The Hindu Business Line : Re-discovering Post-It Notes

IT was a project planning session meant to take a new initiative forward. It was a large group and the agenda was ambitious. However, all of us were pleasantly surprised at the end of the day. We had completed the task for the day.

What made the difference was the Post-It Note.

Here is what the facilitator did. He handed over a Post-It pad to each one of us right at the beginning of the session. At every stage of the agenda, each participant wrote out his views on a Post-It Note. The group pasted these on a large white board. We subsequently sorted these into various subjects for processing.

What was interesting was that in the initial stages there was very little discussion or debate. All of us were using the Post-It Note to write our views and `dumping' them on the white board.

It was efficient because none of us wasted time on unnecessary arguments. It was an effective way to collect huge amounts of data in a short time. Everyone was involved so the information was very rich and presented a variety of views and perspectives. The process seemed very fair; nobody dominated the discussion or airtime!

In addition, there was anonymity. This increased the focus on issues and reduced the focus on individuals.

The room was quiet as every one concentrated on the task. However, you could feel the energy as people were constantly moving around to stick their Post-It Notes on the board.

By lunchtime, all the walls in the room seemed full of Post-It Notes. In a strange way, the huge output motivated the group.

As we worked, another interesting thing happened. We walked around looking at all the Post-It Notes pasted on the board. Many of them triggered new thoughts or ideas and we ended up adding even more material.

Later the facilitator made the group use these Post-It Notes in various ways. We grouped them in chunks. We prioritised items. We evolved themes and so on. He made us use these as raw material to develop the building blocks for an overall project plan.

Watching this process, I realised how powerful this little Post-It Note could be in a brainstorming session. One of the biggest issues in a brainstorming session is to defer judgment or be non-judgmental about the new ideas.

However much one might try, people find it difficult to withhold comments, especially about what might seem like a dumb idea.

The anonymity of the Post-It Note solves this problem brilliantly. The next thing in its favour is how the group is able to focus on one issue at a time and generate so many options simultaneously. This rarely happens in a regular discussion.

This thinking led to my experimenting with Post-It Notes in Creative Block Busting sessions.

We used it to define a business challenge. When working on a business challenge we encourage participants to reframe the challenge statement in as many different ways as possible. These alternative challenge statements are on Post-It Notes. The output is truly intense! From these new statements, we pick up what turns out to be the real issue.

We some times ask the group to define barriers to solving a problem. Here again the group uses Post-It Notes to generate various barriers. Typically, barriers are what will come in the way of accomplishing something or why a certain thing cannot be done.

It now becomes easy to `chunk' the Post-It Notes together based on various subjects and extract the essence of that issue.

Now that the challenge is clear, participants use the Post-It Notes to generate ideas.

Since we actively encourage the participants to go in for quantity of ideas, using the Post-It Notes becomes effective. On a good day, a group of twenty people generates about 800 ideas in 90 minutes.

The group generates further ideas when it reviews all the Post-It Notes on the board.

The group is able to process ideas faster because you could remove the Post-It Notes and regroup them as you wish.

The best part of this is that every single participant feels that we listen to him and value his ideas.

Encouraged by the way, the Post-It Note worked in Creative Block Busting; I was keen to understand what else we can do with it.

Searches on the Internet lead me to this outstanding book Rapid Problem Solving with Post-It Notes by David Straker. When Straker published this book in 1997, he was a quality consultant with Hewlett Packard UK.

Straker gives excellent suggestions on how to use the Post-It Notes. Apart from demonstrating techniques like creating chunks, listing, developing a tree diagram, and action maps he gives some practical tips on using the Post-It Notes. Example: How to and how not to peel off the Post-It Note from the pad!

One of the most useful items in the book is a suggestion called FOG. FOG stands for Facts, Opinions and Guesses.

"Facts can be proven to be true.

Opinions are what people believe to be true.

Guesses are acknowledged as wild ideas."

If you are discussing a complex problem, imagine being able to sort out Facts, Opinions and Guesses right in the beginning with Post-It Notes. Once everything is out in the open, you can examine these with objectivity.

I find that Post-It Notes are equally useful when you are working alone to solve a problem.

Today we can even get these Notes in various colours. So you can have barriers in one colour, raw ideas in one colour and solutions in a third colour. The notes are also available in various sizes.

The next time you are grappling with the task of planning for a meeting give the Notes a try.

PS: This is not an article to promote Post-It Notes nor is it by 3M. 3M owns the brand name Post-It and they ask that every time the name is used we indicate that it is a registered trademark.

(The writer is a creativity consultant and Partner, Ideas-RS.)

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