Idea Ping Pong – a simple way to get ideas to flow
When working as a coach, conventional wisdom says that any ideas should come from the person you are working with. They emerge if you give enough attention and support, ask interesting questions and listen.
I have worked with, coached, and consulted with many people, have buckets of experience, and can easily produce valuable ideas. However, I don’t want to show off or bombard my clients. Coaching is about helping them, not boosting my ego.
Idea Ping Pong helps the client contribute ideas; the coach offers ideas but does not take over. It’s fun, too.
Idea Ping Pong
This simple technique works very well. You take turns producing ideas! You encourage and model building on ideas, not criticising them.
Let’s suppose the client’s issue is that the team meetings she chairs are not as productive as she would like them to be.
A conversation might go like this.
Me: How do you feel about the meetings?
Client: Bored, irritated, frustrated.
Me: How would you like to feel about them?
Client: Excited, interested, happy
Me: What’s one thing you could do to make you feel that way?
Client: Hold them somewhere more interesting sometimes. The room is dull. We could go offsite once in a while.
Me: Would you like an idea from me? If so, we could take turns for a few minutes and play “Idea ping pong” (Explain what that is)
Client: OK
Me: You could ask the people how they feel about the meeting. Just ask for a word or two and for everyone else to listen. They might well be bored, too.
Client: I could ask them to play “Idea Ping Pong” in pairs about what needs to happen to make the meetings less boring!
Me: You could ask the people who presented the most interesting ideas to implement them. Then, more people would want the meeting to succeed.
Etc etc
Finally
Just keep going until you naturally run out of energy. You will have ideas you would never have had by yourself in just a few minutes. The combination of support and challenge, constructive competition, and collaboration is very stimulating. The method works well in pairs and equally well in a group. You can use many small groups in a large meeting. Then, could stop halfway through, share the results between groups, and continue.
It’s important to remember that Idea Ping Pong’s output is ideas. The decision on what to do with them, if anything, remains with the client.
I would be very interested to hear your use of this technique.
A comment from a client (We did a two-way test over the phone).
Idea ping-pong works. I’ve tried it face-to-face and over the telephone. It quickly generates a range of ideas. All you need is a problem and the courage to use it.