After all, everyone has new ideas at some point. Whether creating a new budget, implementing a better process at work, or solving an unexpected problem, brainstorming is one of the best ways to get it right. In this article, we’ll prepare you to take control of your brainstorming session and give you 20 ways to open up your thinking space and generate pure ideas.
Brainstorm Ideas
Brainstorming is an ancient method of generating ideas to solve problems. You can do it alone, but it works best when you do it in a small group to tap into each other’s creative instincts.
Regarding idea generation, when it comes to creativity, one plus one can equal 3 or more. However, when two or more people are involved, an effective meeting requires organization and leadership. These are the steps needed to make your brainstorming session productive. Start your work with good preparation.
prepare
To be effective, you need to have the right people in the right environment and a clear mission. What you need is this.
1. The right people
Diversity is essential. If everyone thinks the same way you do, it becomes harder to come up with a new idea. Invite people with different mindsets, experiences, and attitudes into the group. When you are creating something, you need engineering, sales, marketing, production, and management employees with valuable and diverse perspectives.
2. Right number (proportionate).
Eight to twelve people is a good number; first of all, anything beyond that becomes unmanageable; they cannot come up with many new ideas.
3. The right place
Choose a place without distractions so that you can focus on the task at hand. In the room you are in, you will need one or more ways to present your ideas to everyone: a whiteboard, an easel, a projector, or a spot on the wall that you can cover with colored paper.
4. Appropriate environment
The place and time should be comfortable for everyone, where people can express themselves freely without fear of rejection, ridicule, or judgment. Choose positive, open-minded people who are willing to set aside judgment and work with others.
5. Good attitude
Create a happy and engaging attitude; make the meeting fun. One way to create this atmosphere is to change the furniture in the room in unexpected ways: move the table to a corner, remove all the chairs, or have everyone sit in a circle. Breaking the mold is a great way to develop a positive attitude and find new ways of thinking.
6. A person who can untangle
You need someone to lead this session. You may be that person, but you don’t have to accept it yourself. Look for someone who can remain neutral and keep the group focused and moving forward.
7. Invite Members to Attend
When everything is ready, send out an invitation with enough information to those who might come to the meeting to prepare themselves to attend. Be careful not to overdo it: too much information can limit your thinking and stifle your creativity.
Lead the Meeting
Once everyone is in the room, it’s best to leave enough structure in front of them so that the group can stay focused.
8. Set a Goal
Set a time limit or a numerical goal for the number of ideas. This goal-setting could take an hour or fifty new ideas.
9. Set Ground Rules
-Things like this:
- Try to make it fun
- Don’t jump in the middle of each other’s words.
- Unusual ideas are welcome.- Try to combine and improve ideas.
- Criticism and judgment are forbidden.
10. Let the ice of the discussion melt
If the people in the room do not know each other, the ice should be broken as quickly as possible. An open attitude will get the group talking very quickly and will also get their brains working.
11. Start with a problem statement
It is important to be clear about what exactly these new ideas are aimed at. Read the problem and briefly explain the context needed to get everyone working with the same approach. You may need to continually post the problem somewhere in the room as a reminder.
12. Talk to introverts
One of the problems with group meetings is that the more outgoing people dominate the meeting, but the quieter ones may have ideas that no one has ever heard before. There are two ways to solve this problem:
1. After presenting the problem, ask everyone to spend the first 10 minutes alone and come up with five good ideas. Write them down on pieces of paper. When the time is up, put all the ideas in a box and draw one at random, discuss it, and then the next idea...
2. During the discussion, the moderator should specifically address the quieter members of the group.
13. Get ideas from them
The person in charge should write the ideas down on a large screen for everyone to see. This visual cue of an idea can inspire others and provide a written record of future ideas.
14. Focus on quantity over quality
You want to keep the idea engine running, so focus on getting as many ideas as possible.
15. Support, don’t criticize.
Try to keep the group positive and support others; not criticize them. Get people to make the most of their ideas. Help each other review and improve ideas.
Let’s Share the Roof
Sometimes the discussion is limited or too focused on a single idea. The facilitator should control the situation by changing the subject, encouraging others to speak, and using one of the following ideas.
16. Consider the opposite
Reframe the problem in the other direction. For example: The Greeks finally conquered Troy by not attacking the city (without attacking the city).
17. Remove an obstacle
What if you had unlimited money, time, help, or the ability to turn off gravity? Notice how removing a major obstacle changes the way you can solve the problem.
18. Add an obstacle
What if you only had 500,000 Tomans? Or an hour? Or did you have to communicate in a different language? Changing assumptions will help shift perspective and attitude and generate new ideas.
19. Give people roles to play
What does the problem look like from the customer’s perspective? From an outsider’s perspective? From the boss’s perspective? A parent’s perspective? Is there someone on the assembly line? Assign people roles and have them visualize their experiences. This will change your perspective and breathe new life into the discussion.
20. Introduce randomness
You can be creative and innovative by adding unexpected ideas or random elements to the equation.
What's next?
End the session when you've achieved your goal. Thank everyone and let them know the next step. Will there be another session to filter out the best ideas? It might be a good idea to create criteria to capture and evaluate all of these good ideas so you can choose the best one.
Brainstorming – Conclusion
With proper preparation and the right environment, a brainstorming session can be a great way to generate new ideas to solve problems. The key is to clearly state the problem up front, generate as many ideas as possible even if they seem silly, and find a way to capture these ideas as soon as they come to mind so others can see them and add to them. With the right approach, as a leader, you will be one step closer to solving your problem or at least another good idea.
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