Learning objectives :

• Mastering a variety of creative techniques to generate original and diverse ideas, going far beyond traditional brainstorming
• Knowing how to challenge and refine an idea by examining it from multiple perspectives
• Analyze a past or ongoing project to identify actionable insights
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Course :

Session 1: Generating New Ideas
Brainstorming often results in the same ideas, from the same people, in the same order. Participants will learn three techniques that overcome these group biases and help increase both the quantity and diversity of the ideas generated.

Example of a tool : The Design Studio (sketching solutions rather than describing them verbally, to unleash creativity and reduce self-censorship) + Round Robin (each participant builds on their neighbor’s idea in a loop, to collectively build upon others’ ideas) + Lotus Flower (start with a central concept and develop it into sub-ideas, then treat each sub-idea as a new concept to be developed in turn).

Case Study : Apply one or more of these techniques to a specific challenge presented by the group to generate a far greater number of ideas than a traditional brainstorming session would have produced.

Session 2: Testing and Refining Ideas
Generating ideas is good. Having a good one is better. Participants learn to subject their ideas to rigorous questioning techniques to challenge, refine, or discard them before committing resources.

Example of a tool : Crushing (adapting, modifying, or combining an existing idea to generate unexpected variations) + the Pre-mortem (imagining the project’s failure to anticipate potential problems before they arise) + Bono’s Hats (assigning each participant a specific role: facts, emotions, risks, benefits, creativity, process, to structure the discussion and prevent everyone from thinking the same way at the same time).

Case Study : Apply the three techniques to an idea from the previous section to identify its strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement before finalizing it.

Session 3: Analyzing an Idea or Project
Creativity also involves learning from what has already been done. Participants use two retrospective tools to analyze a current or past project and collectively decide what to keep, improve, or discard.

Example of a tool : The Speedboat (visualize on a single map the project’s goal, the tailwinds that accelerate it, the headwinds that slow it down, and the anchors that hold it in place) + the DAKI Retrospective (Drop: what we stop because it’s no longer useful / Add: what we add to make progress / Keep: what works and should be maintained / Improve: what we keep but improve).

Case Study : Apply the Speedboat and DAKI methods to a real team project to generate a list of concrete actions resulting from the collective analysis.