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Seeking Suggestions: Facilitating a Brainstorming Session with small business owner/investors
Hello, fellow Planners:
I'm going to be facilitating a brainstorming session for a group of 4 small business owners who need help developing a mission statement, positioning and in naming their business. I'm very used to doing this myself, with a writer/partner or junior designers. But now I'm looking for suggestions in how to run the session(s).
To start, I want to do it in a fun, neutral location. I've also assigned 'homework' for everyone: everyone brings in visuals of how they envision the business, their contribution to it, and in their own words, a mission or manifesto. This is so that everyone on the Board can understand how their vision of the business differs or aligns with their peers. I plan on bringing in a writer toward the end to craft the 'final' mission statement and positioning.
Pre-Session: 'homework' as described above
Session 1: Open brainstorming.
Session 2: Focus & Filter ideas.
Session 3: Present Mission & Nomenclature
Any suggestions are very welcome... thankyou in advance!
I'm going to be facilitating a brainstorming session for a group of 4 small business owners who need help developing a mission statement, positioning and in naming their business. I'm very used to doing this myself, with a writer/partner or junior designers. But now I'm looking for suggestions in how to run the session(s).
To start, I want to do it in a fun, neutral location. I've also assigned 'homework' for everyone: everyone brings in visuals of how they envision the business, their contribution to it, and in their own words, a mission or manifesto. This is so that everyone on the Board can understand how their vision of the business differs or aligns with their peers. I plan on bringing in a writer toward the end to craft the 'final' mission statement and positioning.
Pre-Session: 'homework' as described above
Session 1: Open brainstorming.
Session 2: Focus & Filter ideas.
Session 3: Present Mission & Nomenclature
Any suggestions are very welcome... thankyou in advance!
Tags: brainstorm, manifesto, mission, nomeclature, statement
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Schwenn on -
Hi Andy,
even though I am way too late to be of any help for your workshop, there might be other opprtunities in the future...
According to my own experience, the main task is to help them free themselves from their business myopia. They need to look at the company (or their brand) from different angles in order to get to a vision, positioning, etc.
A good way to stimulate this is to ask them a lot of questions so that they can get closer to their clients/customers/... without any research.
Questions like "Who would never use your service/brand/product/...?" (you will see there is always some people who reject you - to know who and why is helpful).
Or: "Is there anything WRONG with the ENVIRONMENT in which the service/brand/product/... is to be used?" (Imagine a women driving to work every morning through the rough and violent testosterone poisened traffic jam - that's the environment for a car that targets women - so that you can offer help or relieve for her).
Depending on the company or brand, you can imagine of tons of useful questions that help people think out of the box ("Does using the service/brand/product/... evoke MEMORIES - childhood, adventures, people,...?").
Hope that helps - and if you happen to apply something from this "method" - I would be happy to hear about your experiences!
All the best
Ben
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