FROM DILIP MUKERJEA'S ITINERANT TOOLBOX: BRAINSTORMING

[continue from the Last Post]

Brainwriting Record Sheet

Challenge:

In what ways might we be able to . . . (e.g. reduce the high turnover in our Organisation)?


1) Write or sketch 3 ideas across the top row… one idea per box: 1A, 1B, and 1C.

2) As soon as you’ve done this, place the form in the middle of the exercise zone or pass it on to a facilitator of the session. Immediately pick up a form someone else has completed.

Don’t continue on the form you have just used.

3) If you are finishing real quick, put your form in the middle and pick up an extra blank form … Go for quantity!!! The quality will emerge soon enough.

4) Write 3 more ideas across the second row (2A, 2B, and 2C). These ideas can be your ‘originals’ or ones that have been sparked off by others in the first row.

Similarly, when you get a sheet with the top two rows completed, fill in the third row, so as to complete the sheet.

5) Eventually, everyone should have completed a form each, plus any additional blank forms, as in Step ‘3’ above.

NOTE : This exercise can be done at high speed, say within 5 minutes flat, or at a leisurely pace, with advantages to both scenarios.

Advantages of this Technique:

■ Fast;

■ Democratic ~ everyone gets to participate;

■ No loss of ‘face’ for ‘stupid’ answers;

■ Participants remain incognito ~ they do not have to reveal their names against their entries;
■ No time for criticism ~ process encourages ideation through adrenalin flow!

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for a Knowledge Economy', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]