Facilitating Team Brainstorming

Hack Your Team's Mindset: 5 Unconventional Warmups for Innovation Workshops 🧠⚡ Ever run an innovation workshop that felt like trying to start a car with a dead battery? That first 30 minutes determines whether you'll get breakthrough ideas or recycled thinking. Something that I call getting into the “psychology of innovation”. After facilitating several sessions, I've discovered something surprising: the traditional "let's go around and introduce ourselves" kills creative energy before it starts. Your team's brains are still in operational mode—not possibility mode. Here are five unconventional warmups I've tested that rewire neural pathways for innovation in under 20 minutes: 1. The Impossible Question Challenge 🔥 Start by asking questions that have no "correct" answers: "How would you design a restaurant on Mars?" or "What if sleep became optional?" This immediately signals we're breaking free from conventional thinking. 2. The Reality Bending Exercise ✨ Have everyone write down three "unchangeable facts" about your industry. Then challenge teams to imagine a world where each "fact" is no longer true. As Steve Jobs said, "Reality can be distorted"—this exercise trains that muscle. 3. The Reverse Assumptions Game 🔄 List 5-10 core assumptions about your business. Then systematically reverse each one: "What if we charged more for less?" or "What if our customers became our employees?" This shatters mental models almost instantly. 4. The "Yes, And..." Chain Reaction ⛓️ One person proposes a wild idea. Instead of evaluating it, the next person must say "Yes, and..." adding something to evolve it further. Continue for 3-5 minutes. This dismantles our innate criticism reflex. 5. Two-Minute Futures ⏱️ Give everyone two minutes to draw what your industry will look like in 2040. The time constraint bypasses the analytical brain and accesses the intuitive one. The crude drawings often reveal surprising insights about shared hopes and fears. Remember: Innovation doesn't need fancy frameworks—it needs minds free from invisible constraints. These warmups aren't just games; they're pattern-disruptors that help your team escape their mental programming. What's your go-to innovation warmup? Have you tried activities that break conventional thinking patterns? #InnovationWorkshops #CreativeThinking #DesignThinking #TeamFacilitation #Creativity #TransformativeMindset

Is your team tapping into collective wisdom or falling into groupthink? 🤔 🫶🏼 Groupthink occurs when a group's desire for harmony and agreement causes members to ignore different opinions, avoid critical thinking, and make poor decisions just to keep the peace. ☝🏼Collective wisdom happens when the aggregated opinions, knowledge or predictions of a diverse and independent group of people leads to more accurate decisions. To shift a team from groupthink to collective wisdom, the decision-making process should be structured to encourage open communication, critical thinking, and the value of diverse perspectives. How to facilitate this shift? 📝 Individual pre-work: Ask members to independently analyze the issue and prepare their opinions before group discussions. This can help prevent initial ideas from dominating the conversation. 😈 Use rotating roles ... such as "devil's advocate," "fact-checker," and "process observer" to various members, rotating these roles to ensure balanced participation and a critical examination of the group's decisions. 🧠 Use brainwriting instead of brainstorming So the ideas can get first generated individually, then shared and discussed as a group What methods have you found effective in encouraging independent thinking and open dialogue in group settings?

𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘂𝘀🤝 In many organizations, there's a tendency to listen only to the loudest or "smartest" voice in the room. But what if our greatest potential isn’t found in one person, but in the space between us? When we limit ourselves to a single perspective, we miss the opportunity to tap into the unique experiences and ideas of the entire team. True innovation isn’t just born within us—it’s sparked by collaboration and diverse insights. Many organizations still overlook the collective talent at their disposal. But how can we change that and truly harness the power of collective genius? Here are a few ways: 🔸 Encourage Open Dialogue: Create a safe space for all voices to be heard. Actively ask for ideas, especially from the quieter members who may hold valuable insights. 🔸 Foster Cross-functional Collaboration: Bring people from different departments and backgrounds together. The most unexpected and innovative solutions often come from diverse perspectives. 🔸 Rotate Leadership Roles: Give team members the opportunity to take the lead on different projects. This allows hidden talents to emerge and builds confidence in individuals across the board. 🔸 Embrace Curiosity Over Certainty: Ask more questions than give answers. Curiosity drives exploration, and exploration fuels innovation. 🔸 Recognize and Celebrate Diverse Contributions: When people feel valued for their unique input, they’re more likely to bring forward their best ideas. Make recognition a habit, not an afterthought. 🔸 Leverage External Insights: Sometimes the best ideas come from outside the team. Encourage team members to network, learn from industry experts, and bring those fresh perspectives back to the table. When organizations embrace the full potential of every individual and nurture collective genius, they unleash powerful innovation and growth. What strategies have you seen work well to foster collective brilliance in teams? #teamwork #collectivegenius #brainstorming #careerdevelopment

