Solutions Workshop Overview
- 2. What is a Solutions Workshop? A Solutions Workshop is an accelerated, creative, collaborative problem solving session that utilizes a specific process to harness the idea-power of everyone on a team in a focused and energetic way. It combines: • Exploration • Idea generation • Rapid prototyping (with feedback loops) 2 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 3. What is exploration? Exploration can take many different forms and is used to help Solutions Workshop participants gain new perspectives on the challenge at hand. Exploration activities help generate new ideas by forcing team members to “see” their world a little (or a lot) differently. Exercises range from pre- read assignments to field trips to ethnographic observations and can occur before or during a Solutions Workshop. “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.” G. K. Chesterton 3 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 4. What is exploration? Exploration can take many different forms and is used to help Solutions Workshop participants gain new perspectives on the challenge at hand. Exploration activities help generate new ideas by forcing team members to “see” their world a little (or a lot) differently. Exercises range from pre-read assignments to field trips to ethnographic observations and can occur before or during a Solutions Workshop. “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Marcel Proust 4 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 5. What is structured ideation? Structured ideation consists of focused exercises designed to spark lateral thinking, insightful questions, and “A-ha!” ideas. By using proven creative thinking tools and techniques, a Solutions Workshop is guaranteed NOT to be just another brainstorming session. The output of the structured ideation exercises serves as an Idea Pool, from which high-potential concepts are selected for further development via rapid prototyping. 5 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 6. What is rapid prototyping? Within the context of a Solutions Workshop, a prototype is broadly defined as “anything that visually represents the thinking around an idea so that others can understand and react to it.” Rapid prototyping is a valuable tool in the concept development process in that it: • Leads to clarity and shared understanding more quickly than using words alone • Serves as a means to obtain rich feedback from stakeholders representing different perspectives • Sparks discussion and debate that may not have otherwise taken place • Fosters exploration of more than one potential solution, which reduces the risk of “marrying too early.” • Accelerates learning through iterative testing and feedback loops, which leads to success sooner 6 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 7. How is a Solutions Workshop structured? Exploration activities can take place Exploration either before or during a Solutions Workshop. Sharpening the Axe sets the stage for the Sharpening the Axe participants to experience creative success. Level setting lays out the known facts and Level Setting constraints in order to ensure shared understanding. Divergence Development Conversation of Possibilities Structured Ideation Idea Processing & Filtering Convergence Rapid Prototyping (Build & Refine) Conversation of Reality Frenzy / Review Panel (Gather Feedback) Stakeholder Review Panel Listing of all ideas that were generated plus the 3-5 Output ideas that were developed further and are in various stages of “baked-ness.” The post-Workshop next steps are determined by the client at the end of the session. 7 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 8. What makes a Solutions Workshop valuable? The power of a Solutions Workshop lies in its ability to: 1 2 3 Focus participants with very Foster effective collaboration Encourage and build upon diverse backgrounds on a by intentionally compressing “wild” ideas that might not single, specific challenge time and space otherwise surface 4 5 Establish a shared Use rapid prototyping to fail understanding of multiple early and often in order to priorities and perspectives succeed sooner 8 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 9. What are the benefits of a Solutions Workshop? 1. Ideas and potential solutions are generated, tested, and refined in one session. 2. Focused, energized engagement 3. Cognitive diversity + creative collaboration = “A-ha!” ideas 4. Accelerated buy-in and shared commitment of stakeholders going forward 9 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 10. What are the planning steps for a Solutions Workshop? 10 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC
- 11. Who do I contact for more information? David Phillips Office 704-969-3097 Mobile 704-904-0499 david.phillips@fasterglassconsulting.com “David is a deep expert in the ideation “David is one of the best facilitators of “David is an expert facilitator, and process. He is constantly scanning the collaborative innovation-related does an incredible job of inspiring business landscape to integrate new workshops that I have had the creativity and promoting innovation insights and concepts into his pleasure of working with both as a co- across all levels of an organization. methodologies. He is also a producer as well as a participant. He One of David's distinguishing qualities tremendous facilitator and actively has the skills to enable others to as a business leader is his ability to engages other in process.” approach their business challenges engage the heads and hearts of a Michael Arena from insightful new perspectives to diverse audience of stakeholders.” Innovation Institute of the drive positive change and innovation.” Felix Mon McColl Center for Visual Art Jeff Grant Bank of America InVue Security Products 11 © 2011 Faster Glass Consulting LLC