Brainstorming after kickoff

[Andrew]

We've done a bunch of different brain-storming type activities. Here's what we are finding to be successful. It's very important to be explicit in your instructions to the group, so that everyone is on the same page.

First, figure out all possible "strategies" that your team can generate. You might want to break this into separate sections on "offense" and "defense."

You need to keep the discussion focussed on idea creation at first. Feasibility studies or specific mechanisms are not advisable at this point. You also have to keep the group from degenerating into debating the pros and cons of a specific idea. This usually kills the ideation phase before you have mapped the "rules space."

The advantage to mapping out the entire space is that you will have an idea of what other teams are going to try. This will make it easier to prepare counter-strategies. It also keeps the air clear to consider different ideas. You may be surprised to find that your "darling" idea is not the best approach.

Once you have listed all strategies, you should do at least a preliminary feasibility study and allocation of resources. For instance, in 2001, the small balls on the field were very difficult to score and they did not count for much. I don't recall a single match where anyone actually did anything with those balls. This strategy would be a high resource/low result strategy and should be eliminated by a feasibility study.

You also want to put a decision making process into place before you get carried away. The worst possible occurrence is to have two camps, each arguing vociferously for their strategy throughout the six week build phase.

Example decision making structures include:
classic hierarchy (pres, vice pres, director, manager)
Banana Republic dictatorship (El Presidente makes all the actual decisions)
pure democracy (everyone votes equally on everything)
republic (representatives vote on everything)
anarchy (everyone does whatever they please and hope for the best)

Which option you pick depends on how many people you have and how well trained they are.

Pure democracy and anarchy both inevitably lead to disaster. Democracy is a slow process. Anarchy usually leads to people undoing what other people have already done.

Andrew, El Presidente for Team 356