Idea Generation: NUS Summer Program

Just last week, SL2 has the opportunity to be part of the NUS Summer Program organized by the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC). This is a pretty awesome program where close to 60 participants from all over the world get to spend two weeks in Singapore. Since we couldn’t probably explain it better than them, here’s how the good folks at NEC describe the program:

Discover what it takes Singapore to become a thriving economic and enterprising city!  This annual summer programme, in its seventh year, is organized by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Entrepreneurship Centre, a unit of the NUS Enterprise.  Conducted over a two-week period, this programme offers a unique opportunity for participants to learn about Singapore: how one of the smaller nations in the world has progressed from a trading port into a destination for international commerce and investment. Singapore is now a dynamic and globally connected city-state and ranked as one of the most competitive economies in the world. Participants in this program will also get to experience its multi-cultural and cosmopolitan environment, interact with local students, understand how public policies are formulated, and gain insights on business practices and entrepreneurship development in Singapore.

As part of their introduction to an entrepreneurial way of thinking, SL2 was asked to come in and share idea generation techniques with the students.

In order to spur their social consciousness, we decided to contextualize the generation of ideas around humanitarian and bottom-of-pyramid needs. The students had a great time tackling the real and complex scenarios using idea generation techniques designed to chip away at assumptions, spur imagination and tackle the problem from the perspective of the user.

Not content with having paper solutions, participants also had to build mock-ups for their ideas using materials provided. Rapidly prototyping ideas is a key component of all our courses.

Here are what some participants had to say:

Making the mock-up and acting out the scenarios was fun. Being questioned on the solution also triggered more intellectual thinking on micro-finance.

I really enjoyed the workshop. It was very well-organized and very interactive. Above that it was an amazing learning experience that triggered the creativity in all of us.

People coming from different countries see things from really different perspectives. Sketching, acting or other ways that we seldom adopt to express are good for thinking outside the box.

If you are interested in running a idea generation workshop for your organization please do not hesitate to contact ibnur[at]sl2square[dot]org.