Internal brainstorming session

Hi Jonny

Thanks for your question, it sounds like an exciting session!

Using an icebreaker/energiser to get the session started is a great idea, as it will warm people up and get them in the flow of sharing ideas. I'd recommend something that gets their creative juices flowing, for example:

The Four Cs
Ask each person to name a cartoon character, a colour, a car, and a cuisine that best describes their personality and explain why.

WHAT IS ANOTHER NAME FOR BOSS?
A great activity to practice getting rid of preconceptions is to create different names for things. For example, “rainbow” might be named “painted rain. Have the participants create different names for:
• mountain
• cloud
• ocean
• world
• painting
Next have the participants rename the subject of the meeting with a different name. For example, if the meeting is about office morale, “morale” might be named as “a spring flower,” or “warm hug,” and so on.

Would You Rather?
Put a piece of tape on the floor to separate the room in half. Rattle off a bunch of questions — e.g., would you rather travel to Italy or Australia? — and have employees hop on either side of the line depending on their answer. It’s an easy way to figure out who has something in common with someone else, and gets everyone moving and energised straight away.

As you know the people in the room, try searching on Google for 'creative thinking icebreakers' for more ideas if needed.

I also suggest that during the session you mix up the way you collect answers from the group - we often default to sharing and discussing ideas openly but sometimes it is interesting to ask everyone to write down their individual opinion first, then share as a group. This can remove bias and also challenges people to really think, as they can't just go along with others' ideas.

My final tip is very simple, but super effective - get in some good snacks! People are always more relaxed, open and chatty when they have some delicious cakes to eat. You can even use the snacks as part of your facilitation, using them as prizes to mini-competitions etc.

Hopefully those are some ideas to get you started, let us know if you have any more questions.

Kind Regards
Sarah
Learning and Development Consultant