All you need is judging, criticizing and stealing

13.9.2016

Traditional brainstorming methods share a serious problem; there is no chance to judge the content of another person’s ideas. No one wants to face criticism when they share an idea, but without a chance to criticize an idea, it is impossible to judge its content and tell a good idea from a bad one. Idealogue is different. Criticizing and judging are vital steps in the Idealogue method. An important rule of the Idealogue method is to steal with pride. This requires you to listen to what other people have to say and then decide for yourself if their ideas are worth stealing or not. This is how during the Idealogue method, bad or mediocre ideas are filtered out, leaving only the best ideas.

The Idealogue method always uses the same five steps performed in the same order. The first stage is the individual stage where the topic of the day is given to the group by the meeting leader and everyone is given a few moments to write down their thoughts.

The second stage is group formation and it is here where people begin to steal ideas from one another. The larger group is broken down into smaller groups of three or four and people have a few minutes to listen to one another and steal the ideas that they like. In a typical Idealogue session, there are three or four rounds of sharing in small groups. This is the third stage, repeated small group work.

Then it is time for the fourth stage, ideas selection. People remain in small groups and decide together what the best ideas are. Once a small group has agreed on what the best ideas are, the ideas are written down on a piece of paper and posted at the front of the room where everyone can see.

Idealogue ends with the final stage ideas evaluation. All of the participants join back together as one large group and the meeting leader summarizes the ideas posted at the front of the room and answers questions that people have about the ideas.

This five stage structure is effective because it makes Idealogue both an individual and a group activity. People have to share with others making it a group task but everyone is evaluating the ideas on their own, trying to steal the best ones for themselves. As people share with one another, new ideas are formed and the ideas improve, and with everyone individually thinking critically about ideas when trying to steal with pride, only good ideas are stolen. This means that by the end of an Idealogue session, there is usually already a general consensus among the group about what the best ideas are.

You will be able to read about the Idealogue method in much more detail in Pepe Nummi’s book Beyond Brainstorming – Idealogue, which was released in September 2016. Visit Idealogue’s very own webpage www.Idealoguemethod.com where you can read a sample excerpt from the book, read about the method in more detail, or even schedule a training session with Grape People about how to use the Idealogue Method.

Andrew Ullom