What's Included in a Free the Genie for Teams Engagement
Free the Genie for Teams is a simple, online, collaborative process that enables teams to unleash their collective genius and generate breakthrough ideas in service to a compelling goal, challenge or opportunity.
The service we provide is the distillation of what we've learned, since 1987, designing and facilitating more 1,500 creative thinking sessions for 130 organizations in 11 countries.
Bottom line, we know how to open the floodgates of creativity. It is not a magic pill, but it does work magic and it does so in a very intentional and organized way.
What follows is a menu of the services and products included in a Free the Genie engagement.
1. Culture of Innovation survey: A chance for each participant to assess its team's culture of innovation -- what enables it and what gets in the way. Yes, your team has the potential to generate all kinds of game-changing ideas and insights, but the origination and execution of this good stuff is inextricably connected to your team's mood, mindset and ways of operating.
2. Identification of the Most Powerful Opportunity to Brainstorm: If you ask members of your team to define the "real issue" that needs to be addressed, you will get a wide variety of responses. Everyone perceives "things" differently.
This is why all Free the Genie engagements begin with team members responding to our online What's the Real Question? page -- a chance for them to pause, reflect and define the challenge they most want to explore together. We then review their input, look for recurring patterns and themes, and present them to you with our recommendation of the best "How can we?" question for your team to brainstorm.
3. Customization of Your Free the Genie session: Based on the results of our Culture of Innovation survey and the final articulation of your team's "How can we?" question, your Free the Genie facilitator will customize your team's brainstorming process accordingly. One size does not fit all. Each Free the Genie engagement is customized to meet the specific needs, mood and mindset of our clients.
4. Two 90-minute online brainstorming sessions: The heart and soul of a Free the Genie engagement is the experience of your team generating and developing bold new ideas and insights. Towards this end, FTG session #1 focuses on fostering a culture of innovation and generating a wide range of powerful new ideas. Session #2 focuses on idea development, feedback, alignment, and evaluation.
5. Two Insight & Ideation Reports: One of the reasons why most brainstorming sessions fail is because the output of those sessions is rarely summarized and evaluated. Lots of spaghetti is thrown against the wall, but the meal is rarely forthcoming. This is why, within 48 hours of each Free the Genie session, we deliver a summary of your team's output -- a report that also includes our own recommendations for how your team can proceed in the most compelling way. Each member of your team will receive this report and be expected to review and evaluate the output.
6. Two Reality Check Debrief calls: A lot happens in a Free the Genie session. Bold new ideas are generated. Exciting possibilities are identified. Varying opinions and perspectives are expressed, which is precisely why we debrief each session with you -- a chance for you to reflect on the experience and further pave the way forward for whatever comes next.
7. Subscription to Free the Genie online: One of the cool things about a Free the Genie session is that participants experience just how powerful our creative thinking prompts and techniques are. They also see how simple it can be to get out the box with the right kind of nudge. Team members who want to continue the creative thinking process will be invited to register, at no charge, for a Free the Genie subscription so they can use our online tool whenever they want.
8. Decks of Free the Genie cards: Within 48 hours after FTG session #2 we mail each participating member of your team a deck of our Free the Genie cards -- 55 creative thinking prompts that open minds and closes the gap between idea and execution.
9. Teamwork Cards: Free the Genie sessions not only open the floodgates of possibility, they also shed light on team dynamics that need to be improved. How to address these issues is often a challenge for teams. Which is why, at your request, we will email each team member a deck of our Teamwork Cards -- a simple way to raise the bar for team collaboration.
10. Access to our Creative Thinking Vault: Since 1987, we have published (online) more than 2,500 articles, tools, techniques, and videos on the creative process. Two years in a row, the Founder of Idea Champions was voted the "Best Innovation Blogger in the World." To increase the odds of your team getting the support it needs to continue innovating, we have selected 100 of our favorite posts and make them available to you. One click will get you there.
11. One-on-one Free the Genie Session: It is very likely that you and/or a few members of your team, inspired by their Free the Genie experience, will want a private session with us -- a chance to dive deeper into a work-related project of their own. Towards that end, we include one individual FTG session for the team member of your choice. No extra charge.
12. A 20% discount on our Free the Genie certification training: Yes, we can train selected members of your team to facilitate Free the Genie sessions. It would be our pleasure. To increase the odds of this happening, we are happy to offer a 20% discount.
More about Free the Genie
How teams can brainstorm online
Metaphors Be With You
What people are saying about Free the Genie
Your Free the Genie facilitators
Mitch Ditkoff
Val Vadeboncoeur
Stevie Ray McHugh
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