BREAK TRADITION with IDEA SPARKING STIMULUS

Ideas don’t just happen. They are sparked by something, someone, some intriguing element that makes us say hmmmmmm?  This “hmmmm” indicates that we’re engaged, and then given the time to talk about and interact with it, we can transform that stimulus into a great idea.  To make your session rock, infuse it with thought-provoking stimulus that will inspire and stretch your team to take pause and consider things quite a bit differently.

As intuitive and simple as this may sound, we find that creating this stimulus is one of the most significant challenges our clients face…because it is not what most folks are asked to do in everyday business life.  It requires going beyond the norm of traditional presentations and stretching to create something that will provoke interest, enthusiasm and excitement.

Here is a snapshot highlighting the difference between creating a presentation versus creating stimulus to inspire idea creation.

PRESENTATION A formal talk made to a group of people to share and inform.	STIMULUS A catalyst for ideation fueling fresh connections and creativity. It provokes interest, enthusiasm and excitement.
Most often powerpoint – most often boring, very often overwhelming	Multi-media – stories, objects, visuals, games, roleplays, video, metaphors, simple graphic posters
Passive	Active – engages the audience’s mind, body and soul
Comprehensive, often too long. Includes all the DATA and mucky details.	Condensed to the true essence, a short burst. The heart of it is revealed with all the extraneous “stuff” sifted through and detangled for participants.    What is shared is KNOWLEDGE…not data.
Purpose: To Inform	Purpose: To Inspire  (provides or provokes a question, sparks a conversation, ignites fresh perspective, challenges norms…)
Often the materials are actually repurposed from another presentation.	Designed with specific ideation outcomes in mind
Afterwards:  often a blur, the data is forgotten, the message unclear.	Afterwards:  because of the connections, and interaction with the stimulus, the essence “sticks”
Often-disparate pieces with no clear flow or connection to outcome.	Links to the outcomes are explicit.

In preparing for an ideation, sometimes we find our clients pouring their energy into compiling a presentation (or multiple presentations) to help make sure everyone has all the information they need to make smart decisions. And while there certainly is value in creating foundational knowledge, too much can actually detract from your success if the session becomes more about presentations than creating ideas!  When this happens, the team becomes mired in depths of data – while creativity gets lost in the weeds.

To address this challenge and spark the fires of creativity, we recommend flipping that ratio by putting away that PowerPoint application and focusing your prep energy on creating short “refreshing stimulus sparks”.  Rather than sharing everything you know about the topic, set your sharing goal to 15-20 minutes or less per major topic theme and open up the rest of the time for your team to actually “work with it” to deepen understanding, make new connections, create starter ideas and optimize the best!

Brainstorming for Dummies – It’s Time for a Rewrite!

Somewhere along the way in the world of business, brainstorming has gotten a bad name.  We see it in the media with humorous ads capturing the art of brainstorming as anything BUT creative and a frivolous waste of time.   Check out this Air Tran commercial as a prime example! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmq1MKN1arc).

It goes without saying, that we’ve all participated in our fair share of bad brainstorms. We’ve been in those sessions where you find a soap-box fanatic (gotta say everything I know), passive-aggressive resistors (who don’t complain, but refuse to engage), where we experience near-death by powerpoint, and where the same-old-same-old ideas are “re-created” and captured as brand new. What’s the deal? It seems as though there are a mysterious set of rules outlined in an “Brainstorming for Dummies” guidebook that are blindly being followed in a quest (a dire need really) to create compelling new ideas.

Here are just a few that we might find on the list…

Brainstorming for Dummies (excerpt)…

1. Intensive Data Download: Before creating ideas, make sure to download all the bits and pieces that make up the bigger picture so everyone has intimate knowledge of all facets of the challenge at hand.
2. Power in Numbers: Work as one BIG group to make sure everyone hears and contributes on everything
3. Be Efficient! Just jump right in and let the ideas fly!  Put the question out there and brainstorm possibilities – after all that is why the group is together.

On the surface, these actually might sound like decent enough rules to support creativity. Yet if we probe a bit deeper we find how they actually have quite the opposite effect.

1. Intensive Data Download: Ensuring that the folks in the room share some critical understanding and foundational knowledge is indeed a good thing. Yet, as we all know, too much of a good thing can be bad. A day of presentations followed by a quick brainstorm is not conducive to fresh new ideas.  It is time to replace the long drawn out sharing and make it a quick stimulus spark (a burst of inspiration) and then give people the time to roll up their sleeves and work with it in creative ways.
2. Power in Numbers: This is true, but it’s how we maximize the numbers that makes all the difference. Rather than working as a big group all the time, there is actually more power in breaking into small-but- mighty teams of 3-4 people so that everyone has the chance to connect and contribute. There is energy in smaller team sizes as people engage and take on a more active role and ownership in what is created. The beauty of it is also that each small team will approach the challenge differently and come at it with unique points of view so that you create a wider span of creative ideas.
3. Be Efficient: While we understand in today’s schedule-crunched world the pressure to do things quickly is mounting, the truth is… creativity takes time. It is an iterative process of exploration, inspired by provocative stimulus…in which we connect in with the challenge from different perspectives that break us out of our usual paradigms and opens up fresh possibilities. And when you think about the stakes at hand…ideas to support a major new launch, solutions to a tough challenge, ideas to support a new strategic direction…you will likely find this investment to be very well worth it!

In the name of true creativity, we proudly proclaim that at Sparxx we break all these rules and more with a unique approach we call Kaleidoscoping!  If your standard brainstorming practices need some re-writing as well, let us know, we would love to be a partner in crime in your rebellious and amazing creation!