At the most basic level, there are two possible results from a brainstorming session.
One where the team leaves feeling energized, accomplished, and excited for the next steps.
And two where it feels unproductive, repetitive, or negative.
There are several elements that might derail a brainstorming session, but here are some
of the most typical reasons why a brainstorming session fails:
#1 Unbalanced Conversations Extroverted personalities and fast thinkers
dominate the discourse, leaving little room for contributions from other colleagues.
#2 Crickets This is where participants are unprepared,
which results in an hour of agonizing silence or, worse, a meeting that is cut short to
put everyone out of their misery.
#3 Anchoring Anchoring occurs when participants in a brainstorming
session narrow their emphasis to a few initial ideas, therefore restricting the flow of additional
ideas.
This video will give you different brainstorming techniques to help
you avoid these common brainstorming issues and will help you bring your team together
to yield creative ideas.
Let's get into it
#1 in the list is Brainwriting.
In this technique, we split the brainstorming exercise into several rounds.
Each person writes down at least 3 ideas related to the topic within 5 minutes in each round.
So 3 ideas each in 5 minutes.
Following the first round, everyone exchanges their piece of paper with the person to their
right (or left, whichever you choose), who will then expand on the ideas by adding bullet
points or creative strategies.
After a few more minutes, everyone will pass the piece of paper around the table once again
until it has gone around the entire table.
Once the ideas have made their way around the circle, the group then decides which ideas
should be pursued further.
This technique can help to avoid two of the most common brainstorming pitfalls, unbalanced
conversation, and anchoring.
Brainwriting ensures that everyone has the opportunity to contribute, eliminating the
bias toward the first idea.
***
Brainstorming technique #2 is Starbursting
Starbursting provides a complete, systematic questioning exercise that is helpful in exploring
new ideas.
In a starburst brainstorming session, we begin with a primary idea and then form a six-point
star around it.
Each spike represents one question, who, what, when, where, why, and how.
For example, if a colleague suggests a new section in your online book store, one question
you ask might be, "Who is the target customer?"
Let's assume the answer is, "Students."
If you want to target your promotions accurately, your next question might be, "What kind of
students?"
The response to this question may be something along the lines of "Research students, who
need academic papers," and so on.
A systematic questioning approach like this would help focus the marketing.
The next potential question could be, "When is the right time to launch this new feature?"
Because starbursting focuses on questions rather than answers, it encourages the group
to investigate a topic from all angles.
Presenting ideas in this manner relieves the individual who came up with the idea of having
to defend it or find out how to implement it on their own.
***
#3 in our list is Reverse Brainstorming
Reverse brainstorming, often known as "negative brainstorming," is a technique that flips
the traditional brainstorming process on its head.
Instead of asking them to come up with brilliant suggestions about making a process or a goal
better, you ask them to consider ways to make a process or objective impossible to achieve.
You ask the team to let all those pent-up negative thoughts bubble to the surface.
These negative ideas provide useful information about what isn't working within the product.
Once we know what isn't working, we can plan ways to eliminate those issues.
The easiest way to visualize reverse brainstorming is to compare it to conventional brainstorming
that we typically use.
Typical brainstorming question: How can we improve customer service?
Reverse brainstorming question: How can we make customer service so bad that every one
of our customers walks away from our product or service?
Typical brainstorming question: How can we ensure that this project is a success?
Reverse brainstorming question: How can we ensure that this project is a dismal failure?
I have created a video that details the Reverse Brainstorming process.
You can find the link in this corner or in the video description if you're watching this
on Youtube.
***
Technique #4 Step Ladder
To use the step-ladder technique, a facilitator first introduces the brainstorming topic and
then asks everyone to leave the room except for two people.
The facilitator then invites these two individuals to generate ideas giving them a limited amount
of time to come up with suggestions.
After they have finished, one more person is permitted to enter the room.
This new individual is then invited to share their ideas with the first two before discussing
the already generated ideas and suggestions.
