Getting physical is about idea work mediated by the interaction between the body and the physical world – gesturing, sketching, touching objects, making objects, visualizing, etc.
TIPS FOR GOOD PRACTICE
1. Make it physical (displays, diagrams, maps, brain maps, models, artifacts). Get your thinking into your hands together with your colleagues.
2. Groups tend to concentrate on the knowledge they already share. Think of your problem in terms of a physical problem space. To enter each rabbit hole in a group, make a physical map of the problem space, and work systematically through all rabbit holes.
3. Establish a context of producing ideas that are deliberately not shiny or polished. Remember that what runs smooth isn’t necessary true.
4. Prime your idea work processes. There are certain primes for expansive ideas (for instance ‘good mood’, or remote analogues), and certain primes for relational ideas (for instance related analogues).
5. Change your physical surroundings in accordance to the knowledge purpose. Walking, talking, sitting, standing, wandering, running, biking, golfing, etc.
6. Establish low threshold environments for producing and documenting ideas on the fly, at the speed of imagination.
7. Protect sacred spaces, and distinguish between places for (i) deep and prolonged concentration, (ii) intense interaction, (iii) places for serendipity, collision areas (iv) places for visualization of imaginations (iv) informal talking and walking
8. Reinforce unplugged interaction