Stop running brainstorming sessions like a three-ring circus. Roll the dice instead. Most brainstorming sessions ask our brains to do the impossible. Be creative AND critical. Generate ideas AND evaluate them. Think logically AND emotionally. All at the same time. And often, we're doing this in a group that has it's own relationship dynamics, politics, and neuro-styles at play. Your session turns from an energizing moment of synergy into a three-ring circus. (Except there's no cotton candy and the whole place smells like elephant 💩 .) Edward de Bono's 6 Thinking Hats is a great method for breaking out of our well worn cognitive patterns. But I use it differently than most. 🎲 The Dice Method for solo thinking: Roll a die. Match the number to a hat. Spend 15 focused minutes in that mode only. ⚪ White Hat (1): Facts and data only. Zero opinions. ❤️ Red Hat (2): Pure emotion. How does this feel? ⚫ Black Hat (3): Devil's advocate. What could fail? 💛 Yellow Hat (4): Optimist view. Best case scenarios. 💚 Green Hat (5): Wild creativity. No idea too crazy. 🔵 Blue Hat (6): Process manager. Are we on track? For group brainstorming: 1. Assign everyone a hat. (You can even bring real hats to the meeting.) 2. Make sure people are assigned a thinking hat that is different than their typical thinking pattern. 3. Give everyone 5 mins to think through a solution to a problem on their own, guided by their hat. 4. Have each person share one by one. This is metacognition in action. ❓ Which thinking hat is most natural for you, and which is hardest? 🔁 Repost if your team needs to think better, not just think more. 👉 Follow Erin Green for insights on creating courses that actually change behavior.

Earlier this year, I facilitated a strategy session where one person’s voice dominated while quiet team members retreated into their shells. Halfway through, I paused, put everyone into small groups, and gave them roles to pick up. Here's how it works: 1️⃣ Assign Roles: Each small group had a Questioner, Connector, and Synthesizer. - Questioner: Probes deeper and asks clarifying, “why?” and “how?” questions. - Connector: Links ideas across people, points out overlaps and sparks “aha” moments. - Synthesizer: Distills discussion into concise insights and next-step recommendations. 2️⃣ Clarify Focus: Groups tackled one critical topic (e.g., “How might we streamline on-boarding?”) for 10 minutes. 3️⃣ Reconvene & Share: Each group’s Synthesizer distilled insights in 60 seconds. The result? Silent participants suddenly spoke up, ideas flowed more freely, and we landed on three actionable priorities in our timebox. Next time you sense a lull in your meeting/session/workshop, try role-based breakouts. #Facilitation #Breakouts #TeamEngagement #ActiveParticipation Sutey Coaching & Consulting --------------------------------------------- ☕ Curious to dive deeper? Let’s connect. https://lnkd.in/gGJjcffw

One common source of tension in executive meetings—or any collaborative session with high-performing teams—is when some people are in diverging mode (brainstorming ideas) while others are in converging mode (making decisions). The result? Frustration, confusion, and misalignment. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to set the tone and make it clear which mode you’re in. If you’re diverging, the focus is on exploring possibilities. You lead with curiosity over criticism and all ideas are encouraged and accepted - even (especially) the bold and crazy ones. Later, you transition to converging —introducing real-world constraints such as budgets, technical feasibility, timelines, and user needs. Then you can effectively select a path forward by choosing the best idea or designing a hybrid solution with the best components of multiple ideas. If one person in the room is trying to converge while one is trying to diverge, everybody gets frustrated. Timebox your sessions, explicitly state which mode you’re in, and create space for both phases. Diverge to explore. Converge to decide. Balance curiosity with focus, and you’ll lead your team to progress without spinning in circles.

