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ideation-session
Albert Einstein, a master at great ideas, once said, "If at first the idea is not
absurd, then there is no hope for it."
Ideation sessions are critical for generating ideas and brainstorming creative and
unique solutions to some of your business's biggest challenges. If done correctly,
an ideation session can be a safe space for your team members to suggest some of
their most absurd ideas -- which, as Einstein pointed out, just might be your most
successful, as well.
→ Click here to download our free guide to hiring and training a team of all-stars
[Free Ebook].
But a productive ideation session isn't easy for a leader, or participant. A good
ideation session requires trust, creativity, openness, and a certain level of
positive energy -- none of which is easy to foster. So how can you prepare an
ideation session that enables your team members to develop their best ideas yet?
Interestingly, the group who told embarrassing stories generated 26 percent more
ideas in 15 percent more categories than the one instructed to boast about prideful
moments.
Ultimately, openness and candidness among your participants could help foster a
stronger, more creative brainstorm.
To set the tone, consider asking each participant to share an embarrassing or funny
story about themselves in the first five minutes of a brainstorm. An ice-breaker
like this could help foster openness, trust, and a sense of silliness -- which are
all critical ingredients for increased creativity.
At the end of the session or in the next session, you can refine and limit your
list. However, for now, asking participants to brainstorm a few "quality" ideas
might cause them to hold back on ideas they don't believe are worthy -- when, in
fact, those ideas might be the best ones. So it's critical you refrain from
limiting your list.
Alternatively, you might consider changing the atmosphere in which you host an
ideation session to stimulate new, fresh ideas. Consider taking your team to a
nearby restaurant or coffee shop -- along with potentially stimulating original
ideas, this method could help your team bond.
Plus, in 15-25 minutes, no one expects a team member to offer the world's greatest
idea -- the time-limit creates a more relaxed, casual atmosphere.
7. Try these ideation methods to loosen team members up and get ideas flowing.
To spark innovation and creativity, as well as team connection, you might try
implementing a fun brainstorming activity at the beginning or end of your ideation
session. Here are a few to get you started:
Pass The Parcel: Identify a problem, then have each participant write down a
ridiculous, bizarre idea that could solve that problem. Pass each piece of paper
around, and have a participant write another crazy idea based on the first idea she
receives. Then pass it again. Once a participant receives two ideas, require her to
write a potential solution based on the two ideas. Finally, share all the ideas
with the group.
Reverse Brainstorming: Identify a problem, and then ask each participant questions
like, "How can we make the problem worse?" This forces team members to firmly
understand the problem and highlight potential solutions -- for instance, let's say
you tell your team, "We're losing readers to our blog. How can we lose even more?"
Your participants might say, "We could write content that doesn't align with SEO
goals," "We could create a confusing navigation page," and, "We could create
terrible email campaigns so no one wants to subscribe." After a few minutes, you'll
see solutions come quicker than you think -- for instance, someone might say,
"Well, we could start aligning our content closer to our SEO goals, and we could
work on optimizing email."
SCAMPER: This method helps you come up with new, innovative solutions by using an
acronym to force participants to think outside-the-box.
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Originally published Nov 26, 2018 6:00:00 AM, updated November 26 2018
Topics:
Creativity
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