Wildstorming is the radical cousin of traditional brainstorming, as it turns the process on its head, where weird and bizarre concepts are the rule.
During a wild storm session, team members suggest absolutely crazy solutions to the core problem being examined. Wild storms are a great place to ponder ideas that are truly over the top or prohibitively expensive. Wildstorm’s answers may deny physics and logic; they may be bizarre, fanciful, or even illegal. In fact, they may be impossible! The main rule of thumb for a successful wild storm is that ideas should be anything but practical.
The reward?
Wildstorming is both an ‘icebreaker’ in thinking about a problem and an exercise in looking at a particular problem from a wide variety of angles, especially non-traditional ones.
Remedies discovered during a wild storm session would likely never be implemented; however, wild storms lead to creative ideas about the causes and effects of the core problem. The final result is new and innovative solutions.
How does it work!
Although wild storms by themselves can lead to the discovery of a novel response, the following three-day process is recommended for full impact.
Day 1: The method is explained to the wildstorm team, the problem is presented, and a 30-minute wildstorming session takes place. Every suggested idea, however silly, is recorded by the scribe.
Day 2: This is the day of ‘share and rest’. The full list of wildstorm results is distributed to the entire team for overnight review and deep thought.
Day 3: The same team meets again for a traditional brainstorm on the exact same problem. This second session will have the new objective of trying to generate a new set of ideas that can be translated into real world solutions. You will be pleased with the results of following this entire three day process. Don’t be surprised if bits of previously crazy ideas from the wildstorm session are recycled into novel, viable, and superior solutions.
The bottom line: Wildstorming is a game that leads to real breakthroughs, increased productivity, and better teams.