"All meetings are different, as different as the people within in them. So in our sense-making of the processes and practices that help to foster fun and engaging events, we're acutely aware of the risks of talking about a 'typical' flow of activities, as we've been doing in the first and second of these blogs. Having shared that caveat, we're going to continue! This blog looks at another stage in the progress of a workshop or event - generating and shaping ideas.
You’ve got the information out there, and you’re getting clear on your challenge and the opportunities. It’s tempting to jump straight to solutions, and stay safely in the comfort zone of the tried and tested. Striking out and taking a different pathway, into those unknown places of the imagination, where weird and wonderful ideas reside, opens out new possibilities. The best ideas have a way of appearing at funny times, and there are lots of tools to help, from the simplest brainstorming, through to the panoply of design thinking methods, such as those shared by IDEO. The key thing is to create the conditions for the unexpected to happen.
Resources
Brainstorming is one of the oldest and best known methods for generating and sharing ideas. Though as this wonderful cartoon comments, anything other than the lightest of touches in facilitating the process can be crushing!Since we’re sharing resources, this cartoon comes from the superb Rob Cottingham, who gets even more karma-points by licensing his work as creative commons."