How can we generate ideas for a project event and how is this process experienced? Delving into students’ learning experiences and perceptions of usefulness in an idea and concept development process

Abstract

This study demonstrates ways of teaching creative methods in order to generate ideas for a project event and reveals project management students’ learning experiences and perceptions of usefulness during the process. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight students on a project management course at a higher education institution in Norway. We provide a description and a detailed illustration of how the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model can be used as a navigation tool in the planning and implementation of idea and concept development workshops, and how different forms of creative work methods can be used at different stages of an iterative process. The students find that using different ways of working with creative methods results in high idea generation, which is then processed into different concepts to form the basis for the content of a project event. All the students see the value of and want to use different forms of creative methods in various development projects in their workplace. Following the idea and concept workshop, several students successfully used creative methods in problem solving and development work in their organization and say that they will continue to practice using more of these working methods in different work situations.