Brain-storming Exercises from R Squared (R2P3)

So, this is the final installment in the R Squared Blog Posting Series and it's going to introduce three different variations on brainstorming that we actually practiced during the conference. Do you know of other variations? Please share them in the comments!

Role Storming

Premise: You brainstorm as if you're someone else, usually someone famous - either fiction or non-fiction. In the exercise we did at the conference the question we were brainstorming answers for was, "what would you do to increase library use?"

I brainstormed as if I were Willie Wonka. Also present at my table were Oprah, Mary Poppins, Genghis Khan, Pippi Longstockings, and at least 4 others I cannot remember. Here are some solutions we came up with:

• Make everything in the library edible; preferably chocolatey and sweet.
• Paint with bright, vibrant colors
• Induce horror and fear into the patrons
• Hold a kite festival
• Launch a golden ticket campaign
• Employe multi-purpose Oompa Loopas (Ghengis says to make them into cheap slave laobr)
• Create a library sports team and then sell out and make money on them
• Create a chocolate river that flows from one town to another making transportation to the library easier and tastier
• Use the Angel Network to advertise the library and the staff and all the good they do
• Bully people into using the library, harass them
• Brainwash people into using the library through forced CCTV viewing
• Offer a "Flying High with Mary Poppins" workshop to teach people how to travel by umbrella.
• Host a retail store - where we sell community-made goods that the community made in the library's makerspace
• Have a library reality TV show
• Conquor other libraries and bookstores so there is no competition

 The Opposite

Premise: When we usually brainstorm, we usually brainstorm logical solutions but the point of this exercise is to brainstorm the opposite of logical solutions. For example, if we wanted to brainstorm ideas for getting people to return their items on time or early we might impose late fees. Well, we used this exercise with the same question as in the role storming exercise. So, here are some opposite ideas for how to get more people to use the library:

• Pay the patrons when they're late
• Do not charge late fees at all
• Tell them they they can't come to the library  (ala Eric Cartman)
• Take the library to them
• Make raw advertising content like the $1 Shave Club guy
• Have no due dates
• Have "adult" material for check out
• Have no organizational system
• Provide questions, not answers at the service desks
• Provide pop-up libraries instead of fixed brick and mortar libraries

The Long List
 
Premise: With typical brainstorming sessions, lists end up being in the 30s, 40s, maybe 50s but the point of this exercise is to go beyond that and to really tap into the creativity of the brainstormer. The notion is that once you get the usual ideas out on the paper and you force yourself to keep going, then that's where the game-changing ideas live. So, for the long list, the goal is to brainstorm 200 solutions/ideas etc for whatever it is you're trying to resolve.