For that you can provide background information such as:. Last of all, it is also important to delineate the solutions space. Come up with rules, boundaries and criteria for the ideas that are to be generated.
State the time limit at the very beginning. Whatever you decide, state it up front. This is a suggestion. Allow everyone to pen down their ideas prior to the start of the session so that there is no time lost in talking about just one or a few ideas. This would help you to bring in a little argument into the discussion whenever it is possible. Start the brainstorming. The person in charge of note taking should note down all the ideas as they come, bereft of any criticism or comment.
Breaks are permissible in case the brainstorming session gets too long. Select the best ideas after short-listing the ones that meet the pre-determined criteria. One way to make things easier is to score each of the ideas a number from 0 to 5 depending on the degree to which it satisfies each of the pre-determined criterion. The one with the highest score can be taken as the best idea.
However, if this best idea is not practical, in spite of the scores, you can look for the second best one. Invented in , the stepladder technique of brainstorming motivates each individual member of the team to make individual idea contributions prior to being influenced by other members in the team. To start the session, the facilitator shares the question or topic with the entire team.
Once this is done, barring two members of the team, all other members leave the room. Once the remaining members have left, the two members inside the room proceed to talk about the topic and share their ideas. Once that is done, an additional member must join the group. He presents his individual ideas, hears the ideas of the other two members and then all three in the group inside the room once again engage in a discussion.
The process is repeated till all members from the original group have entered the room. This method of idea generation is especially beneficial for teams easily swayed by a member or two, resulting in group think. The method also helps to shed inhibitions of people who are uncomfortable in a group.
This is a written method of brainstorming. The principle behind this technique is to consider idea generation separate to discussion.
The process does away with anchoring and motivates all team members to individually come up with ideas and share them. One of the advantages of brainwriting is that the participants get more time to ponder over their ideas and this is particularly beneficial if there are any introverts in the team. The technique is particularly suited for teams who appear to be considerably influenced by the opening ideas put forth during a meeting.
Six thinking hats, a thinking process developed by Edward de Bono is one of the most well-known thought tools. The participants in the process of brainstorming present and reveal new ideas as potential solutions for a specific problem. In this process, brainstorming helps the stimulation of the human mind towards creative problem-solving. Brainstorming as a group activity has become a revolutionary technique that can find its use in both small and large enterprises regardless of the industry in which they are operating.
Moreover, it can be beneficial for individuals who are in need of a solution for a specific problem. This creative thinking technique as a group activity usually starts with a gathering of a group of people. As an informal method of problem-solving, group brainstorming stimulates creative thinking. The proposals that come up in these constructive meetings can provoke interesting and unusual ideas that later could become a creative solution to a problem.
In a company of any scale, team brainstorming that includes a group of six to eight people is optimal for generating quality ideas and proposals. A variety of studies have shown that when people brainstorm together, they spontaneously exchange ideas that tend to grow and converge. Additionally, each member of the team should also avoid rewarding ideas that they consider to be standing out. This way they will stay away from judgment and will open possibilities for effective idea generation.
At the end of the brainstorming session, every idea should be analyzed and evaluated so that solutions could be discovered. Group brainstorming sessions can be informal, which means that there may not be a person at the position of a discussion leader. However, in most companies where this activity is practiced there is one facilitator who conducts the discussion in order to ease the process and lead the people in the right direction so that more ideas surface.
The difference between group and individual brainstorming is that they take different approaches, which can have different outcomes. It is known that individual brainstorming can stimulate the production of a wider and better array of ideas. This happens because some people due to numerous reasons may experience blocking while participating in a group brainstorming. In contrast, during individual brainstorming, they could inspire themselves to explore different ways of generating creative ideas.
In the end, it could be concluded that both types of brainstorming have advantages and disadvantages. While group brainstorming can sometimes cause a blockage in those who prefer the individualistic approach in resolving problems and achieving objectives, individual brainstorming could limit the creative thinking in those who are more inclined towards team collaboration. The most important characteristic of brainstorming is that it is defined as a creative activity that encourages creative thinking from all participants.
