OK, so my headlines tend to be a little sensational sometimes.  Not this one.

I want to share with you the absolute best, can’t-miss technique for truly breakthrough thinking I have ever used.  That sounds like a cheesy affiliate ad or something, but there’s no catch here. I am simply giving you one of my best leadership ideas.

But it gets better. This is also the best documented business case for workplace diversity I have ever seen.

Here we go …

First, you need to plan a brain-storming session with at least 10 diverse people.  Really shake up the diversity in every way you can. And the more people involved, the better. I’ve done this technique successfully with a room of 75 people. Be sure to tell them what the purpose of the meeting is and that they should come prepared with at least a few ideas.

Early in your meeting, have everybody rip off a big piece of easel paper and write their very best idea for the brainstorming topic at the top.  Make sure there is plenty of room below their idea to write additional ideas.

Now, have them go to the walls around the room, tape their idea to the wall and stand in front of it.

Have everybody slide over one space to their right so that they are standing in front of the idea next to them.  Ask the participants to read the idea written at the top carefully and then add to, or improve, the original idea and write their contribution below the first entry.

Now have everybody slide over TWO spaces — not just one!  The reason I do this is because you don’t want the same person continually following the thought process of the person in front of them. You are trying to mix up the mental frameworks.

Write a better idea based on what is on the page so far and then have everybody slide again. This time count off three spaces. Read what has been written so far and add to it or improve it once again.

Do this one more time. Slide over just one space and ask them to come up with a better idea than what has been written so far.

Now introduce a random prompt. Have everybody slide over two spaces and ask them something like:

• How could this idea be illegal?
• What would happen if this idea was invisible?
• What would you do to this idea to have people pay a hundred dollars for it?
• What would happen if this idea was in the dark, or under water?

The reason for these strange questions is to try to get your participants to look at the idea in a totally new perspective. One time I was leading a creativity session to come up with ways that consumers could interact with packaging in a new way. Once when I gave the “invisible” prompt, a housewife came up with an idea for an instant win game that made people a winner if they had the right barcode at a check-out scanner.

OK, now shift one more time. Two spaces. Ask them to read everything on the page and write one more great idea based on everything that is on the page so far.

Then have them go back to their original idea, read the entire page and circle the best idea on the page.

This is when the magic happens.  About 95% of the time, the idea they circle is NOT their original idea! In less than 15 minutes you can turn all of your good ideas into great, perhaps even break-through, ideas.

The theory behind this technique

When I was in grad school studying organizational development, I learned that our basic mental framework — how we process information — is basically complete by the time we are 15 years old.  So literally, it is impossible for you to think “out of the box” because you are permanently hard-wired.

For true break-through thinking to occur on a team, we must combine the boxes we have available. This is why the diversity of the participants is so important. You don’t want to do this where everybody is a numbers-type or creative-type or even all of a certain age or culture heritage. The more boxes you can combine and complement each other, the better the results.  Always!

Even if you are trying to solve a technical problem, invite people from marketing, accounting, HR … maybe even from another division or company all together. I’ve even conducted creativity sessions like this on behalf of a Fortune 100 company with a fifth-grade class just to see what they could come up with.

There is a tremendous secondary benefit to this technique. Notice I said it was important to do this early in your meeting. Typically, when people see the amazing work they’ve done in just 15 minutes, they are energized, engaged and confident in your process. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.

Applying this to the web

I’ve tried to apply this technique to an online setting by shuffling ideas between far-flung participants. It has not worked very well. There is something about the interaction of a boisterous group, a shared experience, the physical movement and the sense of momentum and accomplishment from the live exercise that can’t be duplicated when folks are behind computers in cubicles.

Are you ready to give it a try? I’d love to hear about it. If you have a question, feel free to call me or drop me a line. Happy brainstorming!

16 Comments

• 

  By Joey Strawn, July 13, 2010 @ 4:07 pm

  Personally I love brainstorming. It is my favorite part of any strategy because it is the only part that is truly limitless. I love the idea presented that you can’t think outside the box, but you can think within someone else’s box for new ideas. Very wise, O-Mark-san.

  I’d like to try an experiment on your blog about an experiment. I’m going to start a brainstorming idea and see if we can’t get people to improve it through your comments. Here we go:

  How could a company strategically use Twitter as their primary source of marketing?

  And………go.
• 

  By Elizabeth Sosnow, July 13, 2010 @ 7:01 pm

  Now that is an outstanding idea. I particularly love how you have folks come full circle and move beyond their original ideas.

  Can you elaborate a bit more about what happened when you tried to use it online? How did the experience differ?
• 

  By Nancy Myrland, July 13, 2010 @ 10:27 pm

  This is a GREAT post!! I am printing it out, and know I will use it as some point!

