## 1. Welcome

At the start of a brainstorm:

- Quickly describe the goal for the session (will be described in more detail during the briefing)
- Have everybody introduce themselves
- Go over the agenda (the activities planned for the session)
- Do a quick warming-up activity (could also be part of the introductions, for example, see the Ball activity below)
- Remind the participants of the brainstorm mindset (defer judgment, quantity over quality, ...). The facilitator will need to provide gentle reminders and motivators throughout the session.

A warming-up activity is essential to get the creative juices flowing. It warms up your creative muscles and allows the team to enter a different mental space. Ideally, it is a playful activity that gets everybody into action. Warm-ups can have different purposes, such as getting people out of their comfort zone, team building, or thinking out-of-the-box. Here are some example activities you could do to warm up the team for a creative session:

Ball
For this activity, you will need a ball. The person with the ball answers a central question, such as: "When do you get your best ideas?" and throws the ball to another person in the team. If the team members do not know each other yet, it is good to also state your name, e.g. "My name is Danny, and I get my best ideas when I'm walking the dog".

1000 uses
Pick a random object and ask the team to think up as many different uses for it as they can in 4 minutes. Get creative and outrageous. When the time is up, have each group share how many unique ideas they have generated.

Zombie cats (short version)
Challenge the team to find 2 things the participants all have in common with one another. Next, think up a team name with these two things (e.g. In the case of Zombie cats, everybody liked zombies and cats).