Alexandre Eisenchteter, founder of Storms and a creative problem-solving advocate, dives into the art of transforming casual brainstorming into structured workshops. He highlights how properly facilitated sessions can unlock creative potential and collaboration. Alex shares insights on common pitfalls, the importance of nurturing 'bad' ideas longer, and practical strategies for effective engagement. Discover how initial scoping meetings can align goals and enhance the outcome of brainstorming activities, making them more impactful in day-to-day applications.
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insights INSIGHT
Facilitation Needs Wider Recognition
Many facilitators do facilitation work without calling themselves facilitators or knowing the term. - Facilitation should be a widespread skill accessible to everyone for better collaboration.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Started Career with Sticky Notes
Alexandre began his career at 3M, working on a post-it note manufacturing plant. - One of his first projects was optimizing paper waste from the post-it production line.
insights INSIGHT
Brainstorming is a Complex Craft
Brainstorming is far richer and more complex than most simplified online descriptions. - It involves deliberate creativity and structured shifting between divergent and convergent thinking phases.
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In 'The Art of Gathering', Priya Parker argues that many gatherings are lackluster and unproductive, but they don't have to be. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of various types of gatherings, Parker offers a human-centered approach to create meaningful experiences. She explores a wide array of gatherings, including conferences, meetings, and social events, and provides practical advice on how simple changes can invigorate any group experience. The book emphasizes the importance of knowing the purpose of a gathering, selecting the right venue, and ensuring the event is unique and effective for all attendees.
Game Storming
Game Storming
Dave Gray
Gamestorming, by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo, provides a collection of collaborative games and activities designed to foster innovation and problem-solving within teams and organizations. The book is structured around different types of challenges, such as opening up discussions, generating ideas, and making decisions. Each game includes clear instructions, necessary materials, and potential variations to suit different group sizes and objectives. By using visual thinking, play, and structured facilitation, Gamestorming helps teams break down complex problems, build consensus, and create actionable solutions. The approach emphasizes engagement, creativity, and shared ownership, making it a valuable resource for facilitators, leaders, and anyone seeking to drive collaboration and innovation.
How can we make an informal brainstorming session, full of possibilities and quick thinking, into something more formal… without squeezing the life from it?
Alexandre Eisenchteter believes deeply in the power of brainstorming sessions — and that most of us undervalue them. It’s a fair point: the prevailing view does seem to be that brainstorming is a chaotic and unstructured process. But, when Alex is facilitating, the opposite is true.
When facilitated with care, brainstorming can provide us with a deeply collaborative and creative approach to problem-solving. Alex explains his approach and how you can adopt it in this episode.
Find out about:
Why brainstorming is an untapped goldmine for facilitators
What many of us get wrong about brainstorming
How to use a number of different tools to optimise and enhance your brainstorming session
Why it can be such a struggle for clients to translate the outputs of a workshop into day-to-day changes
How an initial ‘scope meeting’ can prevent misalignment further into the workshop process
Why good things happen when we stick with ‘bad’ or unpopular ideas for a little longer
How to prevent a workshop being a mess of ideas and, instead, a greenhouse for big changes
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