7.5. Exercises

Exercise 7.1

To facilitate brainstorming, the "spitwad technique" is a practical, proven method to generate ideas. The facilitator first passes around identical slips of blank paper. The facilitator then reviews the discussion topic and purpose of the brainstorming session. Next, everyone is requested to write down his or her ideas on one or more slips of paper. Each slip of paper should contain a single idea which is relevant to the discussion topic. Every idea should be complete and self-contained, requiring no additional information or explanation. Each idea is wadded up into a ball and tossed into a wastebasket, a box, or, in a pinch, a corner of the room. Ideally, the end result will be a pile of indistinguishable wads of paper. The entire process should take about five minutes.

When everyone has finished, pass around the wads of paper evenly throughout the group. Go around the room and have each person read his or her wads of paper aloud. After hearing all of the ideas, gather suggestions for categories to group the various ideas into. For each category for which there is a general consensus, have someone create a tagboard and tape it to the wall. Next, have the group tape their paper wads to the tagboards under the appropriate category. Every wad should be attached to a category, including duplicates and even ideas which may seem initially to be inappropriate or already part of the existing situation. Finally, the facilitator should proceed to each category and lead a discussion about each of the topics. Participants can provide additional ideas or expand upon existing ideas.

The notes from the discussion should be preserved and distributed to the meeting participants. The information gained from the spitwad brainstorming activity can be utilized in a future meeting devoted to evaluating the ideas and making decisions about appropriate actions to take. The advantage of the spitwad approach is that ideas are submitted anonymously, which allows participants to submit ideas without fear of being judged and being held personally accountable for the merit of their ideas. Therefore, they are more likely to contribute whatever knowledge they have on the discussion topic.