I was thinking of writing a “Hello and Welcome to Idea Bloom!” blog post, but then I realised that was a bit predictable and generic. I also wanted to introduce myself and tell you about my new workshop project, but you can read that on the About page. Instead, I’d like to talk about why I decided to create Idea Bloom and what problems it can help solve for your organisation or NGO.

Idea Bloom has a sister company called Bridge Studio that specialises in brand and UX design. We have worked with international companies and NGOs to build intuitive and engaging apps and websites, as well as brands that connect with their audience. Over the years, we noticed a few key things. Usually, when organisations need branding or website/app redesign and they start working with an agency (or internal creative departments), they don’t have a clear idea of what the actual problem is, how to identify it or where to start.  Many companies lack direction, consensus and plan of action.

Even if these organisations do have an internal design/creative department, they spend too much time (sometimes months) finalising ideas, making decisions and talking things to death. Many of these projects get shelved or deprioritised because of other urgent and ad hoc projects, or hit a dead-end due to lack of agreement.

Now let’s think about these questions:

• How many employees were involved in these meetings?
• How many hours did each of them spend? 
• How much does that cost an organisation?  

Don’t waste your time crunching numbers and answering the last question. I can tell you exactly how much that cost…. Too much!

Having seen this pattern over and over again, and understanding the frustrations and costs that companies endure, I decided to start a new project called Idea Bloom which helps organisations solve important brand and UX problems one customised workshop at a time.

Why Workshops You May Ask?

Whether it’s a new business that needs help defining its unique identity or an established organisation that needs to update their image and UX experience, workshops can help redefine business objectives in the most efficient and cost effective way. They help identify and solve problems in the least amount of time possible by helping organisations get alignment and clarity by understanding the bigger picture and goals. Our workshops use the golden trifecta of bringing together the right people, processes and new technologies to produce great results. 

Each workshop is led by a field expert  (and I’m one of them!) who guides the team through customised sessions in order to see different perspectives, new opportunities and identify solutions for the identified issues. They help “cut out the fat” from long and tedious processes by stopping endless dead-end discussions and focusing on moving towards tangible results and outcomes. This compresses work, that could take months, into days and provides organisations with deliverables they will use with a design agency or department to proceed with the project.

While workshops save time and money, they also have benefits for employees.

Help Understand Different Perspectives

A part of designing a workshop is identifying the right people from different departments that should participate.They can share their perspective on a challenge or opportunity, provide their expertise and come up with ideas and solutions generated by the uniqueness of their roles. This also helps build relationships within an organisation by connecting employees from different departments.

Accountability & Work Quality

By bringing together the right group of people with different perspectives, they become committed to solving problems and achieving the same goal. Creating a dynamic where everyone can contribute equally creates a higher sense of value, participation, accountability and ownership of the project and its success. The sense of ownership also can increase work quality by genuinely feeling like your opinions matter and are taken seriously.

Cohesion

Including team members from different departments helps create cohesion because everybody helps determine the challenges, solutions and what should be resolved first. This comes from establishing shared goals and by making sure everybody is heard during workshops using a non-hierarchical process. This way the decisions are made in alignments as well as the next steps.

Increased Morale 

While it’s extremely rare, some workshops do experience static and arguments. Some participants simply can’t agree on an issue or refuse to compromise. Majority workshops, however, do lead to increased morale by working together, seeing progress and excitement that comes from collaborating to achieve the same goal and seeing it come to fruition.

Workshops are an extremely valuable tool to not only solve brand and UX problems, but to re-energise an organisation. Customised workshops also allow for companies to focus on resolving industry-specific issues that other sectors don’t have. 

Idea Bloom offers unique UX and Brand workshops that can be conducted in person or online. Each workshop is customised to meet the company’s and industry’s needs. At the end of each workshop, the participants will be provided with a full summary and action points that will guide the process of working with a brand/design studio. 

If you don’t see a workshop that fits your needs, give us a shout. We’ll be happy to create one for you.

We know what we are doing.  We do it well. We have fun doing it.

Cheers!

James | Founder

Idea Bloom & Bridge Studio