A quick tool for gathering and developing creative ideas for groups. Start the process by stating the issue to be ideastormed. Get everyone in the group to call out all their ideas as fast as possible, ensuring they don’t think too much about it – encourage crazy ideas too as they can inspire fresh concepts.
Select one or two note takers to write all ideas down on flip-chart paper or a whiteboard. For the initial idea generation stage, make sure there is no discussion or comments – this can come after all the ideas have been generated.
Once you have lots of ideas, time to now work in smaller groups and breakdown each idea. Give smaller teams enough time to discuss idea in detail – focusing on the negatives and positives for each idea.
Once each group has done this, bring everyone back together and discuss as one big group and start the elimination process until you have a couple of good solid ideas.
Exercise variation …
The roving ideastorm is a useful variation for teaching workshops that increases the level of active participation and gets everyone physically moving. It also allows you to think of ideas around multiple issues at once.
Organise your team into smaller groups and start each group at a different ‘station’. Once at the station, groups work on an ideastorm and move to the next station after a couple of minutes. Each station should have flipchart paper and a board pen available.
After all groups have visited every station. Get them to discuss that station and the ideas generated in detail. After this, get them to present their finding to the rest of the group in a larger discussion session.
This is an excellent tool when trying to facilitate learning, so your learners have an opportunity to think of ideas for themselves or self-discover. Eliminating the ‘chalk and talk’ method of teaching as well as ‘death by powerpoint’ makes your teaching and workshops more engaging and dynamic for everyone involved.
