In a previous post I wrote about how to inject creativity into strategy workshops. Now I’m going to discuss ways you can make your creative workshops more strategic. This doesn’t mean losing the energy and spontaneity required for creative sessions. It just ensures that the ideas you generate are purposeful and on brief. Here’s some suggestions on how to do this.
1 Have clear objectives upfront
During the planning phase, be clear how many ideas you’re aiming for, what the format of the idea will be and what constitutes success. Without clear goals, it’s hard to plan and deliver a successful session. If you keep the task vague, the chances are that the workshop will lack direction.
2 Separate out ‘divergent’ from ‘convergent’ thinking
The workshop will go through 2 thinking phases. It starts with divergent thinking ie ‘going out’ . This is classic ‘brainstorming’, where it’s all about generating a high volume of potential ideas without judgement. Here, you’re using creative exercises to stretch your thinking. Then you move to convergent thinking which is all about ‘going in’. This is where you narrow down your options, focusing on the good ideas and shaping them into more detailed solutions.
When running a session, always be clear on where you on in the process and spend as much time on convergent as you do on divergent thinking.
3 Use objective criteria to help judge ideas
When people come to identifying ideas to take further, they often act quickly, relying on their gut feel or intuition to guide them. This is fine, but risks bias creeping in. In addition, provide rational. objective criteria when judging ideas. For example, ease of implementation, speed to market, profit potential. Use a scoring or a rating system eg 1-5 to evaluate ideas across these criteria.
4 Have a clear structure / framework for capturing ideas
Design a bespoke template for capturing ideas - see example below. This ensures that your thinking becomes more structured and it allows you to compare ideas more easily. Create whatever format works for you, but an ideas template should:
provide an opportunity to both describe and visualise the idea
have no more than 3 or 4 boxes (otherwise it becomes a box filling exercise)
include both specific and descriptive elements
5 Ask teams to pitch their ideas
To ensure clarity of thinking and introduce an element of healthy competition to the proceedings, ask participants to ‘sell’ their ideas using all their skills of persuasion. Give each team just 30 seconds to pitch their ideas for potential funding. Offer some kind of prize or recognition for the team with the most inspiring idea.
So to summarise
Ensure your creative workshops don’t feel random and disorganised. Insert strategic dimensions to ensure the output is productive, useful, and on brief. Of course, allow space for improvisation and random meandering, but always make sure your idea-generation workshops are strategic as well as creative.