One of the main advantages of bringing people together in a workshop is that you can use their collaborative creativity to generate lots of ideas quickly, and their collective intelligence to identify the right ones to take forward. However, it’s important that people initially generate ideas on their own before these are shared with the group, because this results in greater diversity of thought. It also ensures that the forceful individuals do not inhibit contributions from everyone else. After everyone’s thoughts have been aired - without interruption or judgment - the team can then work collaboratively to build on each other’s ideas and identify the gems.
 
 
There are many techniques you could use to help people come up with good ideas. The Ideas Book, by marketing consultant Kevin Duncan (from the same series as this book), is an excellent source of inspiration. If you’re new to facilitating workshops, you could try the technique described below. It’s easy to manage and works reliably.

This approach isn’t too time consuming because the ideas are shared with the group and sorted into themes at the same time. As facilitator, ask a participant to read out one of their ideas, and then decide whether it represents a new thought or is just another way of expressing something that’s already been mentioned. If in doubt, ask the whole group whether they think it is an original idea; the debate at this point can be valuable.