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Brainstorming Workshops
What and why:
Brainstorming can help you break out of old patterns of
doing and thinking. In the information age you must stay
ahead of the competition. This requires more than having
good, reliable products and services. It means having
new innovations, changing with the times, and keeping
ahead of the curve, not behind it. Many individuals and
businesses do what they have been doing until that
fails, then scramble to fix it. Brainstorming can help
you get ahead of the competition by allowing you to look
into the future and seeing what you might be doing
instead of what you have always done.
Brainstorming is an activity
that encourages ideas and creativity. It an be a
catalyst for renewing the vitality of a business, for
getting unstuck, for expanding product lines and
business opportunities, and for discovering resources
and talents that you never knew were available to you.
The 2 halves of
brainstorming sessions are the brainstorming itself and
the sorting through the ideas and making a short list of
the best options. The longer brainstorming sessions use
multiple brainstorming techniques, from those most
suited to generating lots of ideas to using the best
ideas and expanding on them. Often none of the ideas
from the initial brainstorming session are on the final
short list, but the seeds of the very best start in the
initial sessions and then get combined and refined on
the later exercises.
Who for:
I facilitate Brainstorming sessions for individuals,
groups and businesses. Brainstorming sessions can be ½
day (4 hours), 1 day, or 2 day sessions. The 1 and 2 day
sessions can have the two halves separated by up to one
week to allow time for the ideas to grow and expand. The
best group size is usually 3-10 people. Larger groups
can be accommodated by breaking them into smaller groups
for the exercises then bringing them back together to
share the best ideas. I can also help individuals use
the brainstorming exercises to get unstuck or sort
through their ideas and choose the best ones to reach
their goals.
Advantages to clients:
With an outside professional facilitating the people
involved won’t feel as constricted- they won’t be
reluctant to speak their ideas from a fear of being
disapproved of by their boss or peers.
I encourage all ideas.
During the brainstorming part there is no discouragement
or filtering allowed. This is a place for ideas to flow
freely. Sometimes the best ideas spring from those that
initially seem foolish, the ones that people would
automatically filter out before they were ever spoken.
And that idea may indeed be foolish, but it will often
spark another thought, or can be combined with one or
more other ideas to be the very innovation that is most
valuable.
The participants learn new
techniques they can use for themselves later. I will
leave instructions for several techniques so you can
continue using these useful creative tools.
Discover new talents and
ideas. Participants often find ideas and talents during
brainstorming that they didn’t know they or others in
the group had. Sometimes one person will suggest an
idea, but then think that they would need a particular
skill or talent to bring that idea to fruition, only to
have another participant say, “I can do that!” Or
perhaps, “I have always wanted to learn that skill. I
would like to take on that project.”
It’s your business, and you
know what you need better than anyone else can. I just
help you look at things in a new way. If you have been
making widgets for the last 18 years, no outsider is
going to be able to tell you how to make a better
widget. If you are just starting your own business or
wanting to get better at what you do, no one else is
going to know what your own unique talents are best
suited to do. However, when you start brainstorming
something almost magical can happen. Ideas will flow and
blend, compounding one on another until there is a
gestalt of minds that can do what no one just sitting
and trying to think of a new idea could do. Often then
energy will rise and grow until someone says something
that pulls several ideas together all at once, and you
can almost hear a sigh go through the room as everyone
looks at each other and says, “Yes, that is it!”
Having a professional
facilitator for your brainstorming sessions can help
this flow of ideas, reaching a gestalt state much more
frequently by both making sure the energy and ideas
don’t get stifled at the wrong times and by keeping on
track and focused on the issues you have chosen to work
with. Without a facilitator the ideas can often get off
track, expanding into areas that you did not intend to
go. They might be good to explore later, but if there is
no framework at all then the session may never gel into
the one or two ideas that could take you where you want
to go. A good facilitator can bring the session back on
track without shutting down the flow of ideas.
Last but not least, I am a
really great troubleshooter and problem solver. As I
learn about your business I may give you some ideas you
can run with. I have an outside perspective. Some of my
ideas won’t be useable since I can’t know everything
about your business, but sometimes it just takes someone
who doesn’t know what can’t be done to suggest things
those “in the know” might overlook. I will never take
over a brainstorming session. That is not my job. But if
I see something being talked around or two ideas that
might work together, I will let you know. Then it is up
to the group whether it goes on the list or not.
The second half of the brainstorming workshop is all
about sorting through all of the ideas to find the one
or ones that might be useful. Often the best ideas are
found by combining two or more of the ideas generated
during the general brainstorming. For the 4 hour
workshop the first two hours are general brainstorming
and the second half is defining and refining the best
ideas. This timeframe works best for individuals and
small groups who have an idea what they want and need a
structured time and method to let the ideas out and sort
through them.
For the one day sessions,
the first half day is similar to the 4 hour session,
then the second half takes the best ideas and puts each
of them at the center of it’s own brainstorm to explore
the possibilities and limits to each of the ideas on the
short list. The last 2 hours are spent discussing the
actual implementation of the final results of the
brainstorming sessions.
The two day sessions expands
this out with a goal setting session to determine what
direction the brainstorming might take, two general
brainstorming sessions using different techniques, then
taking the top several ideas for more thorough
expansions. The second day is used for reviewing the
“short list” and expanding on it if anyone has had new
ideas overnight (Which is always the case, and often the
best ideas are those that have been “slept on.”) Then
comes exploring the practicality and implementation of
the best ideas. The last part is going back and seeing
which ideas fit best with the original stated goals, and
if they don’t go together which should change, the new
ideas or the goals? Sometimes the ideas are so great
that it may change the direction you choose to go. Other
times the final decision about which ideas to implement
comes down to which fits best with your goals.
Since there are so many
formats possible,
call me at (541) 687-6720 or email me
at
coaching@extraordinary101.com for more information
and pricing.
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