Ideawork

Concept & technique

Participants are encouraged to look back on projects that have inspired and energised them, and to imagine a project they will be proud of in the future. Each participant selects one picture from a variety of images that best encompasses both projects, before describing the picture to the group and thereby starting a discussion on how it symbolises importance for the organisation’s work. Proceeding they collectively cluster the pictures together with an optional statement, summarising their thoughts. As they try to find a pattern among the images and statements, implications and meanings representing their common work are discussed.

Research foundation
The method has been tested in different forms among several Idea Work partners. The chosen photographs often relate to subjects such as teamwork, reaching goals, energising, getting an overview, and connecting people. Using visual methods in collaborative ideation aims at fuelling both individual association and dynamics in group processes. The photographs invite participants to share their experiences and ideas based on images that do not constrain to any prerequisite view, but open up for multiple layers and meanings instead of accentuating potentially corrosive connections (Dutton 2003). The power of any image is that it transcends language semantics and at the same time embraces them. An image evokes immediate associations; the perception of the visual leads to a mental image, hence the ascribing of meaning (Barthes).

Readings

• Pitsis, T.S., Clegg, S.R., Marosszeky, M. & Rura-Polley, T. 2003, ‘Constructing the Olympic dream: A future perfect strategy of project management’, Organization Science, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 574-590.
• Berg, I,  Dolan, Y. & Trepper, T. 2007. More Than Miracles: The State of the Art of Solution-focused Brief Therapy. Haworth Brief Therapy.
• Dutton, J.E., 2003. Breathing life into Organizational Studies: Journal of Management Inquiry 12(1).
• Barthes, R., 1964. The Rhetoric of the Image.