Business Education - Brainstorming

One of my MBA classes was focused on creativity. One of the key methods used to generate creative ideas is brainstorming. Review the points below to help create a more effective brainstorming environment (at work or home) whenever you are looking to find solutions to a problem.

• The brainstorming environment is a relationship of honesty and earned trust. Building that relationship amongst the participants is essential to success. It is important that group participants and organization leaders embrace this concept. In order to get valuable insight from members from all levels in the organization, there needs to be a truly open environment void of criticism and judgment.
• Include someone in your brainstorming session who is not an expert, but an intelligent outsider. This will open up creativity and flexibility. They are not tied to what they “think” is already in place or has already been decided. New team members often provide this team dynamic since they are not familiar with the processes and procedures and have a “fresh” view of things
• Once an idea is judged, all creativity stops. After judgment, few worthy ideas are generated and people have a tendency to migrate towards weak, safe and conservative ideas. Judgment draws an immediate line in the sand and people then refrain from crossing the line and presenting something too “out there.”
• Visual brainstorming is an attempt to use drawings and sketches to conceptualize and capture ideas. Draw a sketch of how the problem might be solved and then review it and modify it until you come up with a final solution from one of the sketches or variations of the original.
• During any brainstorming session, the rule is not to skip judgment but to postpone it. In some of my classes, I noticed that sometimes students became too cooperative during the brainstorming sessions. Such total absence of criticism was just as bad as premature judgment. As a result, at the end of the session the whole group was overwhelmed with many irrelevant ideas which had little potential.
• Sometimes it is useful to keep these brainstorming sessions informal. Do it over a pizza lunch, or without Sr. level managers. This may allow junior employees to open up. Often, junior employees understand the situation the best and offer the best ideas. Finding a way to get them to speak up is critical.
• Have fun! Brainstorming sessions are about being creative. Fun and creativity go together. The environment should be loose and relaxed so that people have fun and open up.
  Having fun means eliminating criticism. Criticism is a big hindrance to creativity.
• Trust is essential to the brainstorming process so that all participants can voice their ideas without fear of being judged. When people are self-conscious of what other group members will think of their ideas, they contribute less to group work.
• Idea finding is the most critical step of brainstorming. Collect and write down all possible ideas by thinking in all aspects. Write down silly ones and brilliant ones. The thinking process should be a diverging one. The process is important. The problem solving process helps make people more effective and creative.
• Often during brainstorming sessions, people tend to skip or completely ignore the objective finding stage. They jump right into problem finding or even solution finding. Without a clearly stated list of goals and objectives any problem solving process becomes lengthy and complex.