How to Brainstorm Effectively

Creativity is one of the characteristics that every company should encourage. Sometimes, many employers fail to get their work teams to bring enough innovation to make the company grow. In these cases, and it happens very often, everything stagnates and years go by doing the same activities without achieving a real goal.

Being creative is something that is within all of us, no one is exempt from it. The most brilliant ideas and the most innovative advances can come from those we least think of, so it’s a good thing to brainstorm in our work environment, to collect fresh ideas that help take us to places we never imagined.

This technique is widely used in business environments and every day more and more companies see it as a powerful tool to make the changes that are needed, changes that in many cases are of depth. However, it is normal, too, that many brainstorming meetings end in nothing. This usually happens because it isn’t done the right way.

What is brainstorming

Brainstorming was born after World War II, thanks to the creativity theorist Alex Osborn. His way of working consisted on meeting with a group of people, presenting them with a common goal and, from there, creating a brainstorming without any kind of restrictions. What he was looking for was to get as many ideas as possible without any kind of questioning; thanks to this, the craziest ideas came up and the goal was achieved.

When brainstorming appeared, it was a very novel method to achieve results and was widely used by different organizations to achieve this goal. However, as time went by, different studies where made, its effectiveness was questioned and alternatives were given. For example, the same brainstorming technique could be used but individualized, before having a group meeting,

With this, what was sought is that each person would have their own ideas alone, that way they would be more relaxed and, in the group session, everyone’s ideas could be discussed and not just the ideas of a few. The creative process has always been a mystery to experts, and this way was one of the easiest to work in this area.

How to do brainstorming

Brainstorming is all about finding solutions or alternatives to common problems that arise in the workplace. Situations that usually are not treated seriously enough and in the end we’re left at the same starting point. Brainstorming is there to generate a dialogue around these situations and generate effective and innovative solutions.

To carry out this type of activity, and to do it the right way, some things must be taken into account. For example, a brainstorming consists of certain basic rules, figures involved in each session, a space in which it takes place and some common failures that, once we have some experience, are easily avoidable. By bringing all of the above together, you’ll be able to come up with innovative ideas and achieve your goals.

Basic rules

Although brainstorming is a place where creativity sprouts and shows all its power, the truth is that we need some rules to achieve everything we set out to do. In this case, there are four basic rules that will help us for that purpose.

Zero judgment

In a brainstorming session what is usually done is to debate the proposals that each one makes, with the aim of discarding those that don’t fit with the objective we want to achieve. However, in many cases, these judgments are made right the moment the idea is exposed, which is a big mistake. This attitude makes everyone predisposed and unwilling to give their proposal for fear of criticism.

What you should do is to collect the ideas one by one, in the order they appear. Then, once this is done, you can have a constructive criticism session. That way, everyone will feel comfortable to raise their voice and the session will be a success.

Free Thinking

As we said before, brainstorming is the terror of creativity. The best ideas are born from moments of inspiration, from encountering a different way of thinking and from free thinking. The most important thing when brainstorming is to let all participants express themselves freely. Every idea, no matter how impossible it may seem, should be listened to.

That way, from ideas that don’t seem to fit the needs, from crazy ideas that appear in the moment, the solutions we are looking for will be created. This is one of the most important points and you must put it into practice.

Quantity

If you’re going to do a brainstorming, you can’t limit yourself to write down a few proposals, or impose an exact number of them. The whole point of this activity is to gather as many of them as possible. Mainly because the first ideas that appear will be obvious and commonplace, which will not be useful for what you’re looking for. But they will open the minds of the participants. In addition, the more ideas you can generate, the more ideas you can choose from.

Multiplier effect

One of the most interesting effects that occur in brainstorming is the mixture of ways of thinking. The environment that is created begins to generate more and more ideas to the point that everything becomes a set of important topics and suggestions. That’s why it’s important to have several participants who stimulate each other and bring out the best in each other.

Main figures

Every brainstorming session should be accompanied by different key figures, so that everything goes as smoothly as possible. One of them is the moderator, who will be the person in charge of guiding the whole process and make sure the goals are achieved. Every meeting must have a moderator because this figure will be essential to resolve doubts and make the session more dynamic.

Another relevant figure is the secretary. Usually, in brainstorming sessions, problems or concerns arise, so the secretary must be willing to solve them as quickly as possible. In addition, he/she will be in charge of writing down all the ideas that are brought up. This person, depending on the number of individuals present, may or may not participate in the session.

Finally, but just as important, the most obvious component of all: the participants. These people will intervene with their ideas and are in charge of making the proposals, making relationships and participating in the dynamics to achieve the objective.

Space

Space is one of the most important factors to take into account when holding a brainstorming session. We recommend that you look for a large room, with natural light and a blackboard where you can write down everything that is being said. We understand that usually you don’t have an idyllic space to develop this kind of activities, however here you have some hints that can help you to choose a suitable place.

The first one is that you should have a spacious place, so you’ll improve the fluency and creativity of the people who are participating. Then, it’s necessary that this space has comfortable furniture where everyone can feel at ease. The blackboard, notebooks and pens are extremely important.

Something that is not often taken into account is the arrangement of the participants. In this regard, we advise you to place them in front of each other, which helps to encourage communication and the creation of ideas. To finish with this point, it’s also a good idea to have drinks within everyone’s reach.

Development

Once you have all the elements ready, the development of the session will follow suit. As moderator, your role will be clear: to get as many good ideas as possible to solve X or Y situation.

To start, the first thing you should do is to state what is the problem to be solved. Explain to all participants why it’s important to come up with these ideas. Set a time limit for this. It will also help to set a maximum number of ideas you want to achieve.

From this point on, participants should let their imaginations run wild. Remember that, as we said before, any idea is important and should not be discarded, especially if we understand that new and important solutions can emerge from them.

We know that for some people it can be difficult to start sharing their ideas, so you must break the ice. In order to do this, before starting the session, it’s important that you bring your own ideas to the table, it doesn’t matter if they’re the best ones or not, because they’ll help the others to start talking and gain confidence.

Once you have the ideas, what comes next is to analyze everything carefully and choose the ones that best fit the needs of the problem to be solved. Remember that the whole process must be dynamic and that having fun is one of the fundamental points.

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