Simply Brilliant by Bernhard Schroeder

Author:Bernhard Schroeder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

You might think, what could ten random groups of students possibly come up with? I have to tell you, it’s incredible. Maybe not on the first day, but over the next fifteen weeks they never cease to amaze me. Slowly, as they work their way through several brainstorming exercises, they begin to shift their mindset. Crazy and wild ideas are celebrated. Criticism is not allowed. Their drawings get more refined and creative. They develop their own culture, similar to a company. By week six, the students can’t wait to come to class and see what challenges I will throw at them. I see the “growth mindset” begin to develop and accelerate. They are behaving like young children again just spewing ideas into the air. They are drawing and sketching like they have not since kindergarten. No coloring inside the lines here. By the tenth week, as we move into more complex challenges, they are on fire.

I bring several experts into the classroom and ask them to run structured brainstorming exercises around a big problem or brand challenge. They include founders of companies and creators of brands. The brainstorming exercises are run with the same structure, thirty to forty minutes maximum. We had a world-renowned product design expert challenge the class to create an affordable “luxury” product for the rising millennial target market. One expert challenged the class to create the world’s smallest functional and personal office space. As the student groups presented their drawn solutions, he commented that two of the proposed solutions were impressive, viable, and possible commercial products. An action sports founder and brand expert challenged the class to create an action sports brand and product, from scratch, that solved a specific problem for a defined target audience. In about forty minutes, student groups came up with suggested products and logos, and as they presented their ideas via drawings, the expert commented that he felt there were several potential brands and products in the room.

One of the key elements in brainstorming is to have the moderator or a volunteer list every idea on a surface that everyone on the team can see and then draw the final solution. Why do I always make them draw it?

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