16 Brainstorming Tips

Brainstorming can be a powerful way to generate ideas, but it can also end up being a massive waste of time and energy if it’s not done correctly.

This article lists a few tips on what you should do, and what you shouldn’t do, to make these sessions as effective as possible.

Make Sure Your Challenge Is Clearly Defined

It’s crucial that all of the participants fully understand what they are being tasked with.

If your challenge, or question, is vague or ambiguous, then you’ll all be spending your time and effort on the wrong problem.

It’s therefore a good idea to have the agreed challenge or problem visible for all participants to see during the session.

Invite A Diverse Group Of People

Even though brainstorming is perceived as an activity for creative types, these are certainly not the only people who can come up with ideas.

So, make sure you invite people from different:

• Departments – because their perspective will differ.
• Disciplines – because there is evidence that some of the best ideas come from people who are outside the industry.
• Seniority Levels – because somebody managing a project or department has a different focus and maybe level of knowledge on a subject than somebody on the front line who is dealing with the subject on a daily basis.

Use A Facilitator

The facilitator is the person who will make sure:

• all attendees have a chance to be heard
• every idea is accurately recorded (e.g. writing down exactly what was said, with no paraphrasing)
• everybody follows the agreed rules
• participants’ roles, skills, and knowledge have no bearing on their contributions (e.g. a more senior person or somebody who has been doing the job for longer does not automatically carry more weight than anybody else)
• people’s focus remains on topic
• the allotted time is known to everybody and is used effectively, and people are kept on track
• the brainstorming session runs smoothly

Most importantly, the facilitator should do the above, and only the above. They are not present to throw their own ideas into the ring.

This person also needs to have certain qualities too, including:

• being respected
• diplomatic
• impartial

Choosing the best facilitator for the job can directly affect whether the brainstorming session succeeds or fails, so make sure you find the best person you can – and don’t be afraid to go outside your company if necessary, because it’s that important.

Establish The Rules

The fewer the rules, the better, of course – you do not want to accidentally stifle the attendees’ creativity through excessive restrictions.

And if you only have one rule, it should be something that stresses the importance of not trying to evaluate any suggestions during the idea generation stage. (This slows down the process, creates dissent, and turns off people’s creativity.)

It’s Part Of A Process

All of the attendees need to understand that the brainstorming session is not a standalone event – it’s part of a much larger process.

You therefore need to make it clear what, if anything, has already happened and, more importantly, what will happen next as a result of this session.

When people can see where in the process this brainstorming fits, and they know that something will be done with the ideas they generate, they are more likely to be willing and active participants.

Quantity Not Quality

During the idea generation phase, you want as many ideas as you can.

You can discard the unrealistic ones later on if necessary, but at this stage, the more the merrier.

Encourage Ideas That Are “Way Out”

Since there is no evaluation during the initial idea generation phase, encourage crazy ideas as much as you can. This because the idea as presented may later turn out to be too crazy to work – but it could stimulate a less crazy variation that might be viable.

Consider Using Post-It Notes

Instead of having the facilitator write down everything, which can slow the process down, you can have each person write their ideas on individual Post-it notes, and then just stick them up on a large whiteboard.

This will make it easier to re-organize the ideas (e.g. a discard pile, or by category) later one after the idea generation stage.

Avoid Groupthink

According to Wikipedia, groupthink is “a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.”

In terms of brainstorming, the danger is that once a person makes a suggestion, it’s very difficult for the rest of the attendees not to focus their thoughts on that one idea and you don’t want everybody heading down the same track.

The way to avoid this is to have each person write down their own ideas before any suggestions are discussed at the group level. (This is actually how the writers at The Onion start the process of coming up with headlines for their articles.)

Idea Triggers

Here is a list of suggestions that people can use to look at the problem from different angles, and therefore come up with different ideas:

• Location – what solutions would you come up with if you were in a different place (e.g. a third-world country, on the moon, somewhere with a different climate)?
• Personal Attributes – would the problem and potential solutions be different if you were a different gender, taller or shorter, lighter or heavier, healthy or ill, more or less intelligent, a different nationality, spoke a different language?
• Random Words – pick a word at random from a dictionary (or website) and use that to see if triggers any new ideas.
• Role – how would somebody in a different role (e.g. supervisor, shop floor worker, teacher, parent, doctor, unemployed person, homeless person) solve the problem?
• Size – what would a solution look like if the problem were significantly smaller or larger?
• Time – how would you solve the problem if you lived in a different time period (either past or future)?

Keep Ideas Succinct

During the initial idea generation stage, try to keep the ideas short and succinct – if they pass muster during the review stage, they can be expanded on at that time.

Let Participants Feed Off Each Other

One technique that can work well is to have each participant write down their ideas on a piece of paper, and then, after a set time (e.g. ten minutes), have everybody pass their list of ideas to the person on their left, say, and that person then has to generate more ideas that are based on what’s already been written on the paper.

Silence Is Good

In many brainstorming sessions, ideas will flow in batches, which means there will be periods of silence when people have to dig deeper to keep the ideas coming.

While the facilitator may be tempted to break the uncomfortable silence, they must not do this – silence creates a certain level of tension, which can help some attendees say something they might have been reticent about (e.g. they thought the idea was too silly, or they felt intimidated by the seniority of other participants).

Stay Anonymous

Not surprisingly, people can become emotionally attached to the ideas they put forward, but this can disrupt the creative process.

If you can, try to keep the ideas anonymous, so nobody can see where an idea came from.

By removing personalities from the process, each idea has a better chance of being looked at on its own merits.

Break Into Sub-Groups

Rather than have one large group, all trying to throw their ideas out, which can be a slow and frustrating process, have a few sub-groups, with people being able to move from group to group.

This way, different conversations can take place, and with each sub-group being smaller, it’s quicker and easier for people to have their voice heard.

Separate The Discard And Refining Stages

It is better to have (at least) two passes through the generated list of ideas – one pass to discard ones that the group believes are not viable, and then another pass to try to refine and add specifics to the remaining ideas so that they can be developed further.

Conclusion

Having attended many brainstorming sessions during my time in the corporate world, I can attest to the problems caused by badly run ones, and to the benefits of those where everything seemed to just flow effortlessly, because they were facilitated correctly, with an appropriate group of participants.

Don’t forget that brainstorming techniques can be used successfully outside of the office or work environment (e.g. for personal use), and while it may not be as effective, since it’s just you, it can also be done by one person.

On a side note, and outside of formal brainstorming sessions, getting into the habit of generating ideas is beneficial anyway (e.g. it keeps your brain active, and you may come up with something you can make money from or help people with), from both personal and commercial perspectives. If you want to try this, then this article is a great place to start.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Online Collaborative Brainstorming Tool
2. Online Collaborative Mind Mapping Tool
3. Random Word Generator