Spark A Brain Hurricane

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sat, 08 Jun 2019, 02:56 PM

8 How do you energize your brainstorming session? You can talk about innovation all day, egging on your team to take risks and unleash their creativity. But words alone only get you so far.

To spur bold thinking, put visual aids to work. Participants come alive when engaging in a tactile exercise such as playing with clay or modular building blocks. Others might see the world differently if they stroll around a park with a video camera, filming their surroundings while narrating what they observe.

Team leaders appreciate the power of props or crafty tools that stimulate creative thinking. The key is integrating them seamlessly into your brainstorming session.

To pick the right tools that spark innovative breakthroughs:

› Set the stage. Before introducing the group to the props you intend to use to generate imaginative insights — from party favors to color-coded index cards — lay the groundwork. Explain the goal, what’s at stake and why it matters.

“Sometimes, I see tools or supplies pushed forward like Legos and they can all come crushing down if you don’t have a well-defined problem,” said Peter Kotsonis, principal at Storyline, a consulting firm in Exeter, N.H. “The tools need to have a meaningful reason for being there.”

› Map it out. Innovation starts out sloppy. People toss around ideas in a free-form fashion, and it takes coordination to turn all the input into a coherent whole.

By creating a template that encompasses all major components of an idea, a group can see how the pieces might fit together and energize brainstorming.

“The No. 1 tool people enjoy is three-foot by four-foot canvasses,” said Curtis Lefrandt, co-author of “Innovation Capital.” “On the canvasses, they outline an activity or project. The template helps facilitate maximal outcomes to the process. Canvasses give the team structure around a certain activity.”

› Refine the idea. While there are many variations of a business model canvass, Lefrandt suggests that project leaders give sticky notes and dot stickers to the group. Instruct them to post sticky notes on the canvas that convey their thoughts or tweaks related to the larger concept. Then reconfigure their notes to uncover patterns or common threads.

From there, ask participants to place dot stickers on the canvas to vote on “their favorite solution among ideas on the table and where they want to prioritize,” adds Lefrandt, chief executive of the Innovator’s DNA, a consulting firm in Salt Lake City, Utah.

› Build from scratch. Talking about what something might look like — or how it will function — has its limitations. But constructing an actual prototype can serve as a springboard to true innovation.

In addition to using digital tools such as innovation management software, Lefrandt favors lowtech materials — from Popsicle sticks to cardboard to Styrofoam — to create a rudimentary design.

“These things help you create a model in a more visceral fashion,” he said. “You want to feel the physicality of what you’re envisioning.”

› Stand, don’t sit. Tear off a sheet of paper from a flip chart and tape it to a wall. Then urge participants to jot their ideas on it to energize brainstorming.

“You want people getting up and scribbling on the paper rather than sitting and writing on their laptops,” said Rowan Gibson, author of “The 4 Lenses of Innovation.” “It’s better to get the group on their feet.”

› Share the spotlight. Pass a baton or some other kind of object to each person in the room as a signal that it’s their turn to talk. That limits interruption and allows everyone to chime in.

“The human mind works by association,” Gibson said. “One person says one thing and that triggers another thing from someone else.”

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