How to run a creative session… and make sure they don’t go pear-shaped!

PREP, PREP AND MORE PREP

Good ideas don’t often spring from out of the blue. It’s good pre-session preparation, which is the fertile soil from which they shoot.

So if you’ve been tasked with running a session, before anyone enters the room, get clear on your brief, gather a few starter keywords, and sense-check the energy you want in the session.

Give your thought shower crew a pre-read. It could be just a quick email with the creative brief or even just a couple of lines about what you want them to do. It will get the creative fruit juices flowing before the session and give people time to think ahead.

Think of yourself as part conductor, part gardener. Your role is to guide the flow, keep momentum, and make complex thinking feel simple and approachable, all while ensuring the most introverted of introverts can feel empowered to have their say (still waters run deep and all that).

Think, too, about who should be there. Keep the group tight. Four or five people tends to be the sweet spot. It’s small enough for focus, big enough for diversity of thought.

STRUCTURE IT BECAUSE CHAOS ISN’T CREATIVITY

Getting great results from a creative session very rarely just happens. You need to set a rhythm and a bit of a framework so you can corral all those lovely thoughts and suggestions into your ideas fruit bowl. Yes, you read that right. We said ideas fruit bowl.

Here’s a plan for you to scrump…

1. Introduce context – set the scene. Share the brief and answer questions so everyone starts from the same place.
2. Brainstorm freely – but before getting into it maybe provide some initial words and thoughts as a prompt. It’s much easier to think creatively around a word or topic. Once people are sharing ideas, capture everything. No judging, and no “yeah, buts”, just let the ideas flow fast and loose.
3. Dig deeper – spot patterns, stretch ideas, and explore interesting angles. Always remember the problem you are trying to solve.
4. Review and refine – now you can be picky. Shape the best ideas into something usable.
5. Recap and actions – leave with clarity, not just a whiteboard word salad.

Let’s go back to that greengrocer example. Instead of forcing ‘pear-fect’ or, ahem, awful puns, start by listing fruits and veg, then associated words, then maybe some relevant cultural cues. Suddenly, ‘Peas and Thank You” doesn’t feel like a stretch – it feels inevitable

DON’T KILL THE FRUIT ON THE TREE

Even the best sessions can wither on the vine if you’re not careful…

• Killing ideas too early – if you start saying ‘no’ too soon, people stop sharing altogether. Save judgment for later.
• Overcomplicating the brief – complexity stalls creativity. Your job is to simplify the challenge, not amplify it.
• Energy dips – if the room feels flat, change the angle or topic. Steer people towards it. You could try starting from something random (a food, an animal, even a nonsense word) to spark new thinking

A fun twist? Ask the group what wouldn’t work, then flip it. Sometimes the worst ideas are just the best ones in disguise.

MAKE SPACE FOR EVERYONE

Not everyone thrives in a loud, rapid-fire brainstorm. In fact, quieter, more introspective thinkers often have the most interesting insights; they just need the right conditions to share them.

To make sessions more inclusive:

• Give thinking time before asking for ideas (not everything needs to be shouted out).
• Actively invite contributions – but don’t put people on the spot.
• Capture everything visibly, showing all ideas are valued, not just the loudest ones.

The best creative sessions aren’t about forcing brilliance. They’re about creating the conditions where ideas can naturally grow and bear deliciously creative fruit.

Keep it structured, keep it open, and keep it human.

Do that, and you’ll find your sessions don’t just produce ideas – they’ll ‘produce’ whole orchards of them!

Need some help getting ideas off the ground? Well, we’re here to help (no more puns, we promise), so give us a shout today!