Most brainstorms produce the same ideas from the same people. Six Thinking Hats, divergent/convergent discipline and a 3-stage ideation method — so the quiet smart ones get heard.
Most workplace brainstorms produce the same five ideas from the same three people. The extroverts dominate. The quiet smart ones write their best idea on a Post-It and never share it. The session ends with a wall of stickies, no decision, and nobody owning the next step. Two weeks later the meeting was a waste of time.
This workshop is built on Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats — the framework used by IBM, Microsoft and the UK Cabinet Office to structure creative thinking — combined with the divergent/convergent discipline from IDEO and the Stanford d.school. The combination is what turns a brainstorm from a chaotic hour into a structured ideation that produces decisions, not stickies.
The day is built around a real challenge your team are sitting on. Delegates bring an actual problem, work it through Six Hats in the morning, run three different ideation techniques in the afternoon, and leave with a prioritised shortlist and named owners — not a wall of Post-Its.
Built on de Bono's Six Thinking Hats + IDEO's design thinkingEvery TESS workshop is designed backwards from the change you want to see in your team's behaviour. Here's what coaching graduates do differently on the Monday after.
Stop killing ideas in the moment they're born. A 2-phase rhythm that protects the divergent half from the critic in the room.
The 6 modes — facts, feelings, caution, optimism, creativity, process — applied to your real challenge with timed rounds.
Three techniques that get the best ideas from people who don't shout in meetings — including silent brainstorming and gallery walks.
How to narrow 40 ideas to 3 without the dominant voices defaulting to their favourite.
Avoid the brainstorm that ends with 'great ideas everyone'. Every shortlisted idea has a person, a date and a next action.
A 30-minute monthly cadence that keeps the idea pipeline flowing without overloading the team.
Half-day format. A focused three-and-a-half hour block — the structure compresses to fit the time without losing the live practice.
Genuinely the first time I've left a coaching course able to do it on Monday. The live rounds with feedback made the difference. My 1:1s have completely changed shape.
Pricing depends on group size, delivery mode (live online vs in-person) and whether we tailor the curriculum to your sector. Closed cohorts start from a few hundred pounds per delegate for half-day workshops and scale from there. Book a 15-minute discovery call and we'll give you a concrete figure within 24 hours.
Creative Thinking is a focused half-day by design — long enough to work through Six Hats on a real challenge and converge to a shortlist. A full-day option is available if you want to run two cycles on two different challenges, with peer review between them.
We're flexible. Most cohorts run with 10–20 delegates, but we regularly deliver for smaller groups of 2–4, particularly for senior teams or specialised sectors. The live coaching rounds work better with even numbers, but we'll make any group work.
Live online is our default and works well for coaching — breakout rooms make the practice rounds work cleanly. We also deliver in-person at your site or a venue you choose, particularly when the cohort already work in the same room.
Typical lead time from a first call to delivery is 2–4 weeks. We can move faster if you need to — the limiting factor is usually your calendar, not ours.
Yes. The frameworks (GROW, TGROW, observable behaviours) stay the same; the examples, exercises and case studies are tailored to your sector, tools and your team's real work. We discuss this on the discovery call and rebrief the practitioner before delivery.
Yes. Every delegate receives a CPD-certified digital certificate on completion. The certificate references the hours of learning and the frameworks covered, so it can be added directly to a CPD record for any chartered or professional body.
We allocate a TESS coaching practitioner based on your sector. All practitioners are independently qualified coaches (ILM Level 5 or equivalent) with active corporate coaching practices. We'll send the named practitioner's bio after the discovery call.
Two ways in. Book a 30-minute discovery call below, or fill out the form and we'll reply within 24 hours with cohort options for your group.