Articles

Brainfocus – an innovative approach to brainstorming

Rationale

Brainfocus is a process that generates ideas and solutions around a specific problem or challenge.

Based on Methodical Inventive Thinking and other creativity-enhancing tools, Brainfocus upgrades the regular format of brainstorming.

The method is based on hundreds of sessions of generating ideas in innovation projects and Methodical Inventive Thinking workshops. The problem with regular brainstorming is that it usually takes a long time and is not always effective. The human mind is at its best when in a regime of constraint and relaxation.

The analogy is a gym – you make a certain effort and then stretch and rest. This is followed by another effort using a different group of muscles. What does the job is the effort, the relaxation and the move to another group of muscles.

The gym activity focuses the brain, and produces results with fun.

The challenge and how it works

We define a challenge. It is an ad hoc workshop for that particular challenge or problem. The types of challenges and their content are very broad and range from business and commercial issues, through technology, development dilemmas to logistics and operations.

Participants are given instruction how to get to ready to present the challenge and which team members should be invited to the session. In some cases, it is necessary to meet with outside experts either before or during the session.

We allocate a certain amount of time, depending on the complexity of the challenge. Often, quite a lot of time is needed to present the problem and what has been done so far, while in others the issue is clear and we can move directly into the idea generating phase.

Flash activity – 2-4 hours

Participants do not need any prior knowledge in the thinking methods, but must be open-minded when it comes to how the session runs while solving the problem.

The preparation and presentation of a problem usually takes one or two hours. The Brainfocus will also take one or two hours. This is a kind of flash activity that usually generates new ideas to be examined in order to meet the challenge.

Back to Creativity and Innovation workshops page >>