AI Supercharged Design Thinking IDEATION for TEAMS? Is that even possible?

After running hundreds of Design Thinking sessions, Sprints and teaching Design Thinking to hundreds of associates at Coca-Cola… I discovered how we can use AI to help teams co-create innovative, wild ideas - but also bring them back to reality! All done in surprisingly short sessions versus a full design sprint. 🤖💡

Encouraged and inspired by the results, I decided to share this in a workshop - hands-on, peer based and I promise, fun! 🏗 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

You'll learn how to facilitate an Ideation session where AI is a creative ally (instead of fearing it will replace us). You'll enable teams to leverage their collective genius AND level up their outputs with new possibilities 🛸 💥

At the end of the course, all participants will have built their very own 90 minute AI Supercharged Design Thinking IDEATION Session - cooked, spicy and ready to be facilitated. 👾 🏆

This workshop is for YOU if you're:
- A Design Thinking Facilitator that doesn't want settle for boring ideation sessions & wants to add more creative spice! 🔥🎨
- A Workshop consultant that needs to wow their clients with… their own team's creativity, unleashed by AI! 🙌💡
- A Marketer that's curious to experiment with AI to co-create ideas with colleagues or agency partners. 💡👥

Can you forward this to anyone you think would benefit from this? 👀📩🙏

We have a waiting list here where people can sign up: https://lnkd.in/dVjAXudu 📝👍

Thanks a lot! 💙🙏

Leveling up our practice

This morning, a passage really struck me when listening to Austin Kleon's “Steal like an artist” trilogy:

“when you don't know what to do next, a routine tells you.

when you don't have time, a routine helps make the little time you have count.

when you have all the time in the world, a routine makes sure you don't waste it.”

After starting, it feels like the hardest part is to keep going after the initial momentum. After the sparkles of enthusiasm and curiosity fade away.

I am not a fan of routine. But what if it works? 1 article per day means 365 a year. Sharing 1 thoughtful thing at the end of a day with someone you care about adds up… to a powerful connection.

This framing of routine reminded me also of another story, this time from struthless - about drawing advice that changed his life - which first triggered some resistance but then unlocked enormous potential.

Maybe doing 1 thing, repeatedly, whether we feel like it or not, might add up to much more than… anything else.

Some hard things about showing up

Is showing up about being seen? And do we want to be seen by others? To give a faint glimpse or rather a tornado of what we have to contribute? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Let's be clear, showing up might feel very difficult. Things could go wrong. People might disagree. We might not be as smart as we think. On the flip side, we might open a new perspective. We might help someone who feels the same but doesn't have a voice. We might show it's ok not to be perfect or have the complete answer but that we're trying.

Of course, our egos can get in the way. The spotlight, the power of influence… they bring out our blindspots too. Maybe one thing to do is to consider that sometimes we make it much harder for others to show up too - especially of we're occuping the whole space, or if they don't feel safe, or feel that we don't care about what they bring.

Why should we show up anyway? Should we do it for ourselves? For others? For a shared goal? Just to look smart? Our belief in our impact carries a big weight. Sometimes even if we care deeply about what's on the table - and our “why” is clear, it might still be hard to show up.

What if we come from a place of positive intent, of possibility, of generosity, of bringing a contribution to achieve something better?

So maybe when we do show up or invite others to do so, we try to make it so we show up together. Mutually. Open. Playful. Considerate. Making it safe to build together.

Holding back

Am I holding myself back? Why? Ultimately, this is about… what do I fear? What do I think will go wrong or backfire?

If we don’t want to get hurt, common sense is a good first filter to apply. However, it’s debatable if it’s the right thing to use when we want to take a leap. Because when we are holding back, we are withholding possibility. Potential is blocked.

Here is something to try. Take an action you have to do anyway. Drawing. Chatting with someone. A house chore. Playing an instrument. Petting your cat. Dancing. First, do it while holding back. Then do it without holding back. Reflect what changed, what was different. You might notice that it’s not just the output. It’s also how it felt doing it.

Fear is what keeps us here. If we want to be somewhere else, we might just have to stop holding back.

Falling in love with our own idea

“OK, hear me out, this is the best idea ever, I’ve been working on it for ages. Let me explain why it’s so great!”

Does this seem familiar? I guess we’ve all done it. There’s one caveat though. Sometimes this idea isn’t so great - it might be really awesome for us, but not for the people that it’s for. And it kind of hurts to hear when what we feel is awesome… just doesn’t click. When we are so attached to the idea that it’s “our own”, if we hear “this idea is crap”… then we might asume that “we are crap”. What if we don’t fall in this trap?

