Partner Article

Idea Generation & Team Building - together?

Idea generation can be tricky, particularly if team spirit is a little low and inspiration is running dry.

Incorporate idea generation with team building exercises, though, and you’ll be on to a winner! Innovative team building activities can make the world of difference when it comes to inspiring your team to get creative.

Debate

Having a difference of opinion is a healthy part of shaping ideas, but many may find it uncomfortable to disagree with co-workers, or to challenge ideas. This can be especially true in a creative environment, and might prevent team-mates from being critical of each other’s ideas. Leading a session to generate ideas but not protecting them from other team member’s criticism can be vital to breaking down barriers to collaborative creation in the company.

Brainstorming

While it might seem a bit of an ‘uncreative’ idea to rely on brainstorming, it’s an effective tool. Focus on generating lots of ideas at once, eschew criticism during the activity and encourage the ideas to be linked together or built on one another. Don’t just generate a load of ideas for the sake of team building and let them go to waste. Make sure the team offers sincere solutions by voting on which ideas are best at the end of the session and discussing realistic plans to implement them.

Rolestorming

Encourage your team to approach creative challenges from someone else’s perspective. This could be a celebrity, politician, a family member or even another member of the team. The idea is to put a fresh perspective on existing issues, while breaking down inhibitions and boundaries between your team. You’re allowing a team member to present a point of view separate from any judgements on their own character, which could open up ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise heard. You can even just use this when you think a creative session has gone stale and want to inject a fresh perspective.

Futurism

Have your team write the headlines for your company’s future. If you have enough people, split the team into groups and ask them to come up with a fictional news page for the future. The process of your team deciding amongst themselves where the company is going is a team building activity, but the result is just as important. Offer the results of the group efforts for discussion; focus on areas of agreement and disagreement between the “news” headlines to let your team members see each other’s vision for the future of the company and their career.

Try taking your team out of their usual work environment to help them get out of their usual thinking and interaction routines. You can go for a venue close to home like a local restaurant, or you could push the boat and go for somewhere like Fotaor Knowsley Safari Park. Even throw in a bit of hands-on time with some of the animals to treat your team and get them relaxed.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Evans .