9. THE HOMEWORK CHECKLIST
* If you have looked at all the pages in Part One so far, your preparation should be almost complete.
* That’s the preparation for the person running the session, but what about the attendees? Most people breeze into brainstorms and hope to improvise as they go along, but that does not lead to effective idea generation.
* As the organizer, consider carefully what homework you want to hand out well before the actual session. Working this out takes tremendous pressure off the session itself, and off you. The preparation of others is often as important as your own.
* Diligent attendees (which they should be since you handpicked them) will absorb the brief and all the background material before the day, thus avoiding the need for long-winded and often repetitive exchanges of information that eat into the time available and demoralise those who are diligent enough to be well prepared.
* For time-pressed or even evasive attendees, try telling them there will be a test on the briefing information at the beginning of the session, or ask them to present their best ideas at the start so they have to think in advance and then take ownership of their ideas in front of everyone else.
EXERCISE: Imagine that at the beginning of the session every attendee is brilliantly informed - they understand the challenge, the background, and are ready to come up with ideas. Now work backward and determine exactly what they would need in order to be at that level of understanding. Make sure they receive all that insight and information long before the session starts, with an appropriately firm instruction that it is essential that they prepare thoroughly.