Method Tag: mind mapping

  • 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.

  • 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?
  • Empty your brain

    Empty your brain

    Quick introduction

    The Empty Brain method is about getting everything out of your head and down on paper so that you can stop thinking about it!  It’s a method you can use everyday, or when you feel it’s needed. The empty brain method can be done in a group as well as individually.

    Purpose

    This method is helpful when you need to start up an idea session, giving your brain a fresh new sheet to start from. It can also be used as a way to structure your thoughts and tasks gathered in your mind, where the output can be a to-do list or a timeline with tasks mapped to it.

    Instructions

    The empty brain method contains 2 steps.

    Step 1. You need a sheet of paper, a pen, and a moment to sit down.

    Start by writing down everything you need to get done. Continue by writing down everything you’re thinking off, i.e. not only task related thoughts. This can take a while, but can also be fairly quick, depending on how much stuff you got spinning around in your head. When you work in group, this part of the method could preferably be done all together in a discussion, sitting around with one large piece of paper. Note the input of all participants of the group on the same paper.

    When all the ideas are written down let the paper take over the responsibility for them, so that your brain no longer have to keep track of those things.

    Step 2 is about how to organize your data.

    One way of doing this is to find the 10 most important things you need to get done immediately and focus on results. Another way is to categorize and prioritize the tasks (example themes could be: business / home / friends), map them to a time schedule as a to do or you can just store them for later on.

    Now, when it’s time to work, you can use the task-prioritization and go through the tasks one by one. When finishing, write a big line through each task after completing them!  (Satisfying!)

    Depending on how you use the method – this could also be the moment to do another Empty Brain session over the new task you have ahead.

    Do

    • Make sure to write up every little thing that comes to mind, everything from “buy bread” to “book a meeting with Mrs. X”
    • Remember it’s important to let go of things once you’ve put them on paper!

    Don’t

    • Make it to complicated!
    • Hesitate!

    Facilitator role

    If driven by a facilitator, the role is to be responsible for setting up the method for how to empty the brain. E.g. choose between mind mapping/timeline/other.

    Reflection questions

    • How was it?
    • Did you feel that this was valuable for your work? In what way?
    • Could other methods for structuring the ideas once they are on paper work better for you?