24. FOUR CORNER WALKABOUT
* This technique is easy and almost always surprising.
* One of its greatest assets is that it is dynamic and inevitably leads to interesting departures, but is always completely anchored in the brief.
* First, you need a room large enough to allow your participants to walk around. This may mean a big room, or you might want to re-arrange the furniture or remove a boardroom table.
* Then take four large sheets of flip chart paper.
* Choose four pivotal words from the brief, and write one only on each sheet.
* Place each sheet in a different corner of the room.
* Give your first attendee a marker pen, send them to a corner, and ask them to write the first thought they come up with next to the original word.
* They then move on to the next corner, and another attendee is sent to add to their thought.
* Keep sending everyone round, each building on what has gone before until each sheet is full.
* This technique achieves three things:
1. Lateral departures that are intrinsically linked to the brief.
2. Surprise and stimulation for the attendees when they see the ways in which their ideas can be built upon by others to generate something more powerful.
3. People have better ideas when they are on the move.
EXERCISE: Choose four critical words from the brief. Write them on the sheets. Send the team round to add to them. When the sheets are full, review each in turn for new directions. If fruitful, choose four more words from those sheets, and repeat the exercise as often as necessary.