Spice Up Your Programming

Every chapter’s been there. Trying to come up with innovative events can be challenging. You’ve tried surveying members. You’ve tried sitting down with a few others to brainstorm new ideas. But year after year, the same events get scheduled. So how can you more creative?

Brainstorming at the local coffee shop is great, but it’s hard to just sit down and wait for the creative force to flow. Here are some general guidelines to help the process:

• Have each person come prepared with at least one new idea. Each can review the attached set of questions to get them started. Individual brainstorming is great for generating ideas. Group brainstorming generates fewer ideas, but fleshes out more depth for each.
• Have fun. There are no boundaries. All wild and weird ideas are encouraged. You never know when what seems like an outrageous idea serves as the spark for the eventual solution.
• Assign a leader. Have someone help guide discussion and take notes on all the ideas. Taking notes on a flip chart helps because everyone can see all of the ideas generated.
• No judgments. Nothing shuts down creativity like making a judgment on an idea. You want to generate new ideas; analysis and decision-making can come later.
• No “Yes, buts ...” Enforce a no “yes, but …” rule whereby statements such as “but it’s too expensive, but we tried it before and it didn’t work, but that’s not possible” are NOT allowed.
• Go for quantity rather than quality. Every idea counts. You can evaluate the ideas afterwards.
• Silence is okay. People need time to think, so just because there’s a lull in the brainstorming doesn’t mean people have run out of ideas.
• Time limit. Idea sessions should last no more than an hour. Brainstorming is hard work and people get tired. Schedule a follow-up meeting to evaluate ideas.