Focus Sprint

Field of application

Resume / Brief description

This technique of writing and thinking is used to focus on a specific aspect of your writing topic. This promotes concentration and attention. It helps against getting bogged down. It's about letting your thoughts flow on a certain topic within a set time. The important thing is not to censor your thoughts.

Target group

(including group size)

Focus Sprints are ideally suited for anyone who...

• wants to take a more concrete look at individual focal points of content.
• wants to become familiar with certain aspects of the writing topic.
• wants to write down everything about this aspect first.
• wants likes to deal with own thoughts and ideas in writing.

Applicable for individuals or a group. If working with groups, the facilitator needs to decide in which way the results will be shared (or not).

Objectives

• concentrate on one topic at once
• activate and collect all possible thoughts, opinions, memories etc. in regard of that topic
• get focused on the essential

Requirements

Material

Time

Material: Paper & pen

online: WORD document where the participant writes

Time: 5 minutes for writing and 1 minute for evaluating the focus sprint

Implementation - Overview

• Formulate a headline to direct the focus.
• Write down any thoughts that come to mind about this heading.
• Do not pause.
• If you still get stuck or digress, reread the headline. Alternatively, simply copy the headline.
• After four minutes, stop writing.
• Mark keywords and/or statements in the focus sprint that are important and that you want to adopt for further elaboration.

Implementation - Guidelines

1. The facilitator (or the person him/herself) formulate a headline to direct the focus on. This heading can be a question or a quote or a sentence starter.

2. Participants spend five minutes writing down as quickly as possible without pausing - as close as possible to your inner language, exactly as your thoughts form in your head.
While they write down their thoughts, new thoughts arise, which they in turn write down. Then they immediately evaluate the text by reading it and marking everything that is significant. Under the text they then write one key sentence that sums up the most important points.

This will give you other ideas, help you find your core idea and practice a new thinking strategy: Over time you (re)get used to thinking thoroughly, concentrated and purposefully. In doing so, you also set a counterpoint to the fast speed of thinking in everyday working life.

Templates, Graphics for download

www.ik-blog.de/ipp-fuer-das-arbeiten-mit-einem-internen-kommunikationskonzept/