Creativity techniques for group work

1. Brainfloating

Brainfloating can be done either orally (brainstorming) or in writing (brainwriting).

There should be at least 5 and at most 12 participants. To keep the flow of ideas from getting out of hand, a duration of about 15 minutes should be agreed. This time limit has proved its worth in practice, as a person's creative phases do not usually last any longer.

The group should be as heterogeneous as possible. The idea generation phase should be separated from the idea evaluation phase by having the ideas evaluated by a different group or by experts.

Rules:

• Participants must not criticise
• No disparaging gestures, no mocking smiles
• Facilitation throughout, to rein in people who talk a lot and to encourage introverted participants where necessary

To prevent individual group members from dominating, Method 635, for example, can be used.

2. Method 635

In this variant, 6 participants each write down 3 ideas in five-minute rounds. After the 5 minutes, each sheet is passed on to the next person, so that participants can build on the previous ideas or make entirely new suggestions. This exchange is repeated until every participant has worked on every idea sheet.

The rules on the number of participants, the length of each round and the number of ideas required per round can be varied (e.g. Method 748).