Idea-thon
Mental exercise for the whole group!
A spark hit me today morning on my way to the office. Once I entered my office, I pitched the idea to my fellow senior developers.
“Why don’t we have a competition today for our whole team [of roughly 20 people], where they can think of an idea for an app or website that they might need, in their day to day life.”
Immediately the seniors agreed and we announced the team of an Idea pitching event to be held at 4:00 pm.
I let the other devs take care of running the event and watched it unfold from the sidelines. Our conditions were simple — think of up to 3 ideas, think of its usefulness and how it will help our company improve.
Here are my observations,
- It added a new buzz to the everyday chatter over tea and lunch.
- Ideas were flying around and some came in pitched some ideas as their own [asking us to register that against their name. Phew!]
- Some, as usual, did not take this seriously.
Then the pitching started.
The first person had to be forced on to the floor to speak. He didn’t come up with an idea and we asked him to try again. Then one person came and pitched a simple idea but by explaining its use-case beautifully.
This became a great stepping stone, as others enthusiastically came and pitched.
Some came with really out of the box ideas while others pitched ideas about already successful apps [without realizing about the company].
The surprise package came from a fresher who pitched a rather simple concept with a twist. The audience broke out into applause. By then we the 3 judges had decided on a clear winner.
I stepped out and explained my intention for this small Idea-thon. This was a summary of my talk.
“ I want every developer to continuously think of solving existing problems, thereby creating an atmosphere of critical thinking and acute problem-solving skillset.”
We picked the fresher to be the winner of the event and awarded him an Amazon Gift Card to show our token of appreciation.
By then the team members, readily asking if these events will continue in the future. We replied with a confident “Yes”
Thank you for reading! Hope it sparks more Idea-thons.
