New DREAMS Activity: Inspired by a Chat with Nathy
The Spark of an Idea
Had a great chat with Nathy today while we were codesigning a workshop with the AI Tinkerers' Cards! She's one of our first AI trainers using the AI Tinkerers' Cards and she had this brilliant idea about passing cards between participants to build on each other's ideas. That got me thinking - why not combine this with the brainwriting technique and our DREAMS framework?
What Are AI Tinkerers' Cards?
If you're new here, AI Tinkerers' Cards are a hands-on toolkit I created to make AI training more engaging and interactive. Instead of boring slides, trainers use physical and digital cards to teach AI concepts, from basic terminology to advanced capabilities. The cards come with ready-to-use activities that get participants thinking, discussing, and actually understanding AI.
Interested? Get Started for Just 1€
What's DREAMS?
For those who haven't heard of DREAMS yet, it's a simple framework I use to help people think beyond basic AI use cases. Each letter stands for a different way to use AI: Diverge (generate options), Review (evaluate work), Edit (improve content), Analyze (find patterns), Morph (transform formats), and Search (find & synthesize info).
You can learn more about it in my DREAMS framework guide.
How It Works
The new activity is super simple:
- Pick one concrete task/challenge
- Give each team one DREAMS card (Diverge, Review, etc.)
- Teams write their AI use case idea on a post-it and stick it to one side of their card
- Pass cards between teams
- Each team adds a new post-it to the next empty side of the card they receive
- Keep going until all 4 sides of each card have a post-it with an idea
- Debrief!
Check out the full activity guide for detailed instructions and variations.
Quick Example
Let's say your team is working on "improving our customer support emails."
Let's say each team gets the "Review" card:
Here's the use case ideas you might get:
Team 1
Use AI to check emails for tone and empathy before sending
Team 2
Have AI review responses against our company style guide
Team 3
Use AI to verify technical accuracy of troubleshooting steps
Team 4
Check if the email addresses all points from the customer's original message
Each team builds on previous ideas while staying focused on the "Review" aspect. Later, you'll see totally different approaches when teams work with other DREAMS cards like "Morph" or "Analyze".
Why It's Effective
What I love about this format is how it:
- Gets everyone involved (no one can hide!)
- Builds momentum as teams see others' ideas
- Makes people think deeper about each DREAMS category
- Keeps energy high with the card rotation
I can't wait to test it with other groups.
Try It Yourself
Want to try it yourself? You'll need our AI Tinkerers' Cards to run this activity, but they're super affordable (just 1€ for the starter kit!).
Join the Conversation
Big thanks to Nathy for the inspiration! This is exactly why I love our AI trainers community - we keep making the cards better together.
What do you think? Have you tried combining different brainstorming techniques with AI frameworks? Let me know in our community platform - access is included with the 1€ starter kit!