Inspiring Thinking Across Different Topics and Categories
At ITG, we create a custom design for every workshop we do, always based on our clients’ challenges, objectives, personalities, and categories of business. And while this is absolutely true, we often follow the same process framework to get the best results, which is based on the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving model of divergent and then convergent thinking. In other words, generate a lot of content first and then prioritize and develop the best stuff. So if the process is usually more or less the same, what changes?
1) The People in the Room.
This is the most important variable, hands down. When we recruit from our collective of Creative Consumers® associates, we first and foremost look for people who are engaged in the category or topic. We also consider if someone might have a certain skill that could lend itself to the topic. For example, for a communications workshop where the goal is to generate lots of language building blocks, we would bring in a couple of CCs who are playwrights or journalists. We also sometimes include topical experts in workshops to help groups think about the topic through different lenses. My favorite example of this is from a facial hair care workshop: we had a sculptor speak to the group and it was highly inspiring!
To see our what our Creative Consumers® associates are like, check out how they stay creative in their home environments:
2) The Room the People are In.
After the people, the next opportunity for big inspo is the space. Whenever possible, we try to find a space that is not only engaging, but also somehow topically connected to the work. Once we did part of an ideation on a hiking trail in Austin. Once we cooked a Thanksgiving dinner in a mansion in New Orleans. Once we ideated on a sound stage in Atlanta. Once we held a workshop on a lavender and alpaca farm in NJ.
ITG stands for Ideas To Go and we are always going someplace really fun. Don’t you want to come, too?
BTW, the topics for these locations were streaming video service, boxed food mixes, laundry products and functional beverages. I’ll let you figure out which was where.
3) The Activities the People Do.
The play is cast and the stage is set, now we need a script. There are two components in our innovation workshops that very rarely change: we always give the Creative Consumers® associates a series of exercises to complete in preparation for the workshop and we always do a few to several inspirational exercises during the workshop itself. What DOES change is the exercises themselves.
If food is involved, we love to get ingredients and let everyone play around and experiment with ingredients. If we are in a city like NYC, Chicago, San Francisco or Seattle where we can be in a neighborhood with a lot of inspo within walking distance, we love to use that and send the group out on a walking excursion. Props or costumes? Sometimes!
We also are careful to mix formats, so some activities are language oriented like poetry and word games while other activities are kinetic in nature and involve doing different physical activities like yoga poses, hiking or cooking. Finally, we will vary the speeds of the activities so that we mix fast-paced think-on-your-feet activities with slow and introspective exercises so that everyone in the group gets the opportunity to work both in their comfort zone as well as stretch themselves.
While there are lots of smaller variables that we can mix up to inspire thinking across different categories and topics, these three are the ones we find make the biggest impact in designing an exciting and inspirational innovation workshop!