What is Brainstorming?
Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral/ ultra high thinking. It encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can, at first, seem a bit crazy. Some of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative solutions to a problem, while others can spark even more ideas. This helps to get people unstuck by "jolting" them out of their normal ways of thinking.
Therefore, during brainstorming sessions, people should avoid criticizing or rewarding ideas. You're trying to open up possibilities and break down incorrect assumptions about the problem's limits. Judgment and analysis at this stage stunts idea generation and limits creativity.
Why Use Brainstorming?
Brainstorming provides a free and open environment that encourages everyone to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed and built upon, and all participants are encouraged to contribute fully, helping them develop a rich array of creative solutions.
Brainstorming brings team members' diverse experience into play. It increases the richness of ideas explored, which means that you can often find better solutions to the problems that you face. Team members are likely to be more committed to an approach they were instrumental in developing.
What's more, because brainstorming is fun, it helps team members bond, as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment. While brainstorming can be effective, it's important to approach it with an open mind and a spirit of non judgment.
Individual Brainstorming
Several studies have shown that individual brainstorming produces more, and often better ideas than group brainstorming. This can occur because groups aren't always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and bad behaviors creep in. Mostly, though, this happens because people pay so much attention to other people that they don't generate ideas of their own – or they forget these ideas while they wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking."
When you brainstorm on your own, you don't have to worry about other
people's egos or opinions, and you can be freer and more creative.
However, you may not develop ideas as fully when you brainstorm on your own, because you don't have the wider experience of other group members to draw on.
Individual brainstorming is most effective when you need to solve a simple problem, generate a list of ideas, or focus on a broad issue. Group brainstorming is often more effective for solving complex problems.
Group Brainstorming
With group brainstorming, you can take advantage of the full experience and creativity of all team members. When one member gets stuck with an idea,
another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. You can develop ideas in greater depth with group brainstorming than you can with individual brainstorming. Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone feel that
they've contributed to the solution, and it reminds people that others have creative ideas to offer. Brainstorming is also fun, so it can be great for team
building!
Group brainstorming can be risky for individuals. Unusual suggestions may appear to lack value at first sight; this is where you need to chair sessions tightly, so that the group doesn't crush these ideas and stifle creativity. Where possible, brainstorming participants should come from a wide range of disciplines.
How to Use the "Brainstorming" Tool
You often get the best results by combining individual and group brainstorming, and by managing the process according to the "rules" below. To run a group brainstorming session effectively, follow these steps.
Step 1: Prepare the Group
First, set up a comfortable meeting environment for the session. How much information or preparation does your team need in order to brainstorm solutions to your problem? Remember that prep is important, but too much can limit or even destroy the freewheeling nature of a brainstorming session.
Consider who will attend the meeting. A room full of like minded people won't generate as many creative ideas as a diverse group, so try to include people from a wide range of disciplines, and include people who have a variety of different thinking styles. Post notes where everyone can see them, such as on flip charts or whiteboards; or use a computer with a data projector.
Step 2: Present the Problem
Clearly define the problem that you want to solve, and lay out any criteria that you must meet. Make it clear that that the meeting's objective is to generate as many ideas as possible. Give people plenty of quiet time at the start of the session to write down as
many of their own ideas as they can. Then, ask them to share their ideas, while giving everyone a fair opportunity to contribute.
Step 3: Guide the Discussion
Once everyone has shared their ideas, start a group discussion to develop other people's ideas, and use them to create new ideas. Building on others' ideas is one of the most valuable aspects of group brainstorming. Encourage everyone to contribute and to develop ideas, including the quietest people, and discourage anyone from criticizing ideas. As the group facilitator, you should share ideas if you have them, but spend your time and energy supporting your team and guiding the discussion. Stick to one conversation at a time, and refocus the group if people become sidetracked.
Although you're guiding the discussion, remember to let everyone have fun while brainstorming. Welcome creativity, and encourage your team to come up with as many ideas as possible, regardless of whether they're practical or impractical. Don't follow one train of thought for too long. Make sure that you generate a good number of different ideas, and explore individual ideas in detail.
Also, if the brainstorming session is lengthy, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to concentrate.
If you're not getting enough good quality ideas, try using the approaches below to increase the number of ideas that you generate:
The Fishing Technique – This improves the contribution of quieter group members by introducing one person at a time.
Slip Writing Approach – You can use this approach to get plenty of ideas from all participants, and to get a view of each idea's popularity.
The Next Step – Taking Action
After your individual or group brainstorming session, you'll have a lot of ideas. Although it might seem hard to sort through these ideas to find the best ones, analyzing these ideas is an important next step, and you can use several tools to do this.
Use Affinity Diagrams/ Venn Diagrams to organize ideas and find common themes.
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