2 Min Brainstorm
A useful technique to break the ice and get as many ideas on paper as possible is to do a 2 minute brainstorm. The emphasis here is on the quantity of ideas rather than the quality.
This exercise can be useful to avoid procrastination as the severe time constraint presents a sense of urgency and a boundary within which to be creative, and so is a great way to break the ice and kick start a workshop or similar.
What has been observed is that attendees try to orientate themselves to the theme or question to be solved for the first 30 seconds, followed by 90 seconds of “flow” state thinking arriving at several ideas, and then followed by 30 seconds of trying to get back to the flow state.
The more practice the group has doing this type of exercise, the more practice they have of coming up with creative ideas to problems often accessing surprisingly outlandish ideas.
Tasks
- Write up on a whiteboard or flip chart paper the theme, question or problem to be solved
- Set the timer for 2 mins and encourage the attendees to write down as many ideas as they can on the post-it notes, with one idea per post-it note
- When the timer is finished stop the group from writing anymore and begin to share back what the group has produced