When it comes to the realm of creativity, our sense of smell is often the unsung hero.
Unlike our conscious engagement with sight👁️ and sound👂, scent👃 possesses a remarkable ability to circumvent our logical minds and dive straight into our reservoir of memories and emotions🎭. How many times have you been whisked away to a specific moment in your past by catching a fleeting whiff of a fragrance?😤💭
A Journey into Sensory Creativity:
"Smell That" is more than just a brainstorming exercise🧠; it's a sensory odyssey that taps into the evocative world of scent to ignite your creative potential. Here's how it takes your senses on a captivating journey🚀:
Step 1: Scented Scribbles
Begin by chronicling the scents and fragrances naturally linked to your creative challenge📝. These may include scents tied to environments🌲, emotions😶, or experiences💭 intricately woven into the very fabric of your problem.
Step 2: Inhale and Immerse
With your olfactory palette👃🎨 before you, breathe in each scent, one at a time.
Let the fragrances transport you to a symphony🎶 of memories, emotions, and mental landscapes. These aromas act as the gateway to prime your sensory consciousness.
Step 3: Fertile Ground for Imagination
Now, with your mind steeped🍵 in aromatic recollections, it's time to embark on a journey of creative ideation💡. Solutions to your challenge begin to bud like delicate blossoms🌷, either in solitude👤 or through collaborative pairings👥.
After 5-10 minutes, share your initial thoughts with the team, enriching your collective wellspring of ideas.
The Science Behind the Scent:
"Smell That" is deeply rooted in the science of sensory memory🧠. Our olfactory system and the brain's limbic system, responsible for emotions, memories, and creativity, share an intimate connection🤝. Engaging with scents becomes a catalyst for the revival of vivid memories and the stimulation of imaginative thinking.🪁🧩🪆
As you embark on this sensory adventure🚂, you'll witness your mind unfolding to embrace new vistas of ideas, and your creativity will flourish in the most unexpected ways. The next time you yearn for an inspirational spark💡⚡, remember to pause⏸️ and immerse yourself in the sensory symphony of... Smell That.
Have Funware™ Syncer help you facilitate 'Smell That'
Step 0: If you haven't done so already, sign-up for Funware™ Ideator. We have taken our years of facilitation experience, and designed software that expertly guides your team through 30 minute ideation sessions.
Step 1: Start a Funware™ Ideator session and share the link with anyone you want to ideate with.
The meeting should take about 30 minutes if you have 4-6 people.
Step 2: When on the game wheel, instead of spinning the wheel to get a random exercise, click “Smell That” to select that specific exercise.
Step 3: Funware™ Ideator automatically prompts meeting participants to start generating smells associated with their challenge and then prompts people to start coming up with solutions to their challenge.
Step 4: Funware™ Ideator will pick different people to share their ideas at random to ensure all voices get heard, not just the loud extroverts like Devin and myself.