Each month, we highlight a card so you can get to know the deck one at a time. This month, we’re spotlighting one of our favorite brainstorming processes: 100 Ideas!
Here’s how to facilitate it
This activity hinges on creating a brainstorming environment where every idea is worthy of a sticky note. We do this by choosing an outsized number of ideas that we’re trying to generate in a short amount of time. Then giving participants a clear directive to write down every idea, including the impractical, impossible, or straight-up “bad” ideas.
Pass out sticky notes to each participant, and tell them to write down one idea per sticky. Then, reveal your ambitious goal (e.g. with a group of 10 people, set the generative goal of 100 ideas in the next two minutes - 10 stickies per participant), remind everyone of the prompt, and then start the timer.
When it’s useful
100 Ideas is a great option when the possibilities for a prompt feel endless, or a topic has many varied directions it could be taken in.
It’s a fantastic process for when you’re trying to get ideas that no one would have voiced otherwise, and we find it especially helpful when working with groups that have always had just one way of doing a task within an organization.
When you need folks to think big, run 100 Ideas!
Prompts & Examples
(anatomy of a prompt sentence breakdown)
100 Icebreaker Openers — “In the next five minutes we’re going to come up with 100 icebreaker questions. They don’t have to be great, or even ones you’d want to ask or be asked, they just have to be an icebreaker question. Get at least 10 in the next two minutes. GO!”
We once ran 100 Ideas during a session to come up with 100 unique Icebreaker prompts! Check out the results of our 100 Ideas Brainstorm on MURAL!
Team brainstorm — “We are looking forward to the new year. So far we’ve been using sales numbers as our metrics for success. We’d like to brainstorm all the possibilities that we could track/measure to use to gauge our success. We have to come up with 100 ideas. They don’t have to be good but they do have to be able to be measured or tracked in some capacity.”
You can run 100 Ideas to brainstorm…anything! Quarter goals (and how the team will celebrate completing them!), newsletter topics, items to put on sale, or even ways to improve retention rates.
Creativity Energizer — helps move groups past the notion that every idea should be good, worthy, or impressive. Have them brainstorm 100 uses for a pencil or 100 ways to move water from one place to another. Get them stretching for ideas to write down and have fun seeing what folks come up with!
Why we love it
The magic of 100 Ideas happens when participants are pushed past their self-judgment instincts and all ideas make it to a sticky note. If you have a group that is hesitant to share an idea unless they think it’s the right idea, 100 Ideas breaks them out of that box.
Even when an idea won’t work, it can provide a unique lens for a discussion to take place or can spark something that wouldn’t have been thought of otherwise.
It’s more generative to brainstorm in a world where anything is possible!