Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 78a90b9398f34ee1341822fd3c2263e8719beeb668b6f6efca69636f72f324ee

# C.I.A. Crazy Idea Brainstorm

Participants share culturally themed food and background music while drawing practical challenge prompts from a hat. They generate playful solutions through sensory associations, vote on their top concept, and refine it in pairs.

**Time:** 105 minutes. Source recommends 100 to 130 minutes (about 2 hours, such as a long lunch); UWT structures this run sheet for 105 minutes.
**People:** 4 to 24. Whole group draws problems, then pairs refine selected concepts

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Produce novel solutions to group challenges by using sensory inputs from food and music as creative catalysts.
**Use it when:** Use during an extended working lunch or team retreat when creative ideation on stale problems needs fresh inspiration.
**Skip it when:** Skip when participants have unmanaged food allergies, when eating during sessions is impractical, or when immediate technical problem analysis is needed.

## Materials and tools

- Dish or drink brought by each participant representing a distinct culture
- Music playlist featuring tracks submitted by participants
- Audio speaker
- Plates, cups, napkins, and serving utensils
- Blank index cards or sticky notes (approx. 10 per person)
- Pens or markers (1 per person)
- A hat or collection bowl
- Voting dot stickers (3 per person)
- Prototyping craft supplies (paper, markers, tape, pipe cleaners)

## Before participants arrive

1. Invite participants ahead of time to bring a culturally distinct food or drink item and suggest a track for the playlist.
2. Set up a buffet table with plates, napkins, and labels for dietary ingredients.
3. Queue the playlist on the room speaker.
4. Place index cards, pens, and a hat or bowl in the center of the workspace.

## Say this to open

Welcome everyone. Today we are combining lunch with problem solving. We will write down real challenges we face, pull them from this hat, and use the tastes, colors, and sounds around us to spark unexpected solutions. Nobody is forced to eat anything, and unusual ideas are welcome.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce format and gather challenges (15 minutes)

Explain the sequence. Everyone writes down 1 to 3 distinct work or group problems on separate cards and places them in the hat. Participants serve themselves food and take their seats while the music begins playing at a comfortable volume.

### 2. Brainstorm sensory-inspired solutions (35 minutes)

Draw one problem card from the hat and announce it. Group members generate ideas out loud and write them on cards, using sensory qualities of the food or music as wild metaphors (for example, layering like lasagna or spicy like masala). Switch to a new problem every 5 to 7 minutes or when ideas taper off. Use 'Yes, and...' thinking to build on what others say.

### 3. Vote and select top concepts (15 minutes)

Display all idea cards on a wall or central table. Group members review the notes and each place up to 3 dot stickers on their favorite concepts. Identify the highest-voted idea or ideas.

### 4. Refine in pairs (20 minutes)

Divide participants into pairs. If an odd number remains, form one trio. Each pair takes one top idea (or an aspect of the winning idea) to expand for 10 minutes into a workable proposal. Pairs spend the remaining 10 minutes constructing a simple sketch or paper prototype illustrating how it works.

### 5. Present rapid pitches (12 minutes)

Each pair gives a strict 1-minute pitch of their refined concept and shows their visual prototype. Allow brief room applause with no interruptions.

### 6. Debrief and close (8 minutes)

Gather the room and facilitate a brief reflection on the process. Collect all physical cards and prototypes.


## Debrief questions

- Which sensory association led to the most surprising idea today?
- How did stepping outside conventional problem-solving change the kinds of answers we considered?
- Did this approach produce concepts that are genuinely worth testing in our everyday work?

**Finished output:** A wall of sensory-prompted idea cards and rapid paper prototypes for the top-voted concepts.

## Remote

Participants prepare their own lunch or snack at home and submit songs to a shared streaming queue. Problems are submitted to an online anonymous form. The host displays problems on a digital whiteboard while playing the music over meeting audio. Brainstormed ideas are posted on digital sticky notes, voted on using digital dot reactions, and refined in breakout pairs using shared slides or canvas sketches.

## Hybrid

In-person attendees use room microphones so remote attendees hear ideas clearly. Remote attendees can join the shared music queue and post their problem notes directly into a shared digital board mirrored on the room screen. In-person pairs and remote pairs work in parallel during breakout ideation.

## Access and participation choices

- Dietary restrictions and fasting: Eating or drinking is completely voluntary; participants can focus strictly on visual, auditory, or textural metaphors.
- Sound sensitivity: Keep music at moderate background levels and offer quiet ideation zones or muted online listening if requested.
- Passing: Participants may silently place ideas on cards without reading aloud, or pass during brainstorming rounds.

## If the session gets stuck

**Ideas become silly jokes with no practical connection to the challenge.**

Remind the room that wild associations are the starting spark. Ask the group: 'What is the underlying principle in that funny idea that could actually work?'

**Background music is too loud and makes conversation difficult.**

Lower the volume immediately to conversational background level so voices do not need to strain.


## Terms used here

- Say yes! And...: An improv rule where a participant accepts a partner's contribution as true and builds directly upon it rather than rejecting it.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed on Project of How, where it is attributed to Ola Möller (published 2014).

Retained the source's core mechanic of using culture-specific potluck foods, background music, a problem hat, 5-minute problem shifts, dot voting, pair expansion, and rapid prototyping. UWT added explicit time allocations fitting within the 100-130 minute window, dietary and volume accessibility notes, and pair pitch limits.

[Project of How](https://projectofhow.com/method/c-i-a-crazy-idea-brainstorm/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/c-i-a-crazy-idea-brainstorm-project-of-how/