As Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo point out in their book, Gamestorming, “[Humans] are so good at finding patterns that once we find one, it can be difficult to see anything else.”

One of the simplest ways to shake up people’s thinking, and therefore encourage everyone to let NEW patterns emerge, is to put their ideas onto moveable objects: sticky notes, index cards, anything that can be arranged and rearranged in multiple ways.

So here’s your challenge for this post: The next time you do a brainstorming session, instead of charting everyone’s responses on a large whiteboard or chart paper, have everyone write their ideas down on sticky notes (if it’s large group, I often use the half-sheet sized stickies, or, if you are familiar with ToP (Technology of Participation), you can use a Sticky Wall, which is super fun and convenient!).

Once people have had time to generate their ideas – one idea per sticky note – there are endless things you can do with them.

Here’s an example: I ask participants to brainstorm what makes a good leader. They are each given ten sticky notes and do their brainstorm. I have a couple of options now. This is where it really starts to get fun!

1. I can ask them to get into groups of four, so that each group has forty sticky notes, and see if they can sort their notes by putting similar concepts together until all of the notes are in a category.
2. I can post categories around the room, (in this instance those might be something like, “Interpersonal,” Intrapersonal,” “Microlevel” and “Macrolevel”), and ask participants to try to sort their notes into those categories.
3. I can ask people to take turns posting their ideas up one at a time. As someone posts an idea, anyone who has a similar idea can put their sticky note up with the one that is already posted and explain why they think the two go together.
4. I can ask everyone to put all of their sticky notes on a table, and then invite people to walk around and collect five sticky notes that they feel are most important in a good leader and post those up together.
5. You can ask people to post them all up and then pick three that they feel they possess already as a leader, and three that they feel they still need to work on.

As you are probably realizing now, there are dozens (hundreds?) of activities you can do with those notes! I’d love to hear your ideas or fun things you’ve tried with this type of brainstorming + sorting activity.

Also, as you probably notice, if you are familiar with Spark Decks, our cards fill a similar purpose. Rather than publishing a curriculum or handbook for staff to walk through, the use of a deck, which can be sorted and organized in any order, breaks up the linear thinking (and groaning) that can sometimes accompany a bound text.

Try this out and let me know how it goes, and, if you like the ideas in this post, by the way, you’ll love https://gamestorming.com. I do!