Burn the Popcorn: Get more from Brainstorming

Your process improvement effort is going splendidly. You flowcharted, collected data, determined root cause and, now, you finally get to discuss solutions.

1) What’s your approach to the trickier situations, where solutions aren’t obvious?
2) Do you minimize all that preparation by launching a traditional brainstorming session?

You know, the sessions where people just randomly “pop” out ideas, often referred to as “Popcorn brainstorming.” It assumes that all ideas are good ideas (no criticism), people will be inspired by other ideas, and it produces the most ideas. However, the method rarely gets the desired results. .

Keith Sawyer, Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina, summarizes the situation in his book Group Genius: “Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.” This session will introduce alternatives to traditional or “popcorn” brainstorming and let you practice on the spot.

Speaker Bio:
Head shot yuen lui v2.jpg
CAROL KNIGHT-WALLACE,
MBA, PMP, CSSBB

Carol Knight-Wallace is a management consultant with 30 years experience in both the public and private sectors. Her consulting practice includes strategic planning, process improvement, team building, program and project management, training, and facilitation. She is considered expert at program startups and improving programs and processes and was a leader in launching Quality/Six Sigma efforts in three organizations. .
She holds a BA from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA; BBA from City University, Seattle; and MBA, City University, Seattle. She is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, a PMI certified Project Management Professional and an accredited facilitator for Lencioni’s Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team.

Date: Thursday May 11, 2017
Time: 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Hotel 116
Coast Bellevue Hotel 625 116th Ave. NE Bellevue, WA 98004
(425) 455-9444

Registration 5:00 p.m. Dinner 6:00 p.m.
Announcements 6:45 p.m. Presentation 7:00 p.m.
Adjourn 8:00 p.m. Parking: Free on site