QRCA Views

24 QRCA VIEWS FA LL 2 014 www.qrca.org Spontaneous Combustion C O N T I N U E D the right foot, then the left foot. Go back to the right hand and repeat, this time counting to 7. Repeat the process all the way down to 1. It leaves the group a bit giddy, breathless, and very much awake. Name game. This is a good icebreaker that helps infuse energy, and encourages respondents to feel more comfortable sharing with one another. Everyone is standing. Say your first name and the first name of one of the respondents. That person then says her name, and the name of someone else in the group. Continue until all have had a turn. Have respondents pick up the pace, saying the first name that comes to mind, and not taking time to decide. Eventually, you may want to set a "beat" by clapping. Each person must say a name on a clap. Pick up the pace as you go. Encourage participants to stay in the moment -- talking on the clap, not before and not after it. Creativity An improv show is a cauldron of cre- ativity. The entire event is created on the spot! In order to be imaginative and think out-of-the-box, improvisers must resist the urge to edit themselves and their fellow actors. Editing causes us to hesitate and second-guess. It takes us out of the moment and is the biggest enemy of creativity. We'd like all focus groups to be creative, but creativity is particularly important for things like ideation. Editing oneself keeps potentially great ideas from ever seeing the light of day. Editing others prevents builds, which are crucial for success. Word ball. This free association exer- cise is easy, provides a good mental warm up and opens the door to resisting the urge to edit oneself. Group is standing. Toss a beach ball to a respondent and say a word (e.g., "apple"). The respondent must catch the ball and toss it to someone else, while saying another word that was inspired by the word you said. Remind everyone that there are no wrong answers. They simply need to say any word that comes to mind when the previous word is said. At first respondents may be hesitant, thinking too hard about what to say. Encourage them to resist editing themselves and say the first word that comes to mind. After a while, they relax and begin to truly free associate. This is good because … I do a lot of ideation projects. By the end of a product naming session, we may have generated 300 or so names. If 10-15 of those names are potential "winners," in my opinion, we've done a great job. But it also means that 285-290 ideas are not useful. That's a hit rate of only 3-5% (or a 95-97% failure rate for you pessimists). To get to those precious few good ideas, the group must be comfortable with failure. Here's an exercise that stimulates cre- ativity and actually encourages the group to make mistakes and embrace them. Group is standing. Hold up an object, e.g., a pen, and say, "This pen is good because you can________." Fill in the blank, e.g., "write with it." Pass the pen to the person next to you, and have him fill in the same blank: "This pen is good because you can ________". Continue passing the object. The group will quickly run out of logical solutions. They must continue, and can say anything they want, reminding them that there are no wrong answers, e.g., "A pen is good because you can punch holes in the ground to plant seeds." "A pen is good because you can use it to pole vault if you're very small," etc. Go around the group multiple times. At some point you may want to change objects and continue. I've also used this with actual prod- ucts we were working on. It can some- times be a great way to uncover unex- pected associations. "Stop thinking! Stay in the moment and focus on what is being said. We do it naturally when speaking with good friends. We engage. We react. We listen. When we do, we usually make instant emotionally connected responses, and we rarely forget the important things that are said to us." "A moderator's sensitivity to group dynamics, along with a few well-placed improv exercises to boost energy and stimulate creativity can make quite a difference."

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