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8 tips to design your next brainstorm

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I spent the majority of my day at a company offsite today. Picture a room with 25-30 well meaning executives at a large organization. The topic of discussion – how do we win more customers in an increasingly competitive environment where we are already a market leader? The day invariably kicks off with context setting and numbers – what did we commit to, where are we today and how far do we need to go – followed by break out sessions to brainstorm ideas. As the day went on, I took on the role of corporate ethnographer (as I often do) and stepped out of body to observe the room. What did I see?

Facilitators of ideation

  • Cross functional – multidisciplinary teams. Creating the setting for openness and multiple perspective is critical. To set this up for success, there needs to be some teaming or common goal setting …see next
  • Setting the stage. People need to know why they are there, the goals of the day and what we want to walk out of the day(s) with. This helps to structure mindset and also develop guardrails and openness to new ideas
  • Ice breakers to get everyone speaking. This is for all teams whether they know each other or not. An important aspect of ideation is trusting the people you’re ideating with so you can feel open to speak. This is very difficult in multi-team environments where people may be worried about post session impacts
  • Feeding and hydrating participants. This is a given. Hungry and thirsty people don’t ideation very well.

Blocks to ideation

  • A lack of insights or stimulus. This is by far the most important ingredient to ideation. In conjunction with prompts and solid activity structure, insights help to provide aha moments and starters to ideation. Stimuli – via examples or new mental models put participants in different frames of mind to open the door to ideation. Without these, there is a natural reliance on falling back to 1/n=1 experiences and 2/ideas that are comfortable and likely already brought up in previous brainstorms.
  • Flat and unfocused facilitators. Choosing who runs these sessions is critical. Part smarts, part energy and the ability to coax teams to action is important. Facilitators also need to have the confidence to guide sr. leaders and push back. The mark of unskilled or inexperienced facilitators is runaway conversations
  • Topics that are too broad or too specific. Developing working sessions is an art. Landing on the right level of specificity on a topic is as important as the topic itself. Too broad and teams will feel like they are boiling the ocean and won’t land in action. Too specific and the ideas end up being narrow.
  • Too many participants. Today was a clear example of many strong voices vying for airtime. The result was a lot of discussion and talking but without much depth. Fewer people run in a series of brainstorms would have yielded richer and more focused ideas

If you’ve experienced a well facilitated session, you exit feeling energized, filled with ambition and a drive to get things done. In a session that isn’t as well done, participants often come out exhausted, unclear and ambivalent.

Working sessions are a great way to achieve ambitious goals. Time is the scarce resource none of us have in abundance Make the most of it with your leaders, peers and teams through thoughtfully designed and delivered offsite and brainstorms.

How to define what’s important to your organization

Objective Co.Leave a comment

In the world of organizational strategy,  brand and employee experience, companies trying to figure out who they are can be an infinite loop. Between strategy, vision, mission, purpose, values, principles, culture, models and many more,  where does a leader even begin? Let’s start with definitions  (Source: adapted from Google).

  • Strategy: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim
  • Mission: a strongly felt aim, ambition, or calling
  • Vision: the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom
  • Purpose: the reason for which something is done, created or for which it exists
  • Principles: a fundamental attribute determining the nature of something; an essence
  • Values: principles or standards of behaviour;  judgment of what is important in life
  • Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a group
  • Model: a system or thing used as an example to follow or imitate

Looking at this list, a picture of a Venn diagram is beginning to emerge where Purpose overlaps with Mission, Strategy with Vision, Principles with Values (it has the world principles in it for crying out loud). And culture – well culture is just a part of everything so it’s the ultimate container. So – why do organizations feel like they need to check all the boxes and create bodies of work behind each of these? The answer is – they don’t and shouldn’t.

As we define the companies we build and lead, we need focus on what matters – the core and content in how we deliver on how we show up day to day. Let’s get back to the fundamentals of  Why (Purpose / Mission), What (Strategy  / Vision) and How (Culture / Values / Principles). Use whatever label you like,  but keep it to 3 and have each one clearly defined so they can be easily communicated and delivered.

Personally like using Purpose, Strategy and Culture to describe the big O (overall organization) and principles to get to specificity.

Building and momentum

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Yesterday I wrote about the behaviour behind streaks. Today, a similar topic on momentum and positive fly wheels. I’ve been working over the past 9 months on a new initiative. One which requires alignment of many many … did I say many … stakeholders. Over this time, it’s been a roller coaster of highs ( we’re getting somewhere! ) and lows ( we’re just talking in circles without direction ). In the last two weeks alone, there have been multiple cycles and loops.

This week though, something has changed. The energy has shifted and the air smells different. The initiative has carved out a foothold. The right instigations, right time, right place, right context – everyone has gotten on the train.

That’s the power of momentum when building something. You need the small wins to fuel the big wins (we’re not there yet) grounded in the grind. There is so much in the foundational set up for success. We need to align people, align problems, align intentions … and all of that alignment takes time.

I didn’t truly understand the time it takes until literally this moment. But once the ball gets rolling it gathers momentum and continues down it’s path. This is the double edged momentum sword. If it’s not going down the right hill,  the sheer energy it takes to bring it back can be crippling. Once you get it going on the right path – that’s when the magic happens. So what is your the rolling rock you will use build the next game changing product or service.