to make sure that the work is conducted according to rules and framework established by the group.

    Reflection questions

    • How was it?
    • Do you want to change something for the next brainstorming session?
    • Did you feel that this was valuable for our project? In what way?
  • Random words!

    Random words!

    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.

    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 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?