Each person makes their way back into the room one at a time.
They discuss their own ideas first before learning about the ideas of other individuals.
Individuals outside the room may continue brainstorming and writing down ideas or return
to individual work.
However, they should refrain from discussing their ideas with anybody until they are inside
the room.
Using the step-ladder approach will take some time, so if your group is too large, you'll
be better off using a less complicated method.
Steven Rogelberg, Janet Barnes-Farrell, and Charles Lowe developed Step Ladder in 1992
to encourage all members to contribute individually before being influenced by anyone else.
This technique helps in Unbalanced Conversations.
It encourages a broader range of ideas, discourages people from "hiding" inside the group, and
protects people from being "stepped on" or dominated by the group's stronger, louder
members.
***
Technique #5 Charrette
Consider a brainstorming session with 35 individuals from six different departments, all attempting
to come up with creative ideas.
In such scenarios, a typical brainstorming session can be time-consuming, boring, and
all too often unfruitful.
These meetings quickly spiral out of control, devolving into chaos and inefficiency.
Such brainstorming sessions are also Unbalanced and are usually dominated by a small number
of people while the rest remains silent.
When an idea-generating session has numerous related issues or numerous stakeholders, simple
brainstorming is often inadequate.
In such cases, we use the technique called the Charrette.
In Charrette, we divide participants into small groups.
Each group brainstorms ideas one by one until all groups have had an opportunity to participate
fully.
Let's look at the steps to run a successful Charrette procedure.
The first step is to decide on the topics you want to address.
Then identify the amount of time you'll give each group to develop ideas, typically 10-15
minutes.
In Step 2, we create small groups of 5-6 people.
The number of people in a small group may vary depending upon the number of people involved.
To select who should be in which group, try putting different people from different departments
or with varying degrees of expertise in the same group, which is often more creative than
putting similar people in one group.
Finally, to prevent wasting time, make sure you have at least as many groups as topics
to discuss.
In Step 3, we assign one topic to each small group.
Step 4 begins with each group brainstorming their assigned topic.
During the session, one person in the small group will keep a record of the discussion.
The discussion ends with the time box.
In Step 5, the recorder from each group moves on to the next group and opens the session
by describing the current brainstorming stage for that particular topic.
The goal of this step is for the new group to expand on the prior group's ideas while
also generating new ones.
We repeat Step 5 until all small groups have had the opportunity to brainstorm on all topics.
After the final group discussion, give the recorders some time to summarize the most
important points and themes raised for their respective topics.
In the last step, step #6, the recorders present their summarized lists to the overall audience.
A facilitator then helps the overall audience to prioritize the lists and agree on a plan
of action or next steps.
Charrette procedure is a complicated technique and generally requires experienced facilitators.
***
The last brainstorming technique that I have in stock for you today is Role Storming.
In this technique, the participants pick a well-known figure who is not in the room.
It might be a boss, a fictitious character, or a well-known public figure, and then you
can talk about how that person would handle the situation or consider this proposal.
You may ask, for example, how Elon Musk would tackle this issue.
It may appear to be a ridiculous question, but putting yourself in the shoes of others
might help you and your team tackle the problem in a creative manner.
When teammates are embarrassed or afraid to share their innovative ideas, it makes them
more inclined to do so if the ideas are associated with someone else's name, such as Elon Musk's
in this case.
In addition, this brainstorming approach eliminates some of the obstacles that typically stifle
creative thought, such as budget and time constraints.
***
Brainstorming is an incredibly effective method for generating new ideas, identifying issues,
and developing creative solutions.
However, it is only as good as the participants and facilitator.
No matter how well you prepare, distractions, personality disputes, nervousness, or plain
boredom may all come in the way of successful brainstorming.
When that happens, you'll appreciate having a collection of fantastic brainstorming ideas
to help you move the process forwards!
***
So there you have it.
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I ;ll see you in the next video.