LIVING LAB powered through creative session
Recently we had a highly motivating creative session in Brussels for the LIVING LAB project . Led by a specialised facilitator from Procter & Gamble, we spent two intensive days exploring the previous analysis performed and transforming that into 20 distinct concepts for a research infrastructure (using the combined creativity of some 15 enthusiastic people from the various consortium partners).
The power of a motivated team opening up to the leadership of a professional facilitator was proven once again. B&W is often skeptical to the old-fashioned brainstorm session; too many teams use this creativity technique in situations when it does not bring the desired result and can even be counter-productive, killing initial enthusiasm and burying good ideas under an avalanche of bad and mediocre ones. However, when well facilitated and well prepared, a creative session can bring open-ended design processes into a acceleration of divergence followed by convergence.
We also got extremely valuable feedback from senior directors of industry as well as leading professors from the Universities of Manchester and Rotterdam.
As a recently incorporated consultant, I had a special perspective on the whole event: I spent most of 2007 working at a small Amsterdam-based consultancy specialised in facilitating creative sessions, and found that the P&G approach had substantial common ground with the methods and tools we applied there.
At B&W, I expect that my background (combined with B&W’s substantial experience in facilitating creative sessions and processes) will be beneficial for our clients. Some applications directly come to mind, for example: finding fast alignment in R&D collaborations and identifying opportunities for Open Innovation on shared product or business development between several different industries.
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