Innovation by SIT

Brainstorming, in my view, is first and foremost a copywriting concept.

Today, whenever someone wants to summon a group of people to think together, he/she invites them to a brainstorming session.

And indeed brainstorming is a great name. It seems to have the effect of charging energy and stimulating enthusiasm in most individuals.

But does it really work? Do the nice ideas of cross-fertilization among team members and suspense of judgment really deliver?

In all the brainstorming sessions that I’ve participated in, I noticed that although the brainstorming techniques were explained, most people reacted to other people’s ideas judgmentally, without displaying even a sign of being “cross-fertilized”.

Having said that, in this article I’d like to outline some existing brainstorming techniques and brainstorming tips that can help you better manage your brainstorming sessions.

Choose the physical setting for the brainstorming session well.

It’s not by chance that I mention this first. I have learned that the physical setting of the brainstorming session is a critical factor in its success. It is highly recommended to meet in a comfortable place outside the company facilities. It is also advised to spread flip charts around so that everyone who needs to illustrate his/her ideas will have one nearby. A U-shaped layout of the chairs is a good arrangement too.

Assign one member of the team to write down ideas and comments

It’s critically important to have one of the participants assigned to writing each idea and comment. In real time, due to varying energy and enthusiasm levels, good ideas or good comments can be ignored. Many people believe that ‘”good ideas will be remembered”,but my experience has taught me that this is far from the truth.

It’s best to write the meeting summary without referring to the person suggesting the idea

This way, at least when reading the report, there will be no diversion due to the social status of the person proposing the idea.

Facilitating brainstorming sessions:

The brain storming session must have a facilitator. This person needs to set the rules (and there must be brainstorming rules) and make sure they are obeyed. The facilitator also needs to keep an eye on the time. It’s very easy to lose track of the time and produce poor results in brain storming sessions. An important role of the facilitator is not to let participants spend too much time defending their ideas or attacking other people’s ideas. He or she must also insist on elaborating raw ideas and abandoning far-fetched ideas.

When the process get stuck (as it often does) the facilitator should suggest other lines of thought and new angles of looking at the topic at hand in order to get the process going again.

Brainstorming participants:

The ideal number for brainstorming sessions is 8-12 participants. The participants should reflect any angle of the problem at hand. It is advisable to bring in people from outside the organization, such as big customers or suppliers.

Brainstorming rules:

The traditional brainstorming rules are as follows:

- Postpone and withhold the judgment of your ideas
- Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
- Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
- Build on the ideas put forward by others
- Every person and every idea has equal worth

Personally I don’t like these rules. My experience shows that wild ideas don’t help the process, but are very attention consuming.Everybody laughs, but the ideation process is not advanced. Which brings me to the concept of humor in brainstorming…

Most people believe that humor is a good thing. My experience shows that humor can be time consuming and encourage a cynical approach regarding the process. The facilitator needs to be very sensitiveas regards humor and not let the process deteriorate into a series of cynical discussions.

In addition, I believe that ideas need to be elaborated on close to the time of their being conceived. It’s impossible to elaborate on ideas without some kind of judgment.

There are actually two kinds of judgments. The first refers to the benefit of the idea (if we implement it, what will we achieve), the second refers to the difficulties in implementing the ideas (such as prohibitively high implementation cost) or to the negative side effects after the idea is implementing (such as high operating cost). I believe that it is the second kind of judgment that needs to be suspended. It is rational to first establish the very merit or value of the idea and only then (if the idea does have value) discuss possible implementation difficulties.

If the idea does not have value, there is no point in discussing implementation difficulties. If the idea has a lot of value, the implementation problems will eventually be solved.

See you all in my next post,

Roni

Visit Roni at the start2think website