If your projects are anything like mine, you will be plagued with problems and issues that need creative solutions. You cannot avoid it, that’s just the nature of project management. To keep your project on track, you must somehow overcome these obstacles.
Here are 4 group creativity techniques that you can use to identify the best way forward
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is usually a group activity undertaken to rapidly generate a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem. It is a quick exercise that can be accomplished in less than 15 minutes and requires little or no preparation. Informal brainstorming can be done with just a few people in an office. Formal brainstorming sessions may be organized with larger groups in conference rooms.
Nominal Group Technique
Nominal group technique a structured adaptation of brainstorming. It encourages contributions from participants and facilitates quick agreement on the relative importance of issues, problems, or solutions.
The process is straight forward. There are 3 basic steps to the nominal group technique, although some facilitators may embellish the procedures. The steps are brainstorm, discuss, and vote.
Idea / Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a visual approach to representing ideas and concepts. It is a graphical technique for visualizing connections between several ideas or pieces of information. Proponents of this system believe that it helps one think, collect knowledge, remember, and analyze information.
Affinity Diagram
The affinity diagram is another variation of brainstorming. Affinity diagrams organize and cluster large amounts of information into related groups and subgroups.