1. Synaptic Twaddle Exercise
@Chris_M_Withrow
CIO, CDO, CTO, Virtualization, Chief
Innovator, Creative Visionary, Board Member
Is Your Business
Faster Than A
Spitball?

2. I had a burning desire to motivate my staff into generating ideas that
would RADICALLY improve my department and support the goals and
mission of our agency.
From my experience, in a typical mind mapping session, usually many
ideas are developed, some innovative, perhaps, but rarely “Radical.” I
wanted to change that paradigm from an idea, which could make a
difference to blowing the doors off the walls.

3. Sometime ago, I had the unfortunate pleasure of listening to someone
bloviate to the point of agnosia about a mindless, self-serving topic.
Hindsight being 20/20, I believe in retrospect I would rather have listened
to someone scratch his or her fingernails on a chalkboard than experience
that again.

4. Generally, this type of harangue rears its ugly head when people choose to
discuss politics or religion; however, I realized this axiom was precisely
what I was after.
I wanted the broad bold strokes it offered, not of wasted air but of frenzied
meteoric ideas. Therefore, I set out to devise a way to accomplish this
dream, which spawned me to develop what I call the Synaptic Twaddle
Exercise. I have had great success using this program and following is how
I implement it.

5. • Assemble you creative thought leaders and explain the objective that you
are trying to achieve. Elucidate that you are concerned about verbs not
nouns during the exercise, without this framework, I have beheld people
offer up wish list ideas, or product pitches.
• An example regarding nouns and verbs that I like to use is, “I want to
improve communication!” This is an example of a verb, some action that
I would like to change to realize a goal. Without my framework, I have
heard ideas such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Google Gmail, Blogs,
Chat, etc. These would be example of nouns; they are examples of
products or product service types. I am not concerned about products
such as iPads, tablets, computers; my focus is the task I would like to
accomplish. Remember I want the verb, what I want to accomplish, later
I can find a product or service to accomplish the task.
Synaptic Twaddle Exercise Step 1

6. Next is turn your staff loose with your favorite mind mapping software,
any off the wall idea is to be accepted. Inspire them to go crazy
brainstorming take away all boundaries, such as time and resources,
celebrate and have fun with it. Emphasize, stress and almost demand crazy
ideas only. During this step, absolutely no ideas are to be rejected or
evaluated based on its merits. Evaluating on the fly inhibits the creative
process.
Synaptic Twaddle Exercise Step 2

7. Once you believe you have sufficiently concluded that enough ideas have
been generated and creative process is grinding to a halt you end the
mapping session. Generally, I like to wait a few days or a week before I call
the team back together to discuss and evaluate the ideas. I have found the
time away, gives minds the time to percolate and usually something good
comes from this
Synaptic Twaddle Exercise Step 3

8. • Perform group analysis, come to a consensus in the direction and plan a
course of action. Step four seems simple, but this is where the real work
begins.
• Now I will share an example utilizing the education industry as the
backdrop.
Synaptic Twaddle Exercise Step 4

9. Topic Improve the Quality of the
Education Process

10. I Immediately gravitate to Shoot Spit Balls; it is unique and
sounds like a lot of fun. I can think of lessons revolving
around this and a map would look something like this.

11. I can envision this being a school wide project, each content area involved,
Math, Science, Language Arts, Career and Technical Education, and Social
Studies. The Arts department can develop a video about the project, band
and chorus would create the sound track, and the coaches setup the gym as
the stage for the culmination of the project.
I suppose you could take your results and challenge the students to see
“Who is faster than a spit ball.” Can you imagine the party like atmosphere
in the Gym that day? No doubt, the learning during the study and build
up to the final showcase day would be spectacular.

12. Are you Bold enough to take
on this adventure?
Big Question??????????

13. @Chris_M_Withrow
Thank You