I’m reminded of ideation sessions I’ve attended in the past where the facilitator was very open-minded about all suggestions, accepting them, asking for clarification and writing down the clarified idea on the flip-over. That is, including the ones where my own first response was more along the lines of ‘what a silly idea’.

This had many good effects: the atmosphere always stayed positive, all participants felt like they were heard and taken seriously, and it lowered the barrier to spout ideas that hadn’t been thought through completely, or articulated perfectly. In other words: it cleared the room, and I can see how explicitly asking for the ‘big issue’ and its solution can do the same thing.

I’m looking forward to trying this technique when we need to tackle the next interesting problem at work.

Oh wow, complete revamp! Like the design and posting frequency in the ‘new and improved’ thinksketch blog. By the way, speaking of hunting, how is that job hunt going?

Hi and thanks for commenting

Rick already pointed me towards your blog once, really enjoyed reading it, keep up the great work. I do like your slogan too, though I guess you can read it two ways:

- Great Ideas find their origins in ‘yesterdays foolish thinking’ (meaning there is value in yesterdays ‘different’ thinking) or
- Great Ideas start by questioning ‘yesterdays foolish thinking’ (meaning we need to change the things yesterdays foolish thinking has brought us)

@Rick

True! I like that one, but not all Elephants are Bad Ideas, so judging them up front would not really help getting rid of the Elephant, even though you are probably right.

I’d like to think of my blog as a place for hunting elephants. Sorry to indulge in such direct self promotion, but my blog’s tagline does fit this idea really nicely. thinksketchdesign.com – “Because Today’s Great Ideas start with Yesterday’s Foolish Thinking” thanks -