An experiment in guerrilla brainstorming

I wanted to see if I could start up brainstorming organically to help build in fun and creativity into the workplace. So, I bought some really bright flipchart sticky paper and put up a new activity on the wall each week. No explanation, just a felt-tip pen and a simple instruction (like: add to this).

Open brainstorm on a general question

Result: not much action.

Thoughts… just too open, too scary to contribute to. Happy about the drawings, but that wasn’t a result of the prompt as much as it was having a blank piece of paper up on the wall.

Mind map

Result: incredible organic participation

Thoughts… The effort for the mind map was pretty clear: word-association. People jumped in and added without prompting because it was relatively anonymous, and after a while there was almost an implicit challenge to come up with something witty or silly to contribute. Low effort. Low risk.

Thought Bubbles

Result: mediocre, but creative contributions

Thoughts… really didn’t know what I’d come up with here. Didn’t come up with much, but found myself contributing random thoughts when I walked by. I think it might have been intimidating to “share a thought”. Somehow, less anonymous.

Octagon

Result: not much action (but I sure had fun with it!)

Thoughts… loved this from a thinking perspective. But, it didn’t elicit much participation. Too constrained?

Phase II of the experiment: Amping it up.

Mind map at a company event

We had a site social on the topic of innovation, with all kinds of “booths” on some of the great innovation work that is going on around the company. We put up a big blank piece of paper on the window and drew a circle in the middle with the word “Innovation”. Initially, everyone who walked by the area was handed a sharpie and asked to add to the mind map. It started off slowly, but evolved into a rich point of discussion and laughter.

Thoughts….Leveraging the success of the “Visualize” mind map, which was in a rarely used hallway, I had hoped that this would work, and it did! Some people were more literal than others, but some people jumped in and got really silly and creative. Made for a good interactive element at the event, while being low-tech, low-cost, low-effort. It was a collaborative, “social contribution” activity… and look how incredible it became! (Actually, it evolved much further after this photo, but I didn’t get a later picture).

Next Step

Anonymous mind map in a public space, without “prompting”.