By Ben Showers November 7, 2013
Solutions, stakeholders
monographs, Solution ideas, Workshop

If September was a month for contemplating, and getting under the skin of problems, then October was a month for reveling in the possibility of solutions: Of ideas.

The second NMS workshop focused on beginning to sketch out potential solutions to some of the problem statements that had been developed and refined in the September workshop.

This workshop really was a chance for the expert group and participants to explore the potential and existing solutions to some of the challenges and problem statements that had been surfaced in our earlier meeting.

Whereas the problems are, to a large extent, known and well rehearsed, the potential solutions and ideas for addressing them could be as unusual and innovative as people dared be!

We began the day by reviewing the problem statements that had been developed in the previous workshop (see above), and participants then selected particular problems to work on in small teams.

These teams began by completing ‘what if…?’ cards to help get the creative juices flowing. These statements then helped the groups develop a series of solution outlines which detailed the idea, stated who would be involved and what problem it addressed – they also included a picture!

Participants voted at the end too: Purple for how feasible it was; Orange for the best idea. 

Rather than list all the solutions, I have created another flip book with all the ideas developed on the day. Take a look and let us know what you think.

A challenge

So, you can see the ideas for potential solutions that emerged from the workshop. We can’t hope to cover every possible idea or solution in a workshop, so getting your input is essential.

What we’d love to know is what ideas you’ve got, or which blindingly obvious solution have we completely overlooked?

I’ll be adding the solutions to Ideascale soon – so you’ll be able to vote on them too.

Let us know what we’ve missed, or the idea you’ve had bubbling away in the back of your head.

Remember: This isn’t the end of our solutions hunting; nor even the beginning of the end; but merely the start of the beginning!