Idea Generation and Innovation Activities

In Options Place, participants propose and lead their own breakout sessions instead of following a preset agenda. This unleashes people’s creativity and invites them to attend sessions that match their interests. When given the freedom to shape the agenda, participants become more engaged and take greater ownership of solutions, which leads to greater commitment, action, innovation, and follow-through. In this way, Options Place brings to life LS Principle #6, Amplify Freedom and Responsibility. This structure works well for large groups.

With this facilitation technique you can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance.

Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified. No buy-in strategies needed! Simple and elegant!

This structure reinforces LS Principle #1, ­Include and Unleash Everyone.

DAD makes it easy for a group to discover better practices that only a few members are using to solve a common problem, called positive deviant behaviors.

We’re going to uncover the behaviors and practices some of us are already using to tackle our shared challenge. It’s like going on a treasure hunt to find the solutions hidden in our midst.”When held in a local setting close to where the problem manifests, it creates a safe space to invent new and more effective practices, sparking imagination and strengthening resolve to take action. It also builds relationships between people in diverse roles. This structure enacts LS Principle #2, Practice Deep Respect for People and Local Solutions.

Uncover and challenge the hidden beliefs, assumptions, and internal voices that are limiting progress toward an important goal. In small groups, one person shares a personal or professional challenge while two others play contrasting “pixie” roles – one advocating for change and possibility and the other representing resistance and caution.

Through this playful exchange, participants surface unconscious assumptions, explore opposing perspectives on risks and opportunities, and gain clarity on how to move forward. This structure helps reveal internal barriers, generate new insights, and support more informed action planning in individual and group settings.

Create a shared visual map of what a group observes, discovers, and plans to act on together. Participants begin by capturing individual observations and patterns related to a question or challenge, then combine (“meld”) these into a collective map that makes insights and action ideas visible to everyone. By moving through stages of noticing what’s present, interpreting why it matters, and identifying next steps, MindMeld helps groups surface rich, shared understanding and align on concrete actions before moving forward.

 You can help a large crowd generate and sort their bold ideas for action in 30 minutes or less! With 25/10 Crowd Sourcing, you can spread innovations “out and up” as everyone notices the patterns in what emerges. Though it is fun, fast, and casual, it is a serious and valid way to generate an uncensored set of bold ideas and then to tap the wisdom of the whole group to identify the top ten. Surprises are frequent! This structure brings to life LS Principle #1, Include and Unleash Everyone.

Notice threads in the present that if tugged on might unravel a more attractive future. Identify how the hints of a more ideal future are present, just not widely distributed yet. Participants can notice small changes, support structures, and local success patterns that have the potential to be scaled up to a global transformation. This includes surfacing strategies to overcome resistance and methods to spread early successes. Future~Present does not produce a plan to be implemented but rather builds momentum, imagination, social proof, and confidence in subtle or incremental signals. This builds capacity to actively shape next steps and pounce on opportunities. Future~Present enacts LS Principle #9, Engage in Seriously Playful Curiosity.

Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Creativity through pictures and images

Help a group to time-travel and tap their imagination by fictional objects.
With tangible objects and the stories your participants make up w/ them you'll get so much richer inputs and context to inform joint visioning / strategizing:
The future doesn't look that far away when you can pick it off the shelf.

This step-by-step method is intended to facilitate the co-creation of actual measures and steps towards change within a team or an organisation. All participants are involved and develop all the ideas together. You have idea owners but the content is created through a process where everyone is involved in all ideas.