Perspectives

Perspectives

Suppose there is a team meeting and the group is going to discuss the issues associated with a topic, design something or a solve a problem. For any given complex problem, there are a variety of pe...

Conflict Resolution Exercise: Discussion Template

Conflict Resolution Exercise: Discussion Template

This exercise helps delegates to explore the nature of a given topic. It helps generate a discussion around that topic and see how people view it differently. Through these discussions delegates ca...

Google Ngram: Ever Wondered When a Given Word Became Popular?

Google Ngram: Ever Wondered When a Given Word Became Popular?

Modern tools can provide a great insight on how certain terms have been used in the past. With the advent of search engines and in particular the ever more useful tools released by Google we can ex...

Brainstorming Exercise: Kill Negative Mentality in Meetings

Brainstorming Exercise: Kill Negative Mentality in Meetings

This exercise helps delegates learn how to avoid negative mentality in meetings. When confronted with a new idea, most people think of problems first. They first consider how the idea doesn’t work ...

Brainstorming Exercise: Design Shoes

Brainstorming Exercise: Design Shoes

This is an entertaining and educational exercise. It helps to unleash people’s creativity, bring them together and get them to cooperate on a common task and solve problems. In this exercise, the m...

Pluses, Potentials and Concerns

Pluses, Potentials and Concerns

This is a decision making exercise that allows you to choose the best ideas from a set of ideas. Since each idea is considered in detail, this technique is more useful when you can focus enough on ...

Idea Selection Exercise: The ATAR Technique

Idea Selection Exercise: The ATAR Technique

The ATAR acronym stands for Awareness, Trial, Availability, Repeat. It is a technique used to filter through ideas based on a number of criteria. It can be used to understand customers’ perception ...

Decision Making: The NAF Technique

Decision Making: The NAF Technique

A particularly useful technique in brainstorming and decision making is the NAF technique. The acronym stands for New, Appeal and Feasibility. It is basically a simple way to score ideas to see if ...

Pictorial Problem Solving

Pictorial Problem Solving

Words can sometimes limit creativity. Humans are generally very visual and have evolved to sense the world primarily thorough focused looking and observation. As a result, a large part of the brain...

Handout: Problem Solving Questions

Handout: Problem Solving Questions

The following is a series of questions presented under a number of categories that help to analyse a given problem. The set of questions can be used in a handout for people who want to explore a gi...

Brainstorming Exercise: Dialectic Inquiry

Brainstorming Exercise: Dialectic Inquiry

Sometimes it is important to scrutinise a plan to make sure it is valid. A common method used is known as Devil’s Advocate. This is basically an individual who has been given the role of an adverse...

Problem Solving Exercise: If Time Was Not an Issue

Problem Solving Exercise: If Time Was Not an Issue

When solving problems, it is sometimes easy to dismiss new ideas straight away by worrying about lack of resources or lack of time. A new idea is usually very fragile and cannot stand much scrutiny...

Branding Exercise: What Is My Company Like?

Branding Exercise: What Is My Company Like?

Companies develop different cultures. It is important to know how the company is seen both internally and externally. Internally, it helps to bind the team and make everyone coordinate their effort...

Problem Solving Exercise: Look at the Problem from a Kid’s Point of View

Problem Solving Exercise: Look at the Problem from a Kid’s Point of View

A particularly useful problem solving technique is to see a given problem from the point of view of a 10 year old. This view point usually helps to simplify both problems and solutions and as a res...

Bullet Proofing Your Ideas: What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

Bullet Proofing Your Ideas: What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

Most brainstorming sessions revolve around problem solving and coming up with new solutions. This is useful in generating ideas, though it does not provide many opportunities to find out what happe...

Creativity Exercise: Introducing Random Associations

Creativity Exercise: Introducing Random Associations

This is a template for a problem solving exercise that help generates a variety of solutions. The technique can be used in brainstorming or any creative thinking activity. It aims to bring randomne...

Crisis Management: Brainstorm a Solution

Crisis Management: Brainstorm a Solution

This exercise combines crisis management and brainstorming. You can use it as a template for a series of exercises on problem solving using different methods depending on what you are covering in y...

Goal Setting Exercise: Challenge Assumptions

Goal Setting Exercise: Challenge Assumptions

Sometimes we take things for granted. We assume certain conditions are true and remain true until it is too late. This happens often in industries that evolve very quickly or markets that change ra...