Generating Value by Conducting Brainstorming

Brainstorming is likely the single most beneficial tool for generating powerful and useful ideas in a group or team environment. It is an efficient and effective method for generating ideas within a team by allowing participants to be creative, unbound by current paradigms. Alex F. Osborn, known as the father of brainstorming, is quoted as saying, "It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one.”

Brainstorming ground rules:

• No idea is a bad idea
• Encourage participation from all group members
• Do not evaluate, criticize, or judge ideas
• Solicit quantity of ideas
• No titles in the room
• Record ideas; build on those ideas

Brainstorming may be used when:

• There is a desire to generate many ideas
• Team approach and input are preferred
• Little or no quantitative data is available
• Creative thinking and problem solving are useful

Benefits of brainstorming include:

• Provide a collaborative team environment
• Provide a consistent approach for generating ideas
• Bring together diverse backgrounds and experiences
• Provide an approach for fun, creative thinking, and new ideas
• Provide an effective and efficient approach for generating ideas

Brainstorming Process:

1. Assemble a cross-functional team of participants who are briefed and come prepared to engage in the brainstorming session
2. Open session and prepare participants by facilitating introductions and reviewing the brainstorming topic, ground rules, expectations, concerns, and deliverables of the session
3. Allow participants a few minutes in silence to think about ideas related to the brainstorming topic and session deliverables; participants will have been briefed and prepared for the topic prior to conducting the session
4. In a free-flow setting, ask participants to share their ideas with no discussion or evaluation
5. The facilitator records each idea exactly as presented on a flip chart
6. Continue presenting and recording ideas until participants have no additional ideas to add to the list or the agreed-upon time limit is reached
7. Use the brainstorming ideas for the project’s next phase, such as action plan, affinity diagram, impact/effort matrix, multi-voting, Pugh matrix, solution-selection matrix, etc.

Value Generation Partners wishes you much success in your pursuit of generating powerful and useful ideas, thereby generating greater value in your organization!  

Brainstorming is useful in combination with other LinkedIn Pulse posts found at this link.

Find more on related topics in Workshop Facilitation for Success Handbook, which is available on Lulu.com and other book distributors in paperback and eBook. With the purchase of any handbook, the reader has access to a companion toolbox file containing all referenced templates.