In today’s hybrid work landscape, meetings have become abundant, but unfortunately, many of them still suffer from inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Specifically, meetings aimed at generating ideas to address various challenges related to people, processes, or products encounter recurring issues. The lack of a clear goal in these meetings hinders active participation, and the organizer often dominates the conversation, resulting in a limited number of ideas that fail to fully solve the problem. Both the organizer and attendees are left feeling dissatisfied with the outcomes.

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The below sample agenda assumes that problem definition is clear. If that is not the case, hold a session prior to the ideation session to align on the problem. Tools such as interviewing, Affinity Mapping, and developing User Need statements and “How Might We” questions can be useful in facilitating that discussion. A sample agenda for ideation sessions

Estimated time needed: 45–60 minutes

1. Introduction & ground rules (2 minutes)

• Share the agenda for the ideation session.
• Review any ground rules or guidelines for the meeting.
• Allow time for attendees to ask questions or seek clarification.

2. Warm-up exercise (5–10 minutes)

• Conduct a warm-up exercise to foster creativity and build rapport among participants such as 30 Circles or One Thing, Nine Ways.
• Choose an activity that aligns with the goals of the meeting and reflects the activities planned for the session. A quick Google search for “warm-up exercises design thinking” will return several potential activities.

3. Frame the problem (2 minutes)

   • Share a single artifact (slide, Word Doc, section of text in whiteboard tool) that serves as a summary of the problem, providing participants with a reference point to anchor their thinking and revisit as needed throughout the session.

4. Guided ideation & dot voting (30 minutes)

   • Select 1–2 guided ideation exercises such as Crazy 8s, Mash-up, Six Thinking Hats. A quick Google search for “ideation techniques design thinking” will return tons of potential exercises.
   • Provide clear instructions.
   • Use Dot Voting and/or Prioritization Matrix to select the most promising ideas.

5. Next steps & closing remarks (5 minutes)

   • Assign owners or champions for the selected ideas who will be responsible for driving their implementation (if not already known).
   • Summarize the key decisions made and actions to be taken.
   • Clarify any follow-up tasks or assignments.
   • Express gratitude for participants’ contributions and conclude the meeting on a positive note.