#3: Five tools to boost your creativity

Have you been in meetings in which the same ideas were repeated over and over again? Or have you experienced a situation in which you didn’t feel comfortable sharing your ideas with the rest of the group? Research shows that in a sample of 1500 children aged 3-5, 98% were ranked as geniuses in divergent thinking. In a control test with over 2000 adults who were 25 years or older, 2% ranked as geniuses in that respective area. In short, we’re getting less creative as we grow older. Before moving forward, let’s define first what is meant by divergent thinking. Here is a definition: “An idea generation technique (such as brainstorming) in which an idea is followed in several directions to lead to one or more new ideas, which in turn lead to still more ideas.”

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When an IBM Study asked 1500 CEOs about the most important leadership qualities over the next five years, creativity was ranked as the number one. So, if creativity is ranked as an important leadership quality, what is blocking us? Tom and David Kelley from IDEO discuss in their book Creative Confidence the urge to reclaim the ability of creating new ideas. According to their research, four fears are holding us back:

  • Fear of the messy unknown

  • Fear of being judged

  • Fear of the first step

  • Fear of losing control

I guess we are all familiar with at at least one of these fears. Creativity can be practiced and there are tools and practices which make it easier to overcome these fears. Before going into ideation, make sure to emphasize on the ideation principles before, for example: No judgment of ideas, going for quantity, ideation as a team effort bringing a mindset of “yes, and” instead of “yes, but”, encouraging crazy ideas but also staying focused on the topic. Here are five tools to increase the creativity in your next ideation session:

Apple-Drawing Ideation: The Apple-Drawing Ideation from the Hyper Island Toolkit is a great practice to get all participants warmed-up for an ideation session. The aim is to draw apples on a grid with the challenge that none of the apples can look the same. It’s a team effort and participants are working on those grids together. This quick exercise shows the principles of divergent thinking: building on each other’s ideas is key and that going for quantity is necessary in order to achieve high-quality ideas. Also, user researcher Steve Portigal describes in his book The Power of Bad Ideas the pace of idea generation: In order to come up with innovative and breakthrough ideas, you have to go through the bad ideas or low-hanging fruit ideas first.

Crazy 8’s: This practice from the Google Design Sprint Kit encourages folks to sketch eight ideas in eight minutes. The aim is to go beyond the first ideas you are coming up with and to push yourself beyond the obvious ideas. You start this exercise by folding an A4 paper into eight squares (or if working remotely, use a table in a shared document). Then, the facilitator sets the timer for eight minutes, sketch your ideas roughly. It’s called Crazy 8 because you are encouraged to go beyond your comfort zone and to come up with crazy eight ideas. I experienced that sometimes exactly these crazy ideas were then the ones which were implemented afterwards.

6-3-5 method: In contrary to the sketches of the Crazy 8, the 6-3-5 method is a brainwriting method in which you write down your ideas. 6-3-5 stands for: 6 participants, 3 ideas, 5 minutes (or sometimes also 5 iterations). However, you can also hack this tool and personalize it based on your needs (e.g. more time, less participants, etc.). This exercise really emphasizes on the “yes, and” mindset, building on the ideas of others. Here’s how it works:

  • Each participant either gets a print-out of a table or if working remotely, copies a table in a shared document (3 columns and 6 rows e.g.). Your name should be written above the table (important note for remote facilitation: all tables should be in the same shared document). 

  • Phrase the problem statement. Then, take 5 minutes per row for ideation. Come up with 3 ideas in these 5 minutes and write these 3 ideas in row 1, column 1-3. 

  • After the first 5 minutes are over, you (virtually) pass your table (meaning scroll down to the next table) to another person who builds on your ideas and adds them in the second row of the table.   

  • Heads up: You might need more time than 5 minutes for ideas 2-6 since participants also must read what was written before.  

  • Repeat this exercise until all tables are fully filled out.  

  • At the end, each person chooses the top 1-3 ideas of their original table and shares these ideas back to the team. 

Worst-case scenarios: Another ideation exercise is creating worst-case scenarios. Our brain likes cortisol which spreads negative thoughts and warns us if there’s danger, it’s our alarm system. When having a creativity block, it might be easier for participants of the session to think of all the things which could go wrong, thinking of all the worst-case scenarios our brain is preparing us for. Take the time to write down all the negative ideas. In the next step, flip those ideas, and ask yourself: “What can you do to avoid these scenarios?”

1-2-4-all : This is a brainstorming method for 4+ people and can also be done remotely via break-out rooms. Here are the four steps:

  • 1 min: Brainstorming alone and silently

  • 2 min: Generating ideas in pairs 

  • 4 min: 2 pairs are sharing their ideas to each other and are developing a new idea

  • All: Groups of 4 share back their favorite idea to the whole group 

I hope these tools will help you in your next ideation session. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously. Also, bringing snacks to an ideation session is usually very welcome as well. I am looking forward to your feedback and I am curious to hear about your go-to practices for your ideation sessions.

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#4: Three facilitation tools for your next virtual meeting

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#2: Five ways to make meetings more productive