Great creatives do a couple of things that average creatives don’t. And these things are so universal you can easily steal them anytime:

• first and most important, they explore what the idea is for and who is it for; they spend a lot of time just falling in love with the problem, going broader and more narrow until they have fuel to come up with different angles for ideas to solve it

• they don’t fall in love with their own idea - in fact, they’re ready and even excited sometimes to kill it to come up with better ones; this detachment to the success of the idea and to the fact they made it makes them much more free to explore and come up with different ideas, and take (crappy or great) feedback as a judgement of the work, not of themselves, which takes us to the next point

• they come up with multiple ideas and give them as options to the people they’re for - this is a killer tactic also because it resets the frame of mind of the receiver from “i like it” or “i hate it” or to a place that is more open, more nuanced and where people can judge more clearly as they have choices and parts to compare: “i like this part here”, “this one is weird but…”, “this one does this thing better”, “what if we take this and make that stronger”

• they show vs tell why the idea is great - any artifact that shows the idea in action is much better than an explanation; it’s really much simpler to “see it to believe it” than to “hear it to believe it”; a sketch, poster, crappy prototype, something you can put in people’s hands will make it much easier to understand if you’re onto something powerful or not - and if it feels like the idea works in multiple formats, shapes and forms, it’s usually a great sign

All of these things might help up steer clear of just falling in love without our idea just because we made it - and they also help us steer clear of “first hand ideas” - which might be the ideas that are most obvious but also less impactful. These tips also place us in a space of possibility, where if something sticks and really clicks with the people it’s made for… We can continue building that.

Which brings us to the most important point: as creatives, the ideas we make are not for us. They serve someone else - they need to serve who and what they are for. We just channel them and keep trying to build them so they resonate and make an impact.

Partners in (serial) crime(s)

This is not about regular crimes. But it’s about crimes against procrastination.

Whenever there’s trouble to be made, we can find it just feels better do do it in pairs or, if we’re lucky, teamed up with even more people. If you think about it, the age old trope of bank robbers include a getaway driver and a robber - you know, like Bonnie and Clyde? Batman and Robin are also a duo. Charlie’s Angels scale that up beyond the duo. So do the Avengers. With all these though, they are partners within it.

Being a partner in crime comes with a few perks but also responsibilities. Now we can look at the problem we’re trying to solve or cause… from more than one angle. Someone else can call our bluff. We’re keeping each other honest - or dishonest. When we don’t pull our weight, we’ll get called out. We might see things more clearly - either because we are more focused on what we’re amazing at or because we are less involved with all the details. We know someone has our back. We feel there is a safe space we can navigate together. When we achieve something, we share the reward. Same for the failure.

Maybe the thing most people miss out on is FINDING the partner in crime. Now, THAT is the harder part. Sometimes it JUST HAPPENS. At other times, it requires actively looking for it. But what do we look for? What makes a great partner in crime?

First, it can’t be someone just like us. It’s basic chemistry: we need to combine different elements so that we create something new. Shared values and beliefs help to have a bridge between us, but we need to be complimentary enough that the others see something we don’t, know something we don’t, can do something we don’t, can offer something that we didn’t even know existed. That gives us the opportunity to do the same and complete each other. That allows us to create trouble we couldn’t create on our own. And basically… murder procrastination?

Second, it’s all about keeping momentum: When things get tough, do you find a way to keep going? When one is down, can the other pick it up? Because we know all of these things will happen. When you are together, do you push each other to grow?

Third: are you having fun together? Because that will make the crimes so much more pleasurable and just build on the chemistry and momentum.

Knowing this… it might be time to cause some serial trouble! Procrastination is in for a world of danger now.

Burdens of choice

Sometimes we feel pressured to make a choice. It's a question whether that pressure makes us see things more clearly or just the opposite.

There are though at least two things that might help us make better choices and feel better about it. To ease or shift the pressure.


First, do we understand what is this choice for? Why is it important? Will our values, principles, ideas help us steer how we look at it or are they restricting it? If this is a choice someone else had to make, would it feel different? Is there something that is holding us back - what is that about? What do we fear? What could we gain? Are we attached to the outcome? Why? If there were no limits, would we look at this choice in the same way? Are we curious to see what is behind the choices? Is this a choice we need to make alone? Could it be a shared choice?


Second, how could we be more generous with what we see as our options? Too often, we see ourselves in a yes / no scenario. That might be a false choice. How could we look at it much much much more generously? Are these the only choices? What else? And what else? And if we zoom out, what else? What if we were kinder to ourselves? What if we were kinder to those this choice impacts? Would that open more options? What if we were more detached from the outcome? Can we use this choice to learn something? Can we think of more ways this allows us or others to grow? How could we frame this differently? How could we approach this from another angle?

