Workshop Examples:
Beyond Brainstorming

Brainstorm like a Superhero

The technique is just about as simple as it sounds. Instead of a traditional brainstorming session where each one of us will throw out ideas that may or may not work, we will assume the identity of a superhero and attempt to come up with solutions to the problem that these superheroes might suggest.

 

By role-playing, this technique will allow us to step outside of our usual way of thinking, get in touch with our creativity and come up with solutions, we might never have considered before.

Brainstorming - Find wild ideas

Brainstorming is a simple 5 steps collaborative workshop that enables participants to generate, select and enrich ideas that can solve their business problem or challenge.

 

Brainwriting 6-3-5 - Write down your ideas

The brainwriting 6-3-5 is a creative collaborative workshop that encourages everyone to participate and that generate a large number of ideas in a short period of time. By sharing ideas without speaking, it enables each participant to make better ideas on all parts of the subject.

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COCD Box - Select wild ideas

Selecting ideas after an ideation session can be really dangerous because of the risk of losing the most creative ideas and get back to "safe" ideas is really high.

To avoid that trap, the COCD Box methodology, a methodology developed by the Center for Development of Creative Thinking enables to select 3 kinds of ideas:
 

• Blue ideas: ideas that are common and feasible --> NOW

• Red ideas: ideas that are original and feasible --> WOW

• Yellow ideas: ideas that are original and not (yet) feasible --> HOW

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Crawford Slip Method - A simple brainwriting

Created in the USA in the 1920s, the Crawford's Slip Writing Method is actually one of the original forms of brainwriting.

It's a creative collaborative workshop that encourages everyone to participate and that generate a large number of ideas in a short period of time.

By sharing ideas without speaking, it enables each participant to make better ideas on all parts of the subject.

 

Mood Board - Visually illustrate the overall "feel" of an idea

Mood Board is a collaborative and creative activity that will enable a team to visually represent the feel of an idea (or challenge or trend or solution) with colors, photos, collage, and drawings.

POWER - Power-up your ideas!

POWER is a tool that we will use to power-up the most appealing solution that came from our ideation session.

POWER asks five basic questions:

• Positives: What’s good about the idea? Why might it succeed?

• Objections: What are the idea’s flaws? Why might it fail?

• What else?: What else might be in the idea that hasn’t been articulated yet?

• Enhancements: How might the positives be made even stronger?

• Remedies: How might the objections be overcome?

 

By answering these questions, we will be able to come up with an improved solution.

 

This activity usually takes place during:

• The ‘Forge the Solutions’ phase of a Productive Thinking project

• The ‘Formulate Solutions’ phase of a Creative Problem Solving project

• The ‘Ideate or Prototype’ phase of a Design Thinking project

• The ‘Improve’ phase of a Six Sigma DMAIC project

• An Interactive Event, or meeting, as a way to give quick feedback after a presentation of a project or a strategy

 

Reverse brainstorming - Imagine the worst to find new solutions

Using the reverse brainstorming technique is quite simple and works much like a traditional brainstorming session.

However, unlike the traditional brainstorming, you and your team will be throwing out ways in which you could make the problem worse, or things which might contribute to the problem.

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Starbursting - Ask the good questions

Starbursting is a form of brainstorming that focuses on generating questions rather than answers.

It can be used iteratively, with further layers of questioning about the answers to the initial set of questions. In this collaborative session, we will:

• Generate questions starting by Who, Where, How, What, Why or When

• Vote for the best questions and start finding answers

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Visual brainstorming - Find inspiration by analogy

One of the main rules of brainstorming is to build on each other's contributions to create original ideas.

 

Rather than starting from scratch, it may be interesting to introduce external triggers, like images, to get people thinking in new ways and make new connections.

 

Forced connections are particularly useful when your group is blocked while trying to generate new ideas or to solve problems.

 

In this workshop, your participants will have to find concrete solutions by having two images of inspiration as a creative constraint.