Brainstorming doesn’t work that well unless you follow the right procedures.
The typical “brainstorming” session involves announcing a topic and inviting people to propose their ideas in an allegedly non-judgmental environment. A bunch of people get together in a conference room and say whatever they think. There are several problems with this model.
- People don’t prepare their thoughts ahead of time. They assume the whole purpose is to be spontaneous and off the cuff and all that, which means they’re not bringing their best.
- Dominant personalities hog the floor, which means you don’t get the best ideas from the quiet person in the corner.
- Groupthink predominates.
- The leader says “there are no stupid ideas,” and promises participants won’t be judged for what they say, but nobody believes that.
- The first ideas set the agenda for the discussion (anchoring bias).
- The lack of structure and goals makes it hard to evaluate success.
Try this model instead.
- Outline the broad objectives of the effort – e.g., increase renewals, create a new product for nurses.
- Appoint a creative person to spend a day or two thinking about the topic individually. Make sure they think about the idea, then sleep on it, then think about it again. Your subconscious mind is a very powerful tool for creativity.
- Have that person record his ideas and distribute them to the larger group anonymously.
- Require everyone to read those ideas. Get them thinking about the topic ahead of time.
- On the following day, give each person in the group at least one brainstorming tool (see below) and ask them to write their own ideas and submit them anonymously.
- Organize all the suggestions in one list and distribute them to the group.
- Have a group meeting to discuss the suggestions.
- The leader reviews all the ideas and the discussion against the project’s objectives.
One source for brainstorming tools is “52 Brainstorming Tools” by schoolofthought.org. Here are a few examples that I like.
- Mind map – put the objective in the middle and branch out nested and associated ideas to discover new perspectives as stimulus for new thoughts.
- Ask why – take any suggestion and be a 3-year old and ask why, why, why, to see where it leads you.
- Change of scene – take the list of ideas to a coffee shop, or better yet, to a bar. The change of perspective can stimulate ideas. (See “Send your employees to New York,” below.)
- Imagine you’re the devil – what would someone completely ruthless do?
The tools in that deck of 52 cards address several different parts of the creative thinking process, including idea generation, evaluating ideas, operational considerations, the impact on customers, etc.
If you need help with new ideas, or effective ways to get your staff to think more creatively, give me a call. I can help.
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