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Brainwalking

Brainwalking is a creativity technique that creates a lot of dynamics through its movement component. It is a special form of brainwriting.

Unlike traditional brainstorming, where all participants sit in a group and share ideas verbally, brainwalking involves physical movement. Participants move from one station to the next to write ideas instead of saying them out loud. This physical element can stimulate thinking and help generate new ideas. Classic brainwalking (after Fritz Hellfritz 1978) describes a free collection of ideas by writing on metaplan walls distributed in the room, including movement. Both questions with the same content and questions with different content can be used.

The Brainwalking method takes advantage of the fact that physical exercise has numerous benefits for the brain and thinking. Some of the mechanisms are:

  • Improve blood flow:  Physical activity increases blood flow throughout the body, including the brain. Improved blood flow provides better oxygenation and more efficient removal of waste products in the brain. This can cause the brain to work more efficiently, which in turn improves thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Promote neurogenesis: Exercise has been shown to promote neurogenesis, the formation of new neurons, particularly in the hippocampus. This part of the brain is crucial for learning and memory. An increase in neurogenesis may lead to improved cognitive performance.
  • Increase neurotransmitters: exercise increases the production of several neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine, both of which play an essential role in thinking and mood regulation. Increasing these neurotransmitters can improve cognitive performance and problem-solving ability.
  • Reducing stress and anxiety: exercise has been shown to reduce stress. It can lead to the reduction of stress hormones such as cortisol and stimulate the production of endorphins, the so-called “feel-good” hormones. Reduced stress levels can make thinking clearer and improve concentration. This becomes especially important in stressful work situations such as an innovation project with a short deadline.
  • Improve brain plasticity: exercise can improve brain plasticity, the brain’s ability to change and reorganize over time. Increased brain plasticity can lead to an improved ability to solve problems and adapt to new situations. Especially when the situation in the project seems to be stuck, brainwalking can bring new perspectives here.

Being a special form of brainwriting, many advantages of this method are present (undisturbed association possibilities, no peer evaluation), while some disadvantages are eliminated (static, somewhat complicated post-processing). As with brainwriting, participants contribute their own ideas and build on or develop the ideas of the other participants.

Other benefits of brainwalking include:

  • Elimination of hierarchies: since all participants write down their ideas instead of speaking them out loud, there is no effect of the presence of higher ranking executives (“anchor effect”)
  • Involvement of silent participants: The method supports the active participation of more introverted people who may otherwise feel uncomfortable when they have to present their ideas to a large group.
  • Generating a high number of ideas: Round-robin and building on the ideas of others generates more ideas on average.
  • Improve group dynamics: Because all participants are active at the same time and there is no typical seating arrangement, brainwalking can help improve group collaboration and idea sharing.

Like brainstorming, brainwalking within ideation is suitable for almost all types of innovation and targets. Whereby one should limit oneself to targets of light to medium complexity.

Disadvantages of brainwalking may include:

  • Structure and discipline: Brainwalking requires a certain structure and discipline from the participants. Without clear instructions and rules, the method can seem uncoordinated and lead to less productive results. Participants may also stray from the topic and focus attention on irrelevant ideas. As a moderator, it is important to keep an eye on the individual work areas in order to take appropriate countermeasures.
  • Overwhelming amount of information: If the group is large or goes through many rounds, the amount of ideas generated can be extremely high. Filtering and evaluating ideas can therefore be quite time-consuming. Here, the combination with suitable filter methods such as the Visual Quick Assessment is recommended.
  • Lack of depth of ideas: Due to the fast pace and focus on quantity, the method can result in ideas not being sufficiently analyzed or challenged. This can affect the quality of the solutions generated.
  • Physical limitations: People with mobility limitations may have difficulty participating in brainwalking. In these cases, ensure that the method is accessible and inclusive to all.
  • Dependence on group dynamics: The effectiveness of brainwalking depends heavily on group dynamics. If participants are not willing to share their ideas openly or build on the ideas of others, the method may be less effective. However, these difficulties are similar to those of classical methods such as brainstorming, brainwriting, the 6-3-5 method or brainwriting pools

A variation of the brainwalking method is the brainstation. Here, proper workstations are set up per station in order to be able to deal with more complex issues.

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