Suddenly, from a yes / no choice.... you have so many more options. Some feel good, some terrible, sure. But we might feel less stuck and more open.

Sometimes with choices we need to diverge, explore and expand before we converge and narrow down on those options that we believe take us closer to where we want to be. Closer to who we want to be. In doing so, we become more open to possibility along the way.

And always, we can choose to be kinder and more generous with ourselves - especially when what we're choosing is important and not urgent.

What if it’s more about how we look at the choices instead of the choices themselves?

Speeding through. Pause. Now what?

There's a time for both speeding through and pausing. How do you know though?

It helps to know they come in sequence. And repeat. Speed. Pause. Speed. Pause. Because we shouldn't always go above and beyond 100%. And we shouldn't always be still.

But we need both of these states if we want to feel and stay sane and healthy.

Achieving. Reflecting.
Doing. Understanding.
Building. Observing.
Talking. Listening.
Running. Resting.
Fighting. Dreaming.
Day. Night.
Movement. Stillness.
Start. Stop.

We have a choice on our speed. Our focus. On how we spend and recharge our energy. And we can change this choice along the way. And it's ok.

Permission to dream

We know dreams might be impossible. But if we believe we can dream, and don’t hold back, we’re so much closer to making them real than if just say “it can’t be done”. Sometimes the dreams can be small. Sometimes humongous and wild.

The real trouble is that we feel we don’t have permission to dream. That we need to ask for it. That someone needs to give it to us. Maybe that’s true sometimes, and those that grant us this permission will be those we look up to and see as heroes and inspiration. Maybe we already might have that permission, but we’re not really sure why and how to use it. And we need encouragement and support. And we want to take it slow and start small. That’s ok.

Regardless of all of that, we can ask ourselves… what’s holding us back? What do we need to feel we have our permission to dream? And grab it - it’s our lightning in a bottle.

Doing the right thing vs doing things right

Here’s the catch: most times, we worry about doing things right: am I looking at this right? Is this a fair process? Am I considerate? Will this work?

What’s more important, before we even get to doing things right, what’s MOST important is actually… are we doing the right thing?

That is the hard questions to start with - where we need to understand and figure things out deeply. Because if we’re not doing the right things, even if we do them right, it really does not matter, it just keeps us busy, but not thoughtful, not intentional, not creating or contributing to what is really needed - for us and for others.

This sequence here matters most in creating the impact we want to see in the world. Doing things right but not the right things… might feel rewarding and good, but… cannot come close to doing the right thing, even if we don’t manage to do it in the right way. Because how we do things matters less than why we do them and how deliberate we are about where we invest our hearts and minds.

If you’re doing the right things, you’re planting the roots of what you want to see more of in the world. If you’re doing things right, you might just be tending some weeds.

Why helping beats winning

It’s very simple: winning turns others into losers. Helping makes others better. So… net-net… who is winning at the game of life? Who is creating more value?

Numbers and metaphors

What’s more convincing in an argument? Are numbers or metaphors more persuasive?

It might not really matter - because we use both to tell our stories - as proof, prior experience, simbolism, charged meaning. And maybe you don’t need to choose. Use both and see what happens. Does it work better when we use numbers and metaphors instead of just one of them? Try it out.

Maybe it’s no accident that typewriters and keyboards have both letters and numbers.

Life as an adventure

When we’re kids, EVERYTHING is an adventure. From tying our shoe laces to getting the shopping to the walk back from from school with our pals. We look at the world with wide, open eyes, hungry to experience it, to discover it, to make sense of it or make things up about it, there’s danger, intrigue, a weird poetry about it.

As adults, it feels like a bit of that magic fades away. We forget we CAN look at the world like that. We always had. If we choose to be on an adventure instead of drifting, how will that feel?

If you’re a bit of an introvert like me, here’s a tiny exercise to do at the end of the day: tell the story of your day like an adventure, with the ups and downs, the sages and villains you encounter, the obstacles you met in your journey and how it changed you, how it made you think, how it made you feel. Tell it to someone you love. Do this for a week and see what happens. It’s all a game, sure. Could it be a better way to answer how your day went than… “it was ok”?

The cog and the link

Most days, we face an invisible choice. It’s not something we know, feel or even realize naturally. The choice is: today, would we rather be a cog… or a link?

A cog is a piece of a puzzle, or a big machine. Maybe it’s special and maybe it’s needed for a system to work.

A link on the other hand is different. It connects, brings different worlds closer together, it enables flow.

Today, the world needs more links. Ultimately… we are all hungry for connection. But no one teaches us how to be a link.

