Goal
For participants to gain inspiration, collect and evaluate ideas for future activities.
Preparation
Prepare a room with several “imagination stations” with topics such as:
A balcony with a good view might be a good station for perspectives. A spot under a tree can be the “dreams and interests” station. The stations can be decorated with accessories, photos, articles, and objects that relate to the topic they represent.
Supply each station with sheets of paper/moderation cards, pens, chairs and blankets. Each station should be labeled clearly with a number and the topic it represents, and should have a bucket or box for participants to place their responses.
Steps
Introduction
You can introduce this activity with a brief meditation or a focusing exercise.
Tell participants to go to one station and see what occurs to them. Have them write down any ideas that come to mind and place them into the buckets/boxes.
If they so choose, participants should feel free to draw instead of write.
Participants then change station, until they have visited all of them.
1. Fantasy phase
Participants do the imagination stations silently.
During a 30 minute break, the trainers empty the buckets/boxes, cluster them together in a general way according to topic and put them up on a large wall or board. Note: Be sure to allow enough space for the next step!
2. Review phase
Next the participants read the ideas that have been written have a chance to add questions, new inspirations, or comments in the forms of mind mapping, drawings and text.
3. Assessment phase
The participants identify the ideas/topical fields that inspire them most for their project work. They place evaluation dots (small round stickers) next to these ideas, or can make dots with markers.
4. Small group phase
A brainstorming/mind map/idea collection takes place in smaller groups. These can also be small project teams selected according to the inspiration each participant had during the previous steps. These teams then perform a critical review:
- Which ideas are actually possible to implement?
Next, participants elaborate on a feasible project concept and create an outline on a poster.
5. Presentation phase
Each group presents its results. After the presentations, you can add a phase to evaluate the project concepts with feedback. In example that includes questions, (appreciative) commentaries or proposals.
Nils-Eyk Zimmermann
Editor of Competendo. He writes and works on the topics: active citizenship, civil society, digital transformation, non-formal and lifelong learning, capacity building. Coordinator of European projects, in example DIGIT-AL Digital Transformation in Adult Learning for Active Citizenship, DARE network.
Blogs here: Blog: Civil Resilience.
Email: nils.zimmermann@dare-network.eu
Experience
You need space for this activity. One big room, several small rooms. Also use a balcony or a quiet spot outside. The fantasy phase has to be conducted silently. The imagination stations should be located near one other.