Last week I was asked to deliver a session to our MSc in Sports Science students on entrepreneurship and idea development. Their lecturer felt that, although bright and very knowledgeable, their subject of study was quite restricted, so they’d benefit from a change to what they were usually doing.
The session started with a 15-minute brainstorming on the craziest ideas the students could come up with, followed by a half-hour session on actually developing the idea that they chose to go with. The students had to do that in teams. To help them with this stage, I gave them a template with the main points they would have to develop – such as what gave them the inspiration, what distinguished them from any competitors, or what their market entry strategy would be. After that, each team would present their idea in front of their classmates, answer questions and receive feedback. All this of course in a fun and informal way.
I was impressed by the ideas that came up. Some had to do with sports, but several were about completely different topics, such as the environment, non-smoking, teaching and learning etc. The ideas were presented with a good sense of humour, yet most presentations were also comprehensive and well thought. Some of the ideas were pretty original and I thought that they might actually have a good chance of being successful in the real world. More than anything, it looked like the students involved had a lot of fun, learned a lot and were pushed to broaden their horizons and to think “out of the box”.
Interesting post. Given the challenges – economic and otherwise – which this country will assuredly face in the next several years, it surely makes sense to nuture the entrepreneurial spirit among our young people in any way we can.
Brainstorming with a group of people is a powerful technique. Brainstorming creates new ideas, solves problems, motivates and develops teams. Brainstorming motivates because it involves members of a team in bigger management issues, and it gets a team working together. However, brainstorming is not simply a random activity. Brainstorming needs to be structured and it follows brainstorming rules. The brainstorming process is described below, for which you will need a flip-chart or alternative. This is crucial as Brainstorming needs to involve the team, which means that everyone must be able to see what’s happening. Brainstorming places a significant burden on the facilitator to manage the process, people’s involvement and sensitivities, and then to manage the follow up actions. Use Brainstorming well and you will see excellent results in improving the organization, performance, and developing the team.
Your’s is a point of view where real intelligence shines through.