So we have to discover that ourselves. In doing that, we might feel awkward, not know exactly what to do or say, we might not blend in, we could say or do the wrong things - and sometimes we do all of this. On the flipside, we’re in the middle of new ideas, different experiences, unexpected worldviews. And we’re ultimately around hearts and minds with shared fears, wants and needs. Connecting. So… what’s holding us back?

We already live in a multiverse

And I don’t mean the technological multiverse, it’s much more basic and close to us. Everyday, our personal reality is either parallel or intersecting with realities of others. It’s what gives us connection or disconnection. What I understand or feel as reality might or might not relate to what you understand and feel as reality.

This opens up a very interesting and potentially conflicting emotional time for us. To connect with others, we play a role in the context of that shared reality, of the shared tribe, it’s beliefs, values, roles. Sometimes within minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days, based on who and how we interact with, we switch realities in our daily multiverse: from kid to our parents, to team mate to partner to artist to player to reader to decision maker to pawn to victim to healer to creator to dreamer to rebel to someone who’s just sad, just like that. There is no portal, there is no spell needed. And sometimes we sit at te center of conflicting realities of people, one foot in one, another in the other, and it becomes less clear how to play that game, how to react, how to be seen.

But if you zoom out, maybe what is more important than knowing what to do… is to just understand we sit in multiple realities for and with different people. Sometimes we sit in multiple realities for ourselves as well. All at the same time. As important as coherence is for us, confusion, conflict, chaos creates motion. And we need motion just as much as we need stillness.

Then you can ask yourself… what is this i’m going through… for? What do I learn from this? And what now? Do I choose, do I just go with it, do I stop?

I say we go left, you say we go right. We’re stuck.

We might often find ourselves in situations when, metaphorically, we’in a car together with other people and we want to go left but they want to go right. It might feel like going left excludes going right and the other way around. What if there’s a way out of this? Obviously we can’t go both left AND right. Or can we?

What if we can ask… well, where do we need to get? What’s our common destination? What’s our shared goal, we’re in this car… to GET SOMEWHERE.

There might not be just one way to get there, be that left or right. To road to getting there might mean we sometimes need to go left and at other times right, sometimes MORE towards left, and the other way around too. It might mean we’re both correct, we need to go left AND right. One way might be shorter, one faster, another one can have a better view, yet another one can be more fun.

When we focus on going towards our shared destination, our goals, together, that’s what gets us out of this seemingly impossible moment, right now, that’s stopping us from getting closer to where we need to be. We might also have a better time. Am I right?

Art as…

Play, exploration, experimentation, immersion, problem solving, pleasure, community, tribe, performance, leisure, healing, catharsis, contrast, freedom, constraint, beauty, emotion…

How might our lives feel more like art? What about our relationships? What about work? What’s holding us back?

The attention lottery

As we scroll through our feed, we don’t know exactly what we’re getting. Whatever pops up, it’s familiar, but also a little surprising, so it’a little bit addictive. The problem is that it’s like a lottery. You might find a gem, something you didn’t even know you wanted, something that helps you in a meaningful way. Chances are that’s 1 in 100. Maybe more, but maybe also less.

So why do we play this lottery of attention everyday? Giving attention to 99 things instead of the 1 thing that will make a difference?

And if we flip sides, if we want to receive attention, is it the best way to insert what we believe makes a difference between those 99 things that reach people and they don’t need?

Or maybe it makes more sense that if you’re looking, if you’re interested in what we’re bringing to the world, if this is a problem that bothers you too, if you have no idea how to start thinking about solving this, you know where to find us and people like us.

It’s a choice if we play the lottery. How we spend our attention can be deliberate. What we often forget is that being found so we have a chance to make a connection, to spark a change, should be just as deliberate. And connection should be what leads people towards us, rather than chance.

The Peter Parker principle

Some of you might know the Peter Principle, which sais something like… people are promoted up to their level of incompetence.

But what if in the world and time we live in, we have a chance to see and make things a little bit differently. Here’s the Peter Parker principle: whether you want it or not, whether you are ready or not, life will give you challenges that offer you a choice between becoming a superhero or staying average, normal.

Maybe in this new world, it’s not about GETTING a promotion, it’s about trying to be better and to do better - that’s what makes a superhero. The things we don’t know? That make us incompetent (for now)? Chances are there are people that we can learn from, that did it before us, that we can read about, observe, speak to. That one day, one of them might say something like “with great power comes great responsibility” as the nudge we needed to level up.

Empathy as a superpower

It’s hearing, seeing, experiencing something different than what you think, know or believe in. Then considering why and how it might be true and right. At least for a while. What is it amazing for? Learning, understanding and connecting to something new.