What’s your mind cooking? The best recipe for creativity, brainstorming, and pitching

13 March 2023

I think you should brush your teeth on one leg. Why? Well, because this session was not about a new yoga position, but rather about finding ways to boost our creativity, improve our brainstorming techniques, and learn how to master our pitch. And yes, that is one helpful technique. Although the final pitch will take place in two weeks and all of us are focused and determined to nail it, this session not only helped us come up with new ideas for our assignment and be confident in our creativity, but it also helped us loosen up and be ready to embrace the challenge. This was all thanks to Lotte, accompanied by Marloes, who took us through the unrestrained journey of building up creative ideas, by introducing us to some theory, strategies, and also by giving us some fun challenges to complete. Hence, hold on with that leg still up, grab a pen and a paper, and stay focused!

To begin with, the first half of the plenary session was about creativity and brainstorming. Did you know that creativity can be convergent, creating something completely new, and divergent, making use of previously acquired information to come up with an idea? Or that the older you get, the more difficult it is to have convergent theories? Indeed, Lotte fascinated us with some engaging takes on theory, raising questions about the meaning of creativity, giving us real-life examples, and suggesting us some tricks on how to be creative, such as taking several 5 minutes breaks during the day, or drawing your thoughts. Never underestimate yourself, as creativity is something that you can train! Also, remember the napkin method: the shorter the idea, the better. Next, for brainstorming, we were presented the steps for preparation, generation of ideas, and evaluation. Don’t be afraid to go crazy about your creative approach and respect everyone’s ideas, as no idea is a bad idea!

During our break, we happily enjoyed our delicious warm meal offered by Coopr, for which we are all very thankful. It is interesting to see how friendships have been developed during this project, and how we even make use of the break to talk about improving our strategy for Fairphone. I noticed a great sense of teamwork and respect among all of us. We also make use of the break to chat a bit more with our coaches.

When the break was over, we returned to the second half of the plenary session and we learned how to nail our pitch. Pitching in front of a client can be quite stressful, but if you follow some rules such as deciding on the roles in the team, rehearse the pitch a few times, and think of a possible Q&A, the whole process should run smoothly. Lastly, to spice things up, Lotte challenged us to write 8 creative ideas on a piece of paper individually, and then comment them with our group members, ideas that we could use to build the strategy for our Fairphone case.

     

To sum up, the fourth week’s plenary session was very engaging, letting our creativity roam, and improving our brainstorming and pitching skills. Unfortunately, the Coopr Academy is close to an end, but we still have two more weeks to prepare our strategy and presentation for Fairphone. All the plenary sessions gave us sufficient knowledge and insight into how to approach the Fairphone case. Thus, each group will focus on doing their homework assignment on creativity and meet with their mentors a few times before the great presentation. The clock is ticking, so we’d better get back to work!

Coopr, thank you for all the valuable lessons, guidance, and for welcoming us every week! We would make great use of all the information to nail the pitch! Let the competition begin and may the best presentation win! We’ve got this!