Ever been on a team that's too quiet? Not focused-quiet. But hesistant-to-speak-up quiet. I once worked with a leader whose motto was: "Silence is 100% agreement." We would chuckle politely. Our silence wasn't agreement. It was fear. Here's what I've learned after nearly two decades coaching people leaders. People don't need to find their voice. They need to feel safe using it. Here are 6 ways to create that safety, without forcing anyone to speak before they're ready: 1. Listen to learn ↳ Pause before responding: "Help me understand your thinking on…" ↳ Reflect back: "Here's what I heard, did I get that right?" ↳ Let people know when their input reshapes your thinking 2. Build confidence before the spotlight ↳ Pair teammates as "thinking partners" to test ideas before meetings ↳ Use 1:1s to help less vocal members frame input as exploratory questions ↳ Normalize iterations. "What if we considered…" often sparks breakthroughs. 3. Model transparent communication ↳ Share your thinking: "Here's my view and why I see it this way…" ↳ Be open about uncertainty. It gives others permission to speak ↳ It's okay to change your mind in public when presented with strong alternatives 4. Facilitate solution-building sessions ↳ Ask: "What would success look like for everyone involved?" ↳ Use "Yes, and…" to build momentum, not shut it down ↳ Try brainstorm rules: build on others' ideas before introducing new ones 5. Disagree without making it personal ↳ Start with: "We're debating the approach, not anyone's expertise" ↳ Use neutral framing: "There are different perspectives here" ↳ Keep feedback focused on outcomes and impact, not personality 6. Make space for the quiet thinkers ↳ End with: "Let's reflect for 24 hours before deciding" ↳ Send pre-reads with clear reflection prompts ↳ Start key conversations with a few minutes of silent thinking When you shift from demanding participation to designing for it, you're not just changing meetings. You're redefining how power flows through your organization. How do you create space for insight that isn't loud? ♻️ Feel free to share if you're working toward conversations where every voice has room. ➕ If you lead people, this space is for you. Follow me, Michelle Awuku-Tatum for insights on: ↳ Human-centered leadership, resilient teams, and intentional culture.

Ensure all voices are heard by leaning into CURIOSITY! Designing inclusive working sessions can start by inviting questions from EVERYONE- for example, the technique below honors introverted voices and fosters diverse perspectives. Try out some of these practical techniques below in your next meeting or collaboration session… Quiet Reflection Time:  ↳ Create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts. Structured Brainstorming Sessions:  ↳ Ensure each participant has designated speaking time to reduce pressure. Rotating Facilitators:  ↳ Vary leadership styles and ensure diverse voices are heard throughout discussions. One-on-One Discussions or Smaller Group Settings:  ↳ Provide intimate settings where introverts can freely express their ideas. Techniques like this create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts. This approach isn't just about diversity. It's about harnessing the power of all perspectives. Together, we can foster environments where every voice contributes to success. Let's ensure that every team member feels empowered to bring their best to the table.

Three simple words can unlock a world of possibilities when you or your team get stuck on solving a problem: “How might we” I’ve found this to be a great tool when leading team meetings or solving stuck points with founders. Framing the conversation around questions like this can unlock creative solutions when no “obvious” solutions exist. Here’s why this works: 1. “How” signals we’re in exploration mode. It reinforces that we don’t have all the answers yet, encouraging multiple, innovative approaches. 2. “Might” suggests flexibility, that there are many paths to explore without committing to one fixed solution. 3. “We” brings in the collective mind. It shifts from individual problem-solving to the inclusive, shared responsibility of the group mind. Start with these simple swaps: “What should I do?” → “How might we…?” “I have no idea.” → “How might we…?” “I’m not sure how to get past this.” → “How might we…?” And some helpful guard rails: - Keep your HMW questions specific to the problem. - Stay broad enough to inspire multiple ideas. - Keep it positive to spark more possibilities. As a leader, I've found that using inclusive, positive language in business discussions where we need to get through a block can help liberate team creativity. Tough love can also help. Making a conscious effort to modulate your language in this way can help move your team past creative impasses and build more positive workspaces.