Brainstorming
By Jonathan Halls

Brainstorming is probably the best known method for developing new ideas.  

A Brainstorming session is a gathering where people come together simply to generate ideas. 

It often takes place around a table or with chairs grouped in a circle with a flipchart and set of flipchart markers.  Of course you can brainstorm anywhere.  The key concepts are more about our mindset.

The Group

The best number of people to include in a brainstorming session group is between six and eight.  However, if you can't find enough people there is nothing stopping you running a session with two or three 

Higher numbers make it harder for everyone to participate equally.  You tend to find some people act more as spectators than participants.

Brainstorms best take place when you set a time limit.  This creates pressure to generate ideas.  This pressure also forces people out of their comfort zone.  When they’re in their comfort zone, they tend think too much before throwing in an idea. 

We don’t want people to judge whether an idea is good or bad.  We do all that in the second stage of ICE Creativity.

Suspend Judgment

Remember, Brainstorms are part of ICE Stage One and require participants to suspend judgment.  It’s about ideas generation, not judging whether the idea is any good.

A problem is set and the leader starts to get participants to throw in ideas.  As they come up with ideas, the leader writes them on a flipchart. 

One of the dangers in brainstorming is that brainstormers fall into an analytical mode.  This mode stops the flow of raw ideas.    

Focus the minds on openness

The leader must focus participants’ minds on being open and stop them thinking or analyzing their ideas.  Sometimes you’ll hear someone say, “yes, but…” or “I don’t think that is possible…”  The leader has to nip this in the bud because it stops the flow of ideas and will influence other participants.

Generally, you should come up with a hundred ideas in your brainstorm.  When I lead a brainstorm, I encourage people to be silly and generate ideas that are bizarre and whacky.

I write the ideas on the flipchart straight away.  I don’t question them or spend time thinking about them.  When an idea that seems silly, is written on a flipchart for a few minutes, it takes on a sense of normality and often stimulates further ideas that you may end up using. 

When you have finished your brainstorm, collect your ideas and move into Stage Two – the Critique mode.  You can read more about critiquing ideas elsewhere in the talkshowconfessions.com Creativity Portal.

Steps to leading a brainstorm

1.                  Identify the problem you need to solve.  Express it as a short, simple phrase.  You don’t want your brainstormers thinking too much about the problem.  You want their energy focused on dreaming up ideas.

2.                  Choose your brainstorm team.  Select people from diverse backgrounds.  This will make your mix of ideas broader and the different perspectives will stimulate idea generation even more.  Ensure a healthy mix of men and women.

3.                  Get your team together for the brainstorm and explain the problem you need to solve.  Set a time limit.  If it’s a simple problem, work at 15 minutes.  The more complex, the more time you will spend.  Don’t run a brainstorm for too long.  People get tired and you want fresh people with fresh ideas.

4.                  If your brainstormers are new to brainstorming, explain the process to them.  Especially reinforce the importance of not being judgmental and the need to suspend negative criticism.  Help them to approach the process with the question, “what if?” rather than, “yes but.”

5.                  You may want to conduct an icebreaker exercise.  This will achieve two things.  It will help brainstormers become comfortable working with each other.  And it will help them disassociate from whatever they were doing before the meeting - clearing the fog of external distraction.

6.                  Start the brainstorm.  Start the stopwatch so the leader can spur the brainstormers to generate ideas.  As brainstormers call out ideas, the leader should write them on the flipchart.  The leader should not interpret them – just write them up.  If a silence develops, encourage them to drill down into an idea that is already written up on the flipchart.

7.                  End on time.  If you set 15 minutes, make sure you try and end at 15 minutes unless you are onto something big.  If you don’t end promptly, regular brainstormers will get used to late ends and the pressure of forcing ideas out in a short, predetermined amount of time will be lost.