On the other side, other brainstorming techniques can limit this process and result with presenting uninspiring solutions and ideas. Compared to different techniques, brainstorming includes the following phases: presentation and definition of a central problem or a goal, generation of ideas, discussion of the produced ideas, and final evaluation of the presented ideas. It creates an environment in which people feel comfortable enough to share their opinion and point of view.
When you are brainstorming by yourself or in a group, you can easily find practical solutions to the issues you are encountering. Brainstorming sessions can break out the conventional exchange of views because it motivates sharing extraordinary ideas.
Group brainstorming can also be beneficial for establishing closer and effective relationship with colleagues and superiors. It is proved that people tend to get more anxious when they have to contribute to a group where a person in a superior position is present. Therefore, during the discussion stage where the environment starts to become relaxed and everyone shares their ideas, eventually those who are more apprehensive will loosen up and join the group.
Brainstorming can be conducted in three phases, which are a presentation of a problem or objective, generation of ideas and evaluation of ideas phase. However, apart from the basic principles of brainstorming which Osborn had determined back in , with time, numerous strategies have evolved and proved themselves helpful for bringing out the best throughout this creative process.
These three strategies intertwined with the four basic rules can bring significantly good results in brainstorming. I found that in a lot of cases the ideas brought to the team in these instances are based on stereotypes and surface-level knowledge.
In theory. In reality though, besides using words, people tend to communicate in a non-verbal form. So even when your teammates might be verbally supporting your idea, but their arms are crossed — this tends to discourage even the most confident idea generators. Not everyone generates ideas most effectively in a group. Some people are able to generate ideas on the fly, yelling out ideas in a brainstorm, sometimes without much research or background about a particular topic. While others need time and space with the topic, to let the ideas foster.
When people work together, especially when they have been working together for a long time, their ideas tend to converge. Define the problem clearly Make sure that a clear problem definition is presented to the team participating, to ensure everyone is solving the same problem. Let everyone generate ideas individually first Brainstorming should be done only after the individuals have done their research separately and have gone through their own idea generation process.
Idea generation in sixty seconds…or rather thirty minutes Designate a clear time frame for the session. Judge less, contribute more Yes, this is part of the traditional brainstorming techniques. And we want to keep it creative after all. Take notes — before those ideas dissolve into thin air Ideas are like a mirage — they can appear and disappear without a trace.
Most importantly, assign an experienced facilitator Having a strong facilitator can make all the difference if you want to generate innovative ideas. Do You Even Brainstorm? Ilya Lobanov A passionate ambassador of the Creative Thinking Mindset, I teach creatives how learning and practicing this skill can transform anyone into a more powerful and confident problem solver and leader. In fact, holding individual or reverse brainstorming sessions can both be helpful activities for generating new ideas.
Your goal should always be to use the process that works best for you and your team. This is largely due to the many advantages of brainstorming that help teams work more collaboratively towards a common goal. In summary, the core advantages of brainstorming are its ability to unlock creativity by collaboration. As you can probably guess, brainstorming is a technique that can be used in a wide variety of different situations.
Because of this versatility, brainstorming is a widely used technique among companies and teams of all sizes. To get you thinking about where you can use brainstorming, here are some examples of scenarios when this technique might be useful. Your content and product marketing teams need to generate new messaging ideas for an upcoming product launch. Calling a brainstorming session to generate new messaging ideas would be a perfect way to start this writing process.
As a team, you can throw as many ideas and slogans together as you can, and then refine them together to get a clear picture of the direction going forward.
Gathering the key stakeholders in your department and across the organization for a brainstorming session will help you quickly gather a list of growth opportunities. Each team member will have their own ideas for growth within their role which can be added to a longer list of strategic possibilities. Your product development team has been repeatedly running into an issue with a new version of your software.
Calling your product team together for a brainstorming session will help you gather opinions on what the issue might be. From there, you can brainstorm ways to fix the problem.
These are just three high level examples of brainstorming.
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