How To Brainstorm

Brainstorming is an indispensable and useful tool you and your team can use to develop creative solutions to a problem.  It is especially helpful when you need to develop a new way of looking at things and break out of using established, stale patterns of thinking. Brainstorming, however, is best done in a group.  Although individual brainstorming can generate many ideas, these ideas are limited because they only come from one perspective.  Group brainstorming is better for developing multiple ideas that may sound strange at first, but could turn out to be invaluable. Group brainstorming also allows the experience and expertise of all team members to come into play.  When an individual member has reached his limit on an idea, another member's experience and knowledge can bring the idea to the next level.  This kind of brainstorming allows ideas to develop.  For brainstorming sessions to work effectively, you will need to manage the sessions well so that everyone on the team participates and nobody crushes the ideas of others. 

Read on to find out how to brainstorm effectively.

1. Before anything else, define the problem clearly and list the criteria that need to be met.  Write these down on a whiteboard.
2. Assign one person to write down all the ideas that the members come up during the session.  During a brainstorm, ideas come too fast for people to remember; having someone take down minutes is absolutely important.  Make sure the person selected is a fast typist.
3. Keep each team member focused on the problem and divert the discussion back to it when the train of thought starts getting derailed.
4. Encourage an enthusiastic attitude among the team.  Try to get every member to contribute by asking questions to each one.  Encourage them to speak their mind and come up with as many ideas as they can, from the practical ones to the wildly impossible ones. However, make sure that no one train of thought is followed too long or others may not have a chance to speak.
5. During a brainstorm session, ideas should not be criticized, no matter how ridiculous or impractical they might seem.  There is another time and place for criticism.  A brainstorm session is about building up ideas, being open to new possibilities, and breaking down assumptions about the limits of the problem and the team's creativity.  At this stage, any analysis or judgment will block the flow of ideas.
6. If the ideas start drying up, or if the members have difficulty starting, you can "seed" the session by throwing in a question or a random word.
7. Evaluate only ideas during the last hour of the brainstorm session.  At this stage, you can now explore the solutions, logistics, and alternative approaches. It is important that the criticism be constructive and objective so as not to humiliate the team member who came up with the idea.

As much as possible, the members of a brainstorming session must come from various disciplines. This will bring a wide range of experiences and knowledge to the session and will make it more fruitful and productive.