“If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Ever noticed how the most creative person in the room is often someone who hasn’t been with the company for long – perhaps an intern or a new joiner? Fresh from university or another industry or company, they see angles and opportunities that those who may have been in the role for many years simply cannot.

In a workshop, it is our role as facilitators to inspire that kind of fresh creativity in ALL our participants through active provocation. Provocation is a strong word; it means that we may need to make people uncomfortable, force them to look at things in new ways and listen to new perspectives, that they might not otherwise have been exposed to.

Here are 3 ways that we provoke creativity in our workshops:

  1. Invite provocateurs; experts, influencers and extreme consumers

Bringing external people into a workshop to co-create ideas with the team is valuable because it radically increases the diversity of viewpoints and forces the team to think beyond their usual constraints.

Experts have a detailed knowledge of the topic at hand and can offer a more advanced or specialised perspective than the team has.

Influencers are able to speak on behalf of a consumer group and tend to be charismatic, creative thinkers who can also speak to future trends and inspirational niche brands.

Extreme consumers (for example heavy users or refusers) offer a perspective that the team may not yet have considered even if they do have regular interaction with target consumers.

For more on co-creation with provocateurs see Chapter 23 in the new edition of The Workshop Book.

  • Create multi-sensorial experiences

Multi-sensorial experiences help teams to deeply connect with their consumers or the topic at hand in an emotionally provocative and meaningful way. Instead of just listening to a presentation or reading a deck, the team immerses themselves in the space by engaging in a pre-planned experience that is related to the topic, for example:

  • Visiting stores, restaurants, public places or art galleries
  • Trying out new products that meet a similar consumer need as the brand (you can ask workshop participants to choose and buy their own products or curate a collection of products that is purchased, packaged and sent to workshop participants beforehand)
  • Engaging in physical experiences like exercise, art, singing, dancing and eating together.

Chapter 17 of the new edition of The Workshop Book is a comprehensive guide to using multi-sensorial stimulus in workshops.

  • Introduce case studies from parallel worlds

Case studies from outside the category help to jolt workshop participants out of their day to day thinking by inspiring them with new approaches to similar consumer needs or the business challenge. For example, for a toothpaste brand, case studies about outside-category repair products like bicycle puncture kits, are more likely to provoke creative new ideas than a case study about a competitor that the participants are likely already familiar with.

Look for at least one case study per team and then write it up succinctly: capture the company or brand name, some pictures of the product or service from their website and a description of what they offer or do. During the workshop, ask each team to read the case study and then list at least 10 reasons why the product or service is successful. Teams can then use each of these reasons to springboard new ideas for their own category or brand.

For more on creating and using case studies, see Chapter 16 of the new edition of the Workshop Book.

Buy the new edition of The Workshop Book for 30 tools and techniques that always work, coming soon.

If you’d like help structuring or facilitating your next workshop, our team at Paraffin would be very happy to set up a call to discuss your project.