So, You Want To Brainstorm Like A Pro
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | david jones
On a couple of recent occasions, I’ve had friends ask about tips for leading brainstorming sessions, or at least how to get more out of them. There are a variety of tactics I use – some are borrowed, some are original. Most have become second nature, but in an effort to capture a meaningful list of tips, I decided to write them down.
The keys to success include everything from preparation to expectations to location to actual facilitation. Each group and topic will be different, and the facilitator should always be sensitive to the situation and be flexible. But regardless of the specific session, I have found that most of these practices, when implemented, will yield stronger results.
Overall
- Goals: where there is no vision the people perish. Are you trying to develop a mission statement, solve a problem, come up with a new idea, or refine a current program? If you don’t know exactly what you want to accomplish before you begin, chances are you will end up with a bunch of discussion but little accomplished.
- Planning: the devil is in the details. Everything from location to participants to discussion topics to brainstorming tactics is critical. Yes, you want the group to have a casual feel, but that doesn’t mean that you need a casual approach to planning. The more thoroughly you prepare, the more you will accomplish.
- Focus: keep your eye on the ball. Because brainstorming is open and free-flowing, and because there are “no bad ideas,” there is sometimes a tendency to get off track. It is critical that the facilitator continually steer the group towards the overall objective. This takes tact, because you don’t want to spurn participation, but it is critical.
- Inclusion: there is no “I” in “TEAM.” It is important to include all participants in the brainstorming. You cannot afford to let one or two people dominate the group, nor can you let anyone quietly remain silent. There is a reason each person is involved, and each person’s opinion is valuable.
Preparation
- Expectations: When inviting attendees, set clear expectations about why they are involved.
- Invitations: Make sure all participants know when, where and how long the session will last. Don’t begin the session until everyone has arrived.
- Commitment: Make sure everyone in the group is committed to the goal, to attending and to participating.
- Attendee Preparation: While it’s okay for attendees to have a general idea why they are attending, they generally should not bring prepared ideas. This leads to people “selling” their pre-conceived ideas versus trying to come up with the best ideas as a group.
- Group Size: Brainstorming can be done with groups of all sizes, but generally a minimum of four and a maximum of eight people is best. If you need to conduct sessions with larger groups, then be prepared to introduce topics and divide into smaller sub-groups (e.g. if you have a group of 24, then introduce the topic, break into six sub-groups of four, and then have each group report back).
- Topics/Questions: The facilitator should come prepared with enough topics/questions/thought starters to fill the time and achieve the objective. However, they should also have the flexibility to move in the direction the brainstorming leads, as long as it ultimately results in achieving the overall objective.
Space
- Location: Pick a space that is private, free of distractions, relaxing and preferably different than most are used to (e.g. avoid a conference room normally used by the group, go off-site). Also pick a room that fits the group (you don’t want 20 people in a small conference room or six people in a gymnasium).
- Supplies: Have plenty of flip charts (or butcher paper), pads of paper, pens and markers. Also supply drinks and snacks. Another good idea is something for people to do with their hands while thinking (clay dough, small plastic toys, nerf balls, hacky sacks, etc).
- Distractions: Remove/turn off all phones, email, televisions and other potential external disruptions, including cell phones.
Facilitation
- Moderator Role: The moderator is a facilitator – not a participant. Their job is to focus on guiding the group, soliciting feedback and moving the discussion forward. They should not be offering their own ideas. Also, the moderator needs to have energy. If you drag, your group will follow. And remember, brainstorming should be fun . . . not work!
- Documentation: Make sure ideas are being captured, usually through flip charts. Flip charts are good because they are visible to everyone, people know their ideas have been captured, ideas remain visible to spur other discussion, and you can refer back to earlier ideas.
- Support/applaud ideas: There are no bad ideas, even if it is a bad idea. The quickest way to quell ideation is to start judging and shooting down ideas. Remember, often off-track ideas lead to other ideas that move towards the solution. Don’t let people in the group judge or put down ideas.
- Parking Lot: Create a “parking lot.” This is a flip chart where you write an idea down to come back to later. This is a great tactic for keeping the group on track. When someone brings up something that isn’t relevant say, “let’s put that in the parking lot and come back to it later if we have time.” This way you don’t have to ignore someone, yet you can keep the group moving.
- Process: Separate brainstorming (idea generation) from the judging of ideas. Many times when a group needs to get to a final short list of recommended solutions, they have to go through a multi-step process (oftentimes over multiple sessions).
- Step 1: Brainstorming (get all the possible ideas on the wall)
- Step 2: Evaluation (everyone votes, discusses and narrows down to the best options)
- Step 3: Combine/Refine (combine some ideas and refine others)
- Step 4: Finalize (determine the final recommendations)
- Probe: When preparing for you group, come up with a variety of different questions to get to the same end. For example, if I wanted to know what someone enjoys doing, I could ask the following similar but different questions:
- What is your favorite thing to do?
- What is the coolest thing you have ever done in your life?
- If you could spend this afternoon doing any one thing, what would it be?
- If you had one day left to live, what three things would you do?
- If you could spend one day with your favorite person in history, what would you do with him/her?
How about you? What needs to be added to the list? What techniques have worked for you?
Did you like this post? Here are a few more:
- Welcome to “The New Clutter”: Everyone Who’s Trying to “Cut Through The Clutter”
- Back in my day…
- Beating the Butterflies
- Stop Selling and Just Answer the Question
- Don’t Be an Entourage of Suck-ups
Comments
One Response to “So, You Want To Brainstorm Like A Pro”
Leave a Reply
What We're All About
Welcome to The Cure for Common Marketing, a Jackson Marketing Group blog dedicated to sharing insightful thinking, new ideas, technologies, what-if concepts, success stories, and book/article reviews about light speed changes in the B2B marketing universe. We encourage you to share your thoughts and opinions.
February 26th, 2010 @ 9:50 pm
Some excellent tips – one other thing to consider when setting up a brainstorming session is bringing in an outside facilitator, whether they are from outside the company or just outside the normal work group, having someone who participants view as truly unbiased can help – particularly if you know you have some opposing thinkers in the group. Just make sure the facilitator understands the goal of the brainstorming session and has experience leading these types of groups.