Bouquet of thoughts

We crossed again to the left half of the studio. The area first arranged with chairs facing the plasma TV was now remodeled so that students would be looking towards the massive whiteboard that covers the whole studio wall. This white wall, accustomed to being filled with words, drawings and diagrams full of ideas, was claiming to be inscribed with new insights.

The instruction to the new exercise came together with hexagonal orange Post-its and colored Sharpies.

"You must think about the fieldwork accounts presented early in the morning, and write it down in these Post-its relevant findings. This is brainstorming, so don't elaborate too much"

The strong smell of Sharpie's took over the place and dozens of Post-its received everything from insecure scrawls to carefully drawn stickmen.

"Can someone help collecting the Post-its and put them randomly on the whiteboard?"

Susan and Chris promptly stood up to do so. They like being proactive. Chris had always an intention behind his eagerness to collaborate. Susan, on the other hand, always wants to have things done rapidly. Nevertheless it is quite difficult to ignore that the instructor was head of a worldwide consultancy firm. Competitiveness is part of the atmosphere.

The instructor then invited everybody to approach the whiteboard to collectively sort the Post-its in clusters. Students stood up and stared out the wall. Their hands started to move and the orange pieces of paper jumped from fingertips to fingertips, posing on the worn surface, sometimes permanently, sometimes briefly before moving to another group of sketches. The whiteboard was not boring anymore: was fulfilling its purpose of being a vehicle for creativity, and soon had on it orange flowers that grouped ideas; and in their core, a green hexagonal Post it containing the essence of that theme.