  Joey, for a company to use Twitter as its primary source of marketing, I’d like to have them first identify what they want and need to accomplish in order to provide direction.
• 

  By Mark, July 14, 2010 @ 12:05 am

  @Joey — not sure it will work this way but good luck : )

  @Elizabeth — Problems (in addition to what is listed in the post) a) too confusing to keep track of where the ideas where b) managed through email, sometimes they would stall and not be forwarded c) in general, just did not build on the energy and interaction of the live meeting.

  Maybe there is an app around that could facilitate it these days?

  @Nancy — Thanks!
• 

  By Kathy Snavely, July 14, 2010 @ 12:12 am

  I love doing this with my students, as I’m sure you do, Mark. The time flies and they’re simply amazed at the results. Great twist on the process, my friend!
• 

  By Jon Buscall, July 14, 2010 @ 4:41 am

  I love this technique too but here in Sweden it’s very hard to get people to write on other people’s work! We’re so afraid of upsetting people or even taking a position.

  When I’ve done this with students I find it helps to play loud, energetic music to get them moving. But I think this is just a cultural issue.
• 

  By Mark, July 14, 2010 @ 8:04 am

  @Kathy — Thanks for your comment!

  @Jon — Very interesting observation. I had not considered the cultural implications but of course that is important. Thanks for adding to the international diversity of the discussion!
• 

  By Steve Dodd, July 14, 2010 @ 8:20 am

  Hey, this kind of session is so much fun and you can really accomplish a lot. It most certainly works. But, I thought the most important point you made was:

  “I’ve tried to apply this technique to an online setting by shuffling ideas between far-flung participants. It has not worked very well.”

  Not to detract from your post, but since this audience is primarily focused around online communications, this is a huge distinction. And, you’ve talked about this many times in the past. Will online tools ever replace the fundamental value of personal interaction?
• 

  By Chris, July 14, 2010 @ 8:47 am

  Good idea. Useful when you are working with a team. Someone may come up with something at least a little bit useful that you can add to your own idea.

  Very useless when the ones in the team are inter-competitive, that is, they don’t want to share their idea publicly and want to privately work on it and then give it to you in your office, and do it enough times that you give him / her a raise.

  Normally I rely on myself to do all the brainstorming. I ask all these type of questions to myself to trigger the answers. When it really comes down to it, one person is really enough to do it – YOURSELF.

  If you don’t like thinking, then you shouldn’t be leading any creative project. You should love it, and if you love it, you can do it alone even if you don’t have a team.

  - Chris
• 

  By Mark, July 14, 2010 @ 8:57 am

  @Steve — That’s a good question. My instinct says “no” but who knows where the technology will lead us? I saw a demonstration where people can virtually “touch” one another. 3D technology is soaring. Holograms will follow. My heart says we need to be with people but I also see a culture of young people who are becoming more insulated and isolated from human interaction.

  @Chris — Wow, I would love to pick your brain on “self-brainstorming!” I find that to be the biggest problem being a solo-preneur — trying to brainstorm by yourself!

  Thanks to both of you for taking your precious time to contribute to this community today!
• 

  By Johnny, July 14, 2010 @ 9:52 am

  To expand on Jon’s comment above, I never would have understood it if I hadn’t left the States for Spain, but the same cultural norms more or less exist here too like Sweden.

  My take on it is that, here in Spain, people are very set on the mindset that if something works, then why change or fix it? It stems from being hard core traditionalists combined with general stubborness.

  It doesn’t mean people aren’t willing to listen to the ideas of others. Their own ideas just can’t be overwritten if favor of new ones though.
• 

  By Mark, July 14, 2010 @ 11:20 am

  @Johnny — I actually have a great story about working in Spain and watching this happen. Too long to repeat here but it ended with a VP a few weeks from retirement standing up and telling the younger people in the room that they had to change their ways, be more flexible, and adopt new ways of doing business. A beautiful moment!
• 

  By Jeremy Victor, July 23, 2010 @ 11:18 pm

  Mark,

  Once again you have improved me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You can be sure this page is bookmarked and that I will be using this technique in the future.

  Continually glad to be learning from you.

  Jeremy
• 

  By Mark, July 24, 2010 @ 9:07 am

  @Jeremy — Thanks for your kind words. Glad this was useful!

Other Links to this Post

1. DR. WHAW? – July 14, 2010 « One True Sentence — July 14, 2010 @ 10:08 am

2. This Week’s Bookmarks (weekly) « A Retrospective Saunter — July 18, 2010 @ 6:37 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment