You can find an introduction to Idea Generation Meetings in Chapter 23 of Where the Action Is. These resources will help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific Idea Generation Meetings your team needs.
Definition
An Idea Generation Meeting is used when a group needs to quickly create a lot of new ideas.
Questions Answered
- What are all the ideas we can think of in this situation?
Examples
- Ad Campaign Brainstorming Session
- User Story Brainstorming
- Fundraiser Brainstorming
- New Product Ideas
- Party Theme Ideas
Purpose
- Create a whole bunch of ideas.
Work Outcomes
- Lots of new ideas that can be used to seed a new effort.
- Information about what the organization considers possible—the
- ideas provided reveal the group’s accepted boundaries.
Human Outcomes
- Excitement about the chance to be a part of something new.
- A break from the day-to-day routine.
- New perspectives; broadened thinking.
- Inspiration.
Lucid Blog Posts
Elise Keith (2019). At Lucid Meetings, our mission is to make it easy for teams to run successful meetings every day. Teaching teams the skills they need to run successful meetings seems like an obvious way for us to fulfill this mission, which is why we've now opened our first courses to students. We opened Meeting School now because, after over a decade of research and work with high-performing organizations, we know what works.
Elise Keith (2016). Whether we’re working to negotiate the details of a new project, finding a way to tackle a challenging problem, or seeking to define our strategic vision, the pattern is the same; someone poses a question, and the group starts brainstorming answers.
Elise Keith (2015). We decided to test out all the online sticky-note, brainstorming, and decision-making tools we could find to figure out just which ones work best for quick collaborative sessions during a meeting.
Recommended Reading & Resources
Articles
- "Research: For Better Brainstorming, Tell an Embarrassing Story", Leigh Thompson (2017).
Books
- Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. Michael Michalko (2006).