Brainstorming works better if the rules are followed
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Brainstorming is probably the best known and the most-used tool in creative work within organisations. But it is also the most misused. Essentially brainstorming is a free-form technique for contributing ideas. Ideally these ideas are stimulated (and cross-pollinated) by the ideas others are contributing into the same process. The term ‘brainstorming’ was popularized by Alex Osborn in his 1953 book Applied Imagination.
Brainstorming’s success is based upon a free-flow of ideas. This is encouraged by avoiding even the faintest risk of judgement or criticism.
Problems with Brainstorming
However, its primary misuse is in how this key principle is often not observed. And so, many activities that people refer to as brainstorming are actually debates, where suggested ideas are actually challenged, criticised or visibly reacted against (albeit momentarily) by members of the group. Because of this, people end up filtering their own contributions and lose the psychological free-flow of association that occasionally sparks a new avenue of opportunity.
Improving Brainstorming
Keys to a good brainstorming session are to:
- Follow the Rules of Brainstorming
- Ensure quality in the initial question
- Accept that there will be a lot of ‘rubbish’ that will need to be swept away in the hope of getting to something new and useful
- Gain practice in doing it properly
The more people engage with brainstorming (properly) the better they get at it. In respect of the quality of the question, it is good to start the question with the term: “In how many ways can we …”. This focus on quantity defuses some of our temptation to vet our own ideas for quality.
Conversely, the tool has come in for criticism precisely because of the volume of rubbish that is produced in the hope that there will be the nugget of a good idea. Personally, I think this is missing the point. However, the proposed solution is often to improve the question asked. And we are all in favour of that, providing there is no critiquing of responses that ‘drift’ – the key thing to avoid is the filtering.
Complementary Tools
The affinity technique is a powerful way of gathering the output of the brainstorm into meaningful groups. It is highly participative in nature, which both helps generate insight and new perspectives, and also builds collective ownership in the outcomes.
Other techniques to encourage ideas are to use things like flashcards to stimulate association of ideas. In this respect, we would heartily recommend Michael Michalko’s Brutethink (from his book Thinkertoys) which generates creative input by drawing people to novel perspectives. Our instant brainstorming template includes a built-in option for Brutethink.
For those who are seeking to brainstorm around ‘technical’ concepts and are looking for relevant stimuli, we would suggest the ‘Effects Database‘ produced by Oxford Creativity (explained here: Effects Database).
Brainstorming Template
Brainstorming is a deceptively simple tool where keeping to the rules is key to the quality of the outcome. We have therefore provided two templates below.
The first is our simple to use and intuitive Agenda Sparks template on Google Jamboard. This is very easy to use and requires virtually no instruction to your participants, so is great for whiteboard novices. It contains the key rules for both brainstorming and affinity so they can be more easily applied. Click the video on the right to understand more, or open the template directly here.
The second is based in Conceptboard, which requires a modicum of familiarity. In it we have combined a brainstorming space with Michalko’s brutethink list.
The advantage of brainstorming in a web-based environment is that it is faster to get the ideas generated, less prone to criticism, and easier to sort and group the ideas afterwards.
The following links provide more information on the tool, and also outline some more sophisticated variations that can be adopted to stretch people’s thinking and engagement in the process.
Clicking the brainstorming template below will immediately open it up as a live interactive tool in your browser. Simply copy its URL from the address bar on the page that opens and share it through your meeting chat with your team. They will instantly be able to participate with you by: adding their thoughts via sticky notes; seeing all that’s going on, and moving things around. For more on instant templates, click here.
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.