GAME #27: Brainstorming Bonanza

Game	Opener	Team-building
Categories:	Energizer	Review
	Communication	Topical

 Purpose: To energize the group by generating a lot of ideas quickly in a brainstorming session and reducing participant resistance.

 Time Required: 20 minutes.

 Size of Group: 8 to 10.

 Materials Required: Flipchart pages; different colored markers; a music selection (CD or tape) and a player.

 The Exercise in Action: Gail Estes, training advisor for the human resources department at Mobil Oil Corp., Fairfax, VA, first chooses a topic relevant to the course to brainstorm. For example, in a course on improving customer service, she chooses “Buying Experiences” as the topic. She writes three to five questions pertaining to the topic, one question per flipchart page, and then posts the pages on the walls around the room. Questions may include, for example, “What would you describe as your best buying experience?” “What would you describe as your worst buying experience?” “What would you describe as an ideal buying experience?”

Depending on the number of participants, Estes has more than one flipchart page with the same question. With larger groups, she splits the participants into two groups and puts them in separate rooms.

She then gives each participant a different colored marker (that matches the color of his or her name tag) and asks everyone to stand at a flipchart. She tells them to write as many ideas as they can about the question while she plays recorded music. Participants cannot repeat ideas already listed. When the music stops, participants move to the next flipchart. After 10 to 15 minutes, Estes stops the activity and counts up the ideas each participant wrote. She rewards the person with the most ideas with a prize, and smaller prizes for the other participants. The exercise usually generates 150 to 200 ideas.

Estes says the light competition spurs participants to write as many ideas as possible, whereas in typical groups, ideas dead-end, reducing spontaneity and wasting time.