Want a more effective way to generate ideas? Take a page out of improv. While brainstorming is a known technique for idea generation, it often falls flat because
1. Groupthink: Participants might conform to dominant ideas, suppressing unique perspectives and innovative solutions.
2. Dominant Voices: Louder or more assertive individuals may overshadow quieter participants, leading to an unbalanced contribution of ideas.
3. Evaluation Anxiety: Fear of judgment can inhibit participants from sharing unconventional or “out-there” ideas, limiting creativity.
If you’re looking for fresh ideas to problem solving, take a cue from improv and do this instead.
Break your group into tables of 6-8 people, depending on the number of people participating. More than 8 people per table makes it difficult to iterate. I find 6 is a sweet spot. If your group is 7 or less people, don’t break it up. Go with one group.
1. Briefly discuss with your group the problem with which you’d like help.
2. Give each person a 5 x 8 notecard.
3. Give people 3-4 minutes to think about the problem.
4. Each person writes down one solution to the problem, in two sentences or less. 5. Each person then passes their own notecard to their left.
6. Next to each solution offered, each person now writes Yes, and + 1 refining detail to strengthen that idea.
Repeat until everyone gets their original notecard back.
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