Event Storming: A New Method of Idea Generation

In today’s fast-paced, rapidly evolving digital world, new ideas are critical for keeping your organization relevant, innovative and productive.

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However, coming up with those great ideas can be challenging. Traditional brainstorming doesn’t always produce the results you need. Organizations that want to generate more ideas and work better as a team are favouring event storming as an alternative.

What is Event Storming?

An event storming session is a fast-paced, collaborative approach to ideation that aims to generate more ideas and find creative solutions to issues. A team-based storming session is moderated by a moderator. The moderator guides the group through a series of predetermined activities and prompts, which inspire the group to generate ideas and find innovative solutions to issues.

It’s additionally known as “idea blizzarding” or “extreme brainstorming”, event is a less structured and more collaborative approach to brainstorming. Participants are encouraged to actively collaborate with each other throughout the process, leading to a larger quantity of ideas and a more creative final product.

Why use Event Storming?

In an increasingly competitive and fast-moving world, it’s important that organizations remain innovative. Organizations have long relied on traditional brainstorming to generate new ideas. However, when done incorrectly, brainstorming can prove unproductive.

Event storming is a newer approach that is used to generate greater ideas and facilitate team member collaboration. Its primary advantages include increased creativity and a less structured approach. This leads to a greater creative output as individuals are more likely to come up with creative solutions.

• Better outcomes: Since sessions are less structured and less time-consuming than traditional brainstorming, you can get better outcomes in less time.
• More ideas: Storming encourages team members to share what they already know, which leads to more ideas and greater creativity.
• Better collaboration: less structured than traditional brainstorming and encourages team members to be more collaborative. This leads to better collaboration, which is critical for high-performing teams.

How to Conduct Session?

To run an event storming session, you must follow these steps:

• Select a topic: Before you start, pick a topic for your event storming session. You can either choose a broad topic, like “company culture,” or a specific topic, like “new onboarding process.”
• Plan the event: Before the event, plan the event storming session. You can do this by writing down the details of what you want to achieve and the various activities that you want to include.
• Create an inviting atmosphere: You want the event storming session to be as inviting and creative as possible. It’s crucial to set up an open, collaborative atmosphere where team members can interact freely and collaborate. Remember to start the event with a team storming session after you have everything prepared. After the session, address any issues or concerns that were raised.

Pros

There are several advantages of using idea blizzarding to generate ideas, including:

• More ideas: Event storming is likely to yield more ideas than traditional brainstorming. This is because event storming is more collaborative, and individuals are less likely to censor themselves.
• Higher quality ideas: Event storming is also likely to produce higher quality ideas. This is because it’s less structured, which allows team members to be more creative.
• Better collaboration: Collaboration among team members tends to be higher during event storming, which can ultimately result in better collaboration.
• Less time-consuming: extreme brainstorming is less time-consuming than traditional brainstorming. Classes are less structured and less likely to be interrupted, which is why I prefer to learn independently.
• More engaging: Event storming tends to be more engaging than traditional brainstorming. This is because it’s less structured, more collaborative and encourages team members to actively participate.

Cons

There are also some disadvantages of event storming, including:

• Risk of overlooking important issues: Since idea blizzarding is less structured than traditional brainstorming, it’s possible that team members overlook important issues.
• Lack of focus: Since event storming is less structured than traditional brainstorming, it’s also possible that team members don’t focus on the right issues.
• More time-consuming: Since extreme brainstorming is less structured than traditional, it’s likely to be more time-consuming. This can be a problem if you’re under time pressure.
• Lack of discipline: Since there’s less discipline during event storming, it’s possible that team members don’t adhere to the rules.

Key Takeaway

Event storming can improve creativity and collaboration, as well as generate more ideas. Event storming is a less structured approach to ideation than traditional brainstorming. Individuals are more likely to come up with creative solutions, leading to a larger creative output.

Extreme brainstorming produces higher quality ideas, is more engaging, and requires less time than regular brainstorming. However, it does come with some disadvantages. Team members may miss crucial issues or concentrate on the wrong issues, for example.