The aim of the exercise is to experience the chocolate with all your senses. So what do I see, taste, smell, feel and hear when I devote myself entirely to the chocolate? I can’t help but focus on the piece of chocolate, everything else is blocked out. I take the time to be fully present for the chocolate. The parallels between the chocolate exercise and the first phase of the innovation process are striking. At the beginning of an innovation process, it is about immersing, observing and understanding the challenge and the problem. The aim is to better understand the problem, the user and their requirements.
Imagine approaching your customer with the same empathy (as with the chocolate) in order to understand them better.
For our innovation work, we want to find out what, how and why things happen. It is important to approach this completely without prejudice.
Let’s just apply the chocolate exercise and transfer it to the sensual immersion in contact with your customer.
Before you start, take a moment to focus and take a moment, close your eyes and feel how your body feels. How does this calmness feel? When you are ready, move slowly, slowly open your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and out.
- Step 2: Take a close look at the situation/person.
Concentrate, take in all the details. - Step 3: Close your eyes and feel the situation or the material.
Feel the surroundings. What feels unfamiliar? What is different here? - Step: What does your sense of smell tell you?
Concentrate on scents and odours. What do these scents remind you of? - Step: What does the situation taste like?
Here it is more a matter of what you feel. What does your gut feeling tell you? - Step: Finally – Listen to the sounds
What does the atmosphere sound like, what is the sound of, how is speech, which sounds are in the foreground, what are the background noises?
Write down all the experiences you have had and share them with colleagues. In any case, it is interesting to hear what information your colleagues have perceived.
