Start with what you'd love to be true, then work back to what you can actually do.
Most idea sessions start with what's realistic, and so they end with what's realistic. Wishing flips that order. You begin by saying what you'd love to be true, in a sentence starting “I wish…” or “Wouldn't it be nice if…”, and for a while you ignore budgets, rules and even physics.
A wish is a starting point, not a plan. Once wishes are flowing, others build on them, and you look inside the best ones for the real need they express. Then you work back to reality by asking how to get some of that benefit now. Often a version of the “impossible” wish turns out to be closer than anyone thought.
Use it when a team is being too cautious, people hold back ideas for fear of sounding silly, or you want to learn what people truly want before anyone discusses what's feasible.
Wish without limits, build wishes on each other, find the need inside the best ones, then work back to something real.
Choose a part of the diagram or a tab to explore each step.
If anything at all were possible, what would you wish for?
What does this wish make you wish for next?
What real need or benefit is hiding inside this wish?
How could you get some of that benefit, starting now?
Wishing seems almost too easy. Its power comes from what it does to the social and mental rules in the room.
A proposal invites attack: “That'll never work.” A wish makes no claim to be workable, so nobody needs to defend it. People voice ideas they would otherwise keep to themselves for fear of looking foolish.
When people wish freely, they tell you what they actually want, not what they think is allowed. The need behind a wish is often a better problem statement than the one you started with.
“I wish…” sounds like an invitation, and others naturally add to it. A run of wishes, each one stacked on the last, travels further from the obvious than any one person would go alone.
Starting from the ideal and working back, instead of inching forward from today, reveals options that small steps never reach. Partial versions of an “impossible” wish are often surprisingly doable.
Name the topic and give explicit permission: for the next ten minutes, no idea is too big, too silly or too expensive. Every idea starts with “I wish…” or “Wouldn't it be nice if…”.
Everyone calls out wishes while someone writes them down word for word. Aim for quantity and keep judgment out of the room.
Pick a few wishes and build on them: “…and I also wish…”. Push one wish to the extreme. Wish on behalf of others too: what would your customers or colleagues wish for?
Choose the wishes with the most energy. For each one, ask what would be better if it came true, and write down the need underneath it.
Rewrite each need as a “How to…” question and brainstorm practical answers. Look for a version you could try this week, then shortlist with a NUF Test.
A whiteboard or flip chart, a scribe, and two columns: Wishes on the left, “How to…” questions on the right. With AI, all you need is the prompt below.
Subject: a four-person finance team's month-end reporting. Goal: win back time without losing accuracy. Constraint: same accounting software, no new hires.
Core: no more copying numbers between systems. Real step: link the accounting system to a report template so most figures fill in automatically.
Core: managers only read a handful of numbers. Real step: replace the 30-page pack with a one-page summary of the five figures people actually use.
Core: no three-day crunch. Real step: a 30-minute weekly reconciliation, so month-end becomes a final check instead of a marathon.
Core: people want answers, not pages. Real step: a 20-minute monthly Q&A where managers ask questions instead of wading through the full pack.
Core: a whole day goes to chasing late figures. Real step: a shared form with an automatic reminder two days before the deadline.
31 wishes in ten minutes produced five strong cores, and each one led to a step the team could start the next month.
Wishing works when people feel free to be unrealistic, and AI has no reputation to protect. It can produce dozens of extravagant wishes, wish on behalf of your customers or colleagues, and later help you find the practical core inside each one. Your job is to say which wishes ring true for your team.
Get a big, unfiltered list to add to your team's own wishes.
Give me 20 'I wish...' statements about our month-end reporting. Make at least five of them impossible.
Wish on behalf of the people affected by the work.
What would our managers, our auditors and our newest team member each wish about month-end? Three wishes each.
Uncover the need behind your favorite wishes.
For each of these 5 wishes, name the underlying need in one line, then group the needs.
Work back from an impossible wish to something you could do this month.
'I wish the report wrote itself.' Give me 3 ways to make that 10%, 50% and 90% true.
Describe your topic, pick a mode, then copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. In coach mode the AI gets your wishes flowing first, then helps you find the need inside each one and work back to real steps.
The “Open in” links put the prompt in the web address. If your challenge includes anything sensitive, copy and paste instead.
After the session, click one to copy it, then paste it into the same chat.