How to facilitate ideation sessions?

Ideation sessions could feel underwhelming when little has been accomplished after a long discussion. Here’re 3 ways for facilitators to make progress while not stifling creativity:

1. Facilitate, not fascinate. This is not an opportunity to get on the soap box to advance your own agenda. Use neutral encouragement such as “tell me more” to engage the participants.
2. Organize, not ostracize. Use tools that help organize and encourage ideas, eg. mind map to visualize. Once people clam up, it’s very difficult to get them to open up again.
3. Agree on the immediate next step! Acting on ideas can be harder to do than the ideation itself. An excellent facilitator never leaves the ideation session without asking: What now?

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