In a previous post I wrote about creating a new program to educate business owners in the DC area on the benefits of using renewable energy technology. If you want to create a new program or improve one there is a powerful way to get better results.
This post covers another one of “creativity guru” Edward De Bono’s lateral thinking techniques - the stratal. The stratal technique requires you to state your challenge then write down five statements about the challenge.
The challenge is simply to design a better nonprofit education program. I’m a total novice when it comes to program design, so I’ll just write any five statements that I can come up with.
1. Need to identify a reasonably large audience
2. Do some research on people and how to reach them
3. Use different media to attract people to the program
4. May have to get a grant
5. Must get things started without grant support
It took me about 6 minutes to type that challenge and come with five statements to record here.
Now it gets a bit tougher because I need to look for new ideas in each of those statements. The first statement makes me think of large audiences in a new way: Focus on the “big fish” in the DC area. What organizations might we target? Colleges and universities are around just about every corner in metro DC.
That fifth statement makes me think of how I could get my program started with virtually no resources. Could I get a few municipal government officials to have a look at some draft education materials and use their feedback (or endorsement?) to help me get a donation from some area “green” business? Perhaps not, but it is something to think about.
You can also use stratals for program improvement. The process is the same. The results would be a modification to the existing program instead of a new way to implement a program.
