Marketing | Ten tips for effective brainstorming

By Claire Allison

Brainstorming is one of the best ways to unlock information and harness the power of creative and productive thinking.

In work situations, many people are often too afraid to voice their ideas because they are afraid of sounding stupid in front of their employers and peers or of being criticised. Brainstorming allows people to come up with weird and wonderful concepts in a focused environment where they can be turned into powerful and usable solutions.

Here are 10 tips to help you when brainstorming:



1. Have a moderator
It’s important for someone to be assigned to guide the brainstorming session and to keep track of ideas. Someone who knows the project well and has natural leadership abilities such as a manager, or someone in an authoritative role, is the natural choice.

2. Identify the goal
What is the desired outcome of the problem? Having a quick run-through of the situation and identifying the goal will help the members of the brainstorming session stay focused. The danger with creative thinking is that without focus, ideas can veer off on tangents, wasting valuable time. 

3. Limit your time
Setting a time limit to your session will keep team members focused on the goal and under a healthy amount of pressure to dig deep and churn out their best ideas in the timeframe. If the project requires a long brainstorming session, be sure to take a break to keep members’ minds rested and fresh for the next session.

4. Write everything down
Every idea is valuable. Visual brainstorming is an effective tool that can assist with illustrating perceptions and points of view of different ideas, making room for new ideas. Keep a whiteboard, paper and sketchpads handy. Writing everything down and drawing diagrams to help illustrate concepts somewhere where everyone can see them will help to channel and spark other ideas.

5. Don’t be shy
Brainstorming sessions should be held in relaxed and non-threatening environments where members can speak their ideas freely, no matter how weird or wonderful they may be. By embracing truly ridiculous notions, members will have free reign to be as creative as they like. A non-judgmental environment will help to create a productive session. 

6. Avoid group thinking
Groups of people can feed off each one another’s ideas and encourage a certain type of thinking where the productivity of the brainstorm is compromised. Be as true to yourself and your ideas as possible to ensure your personality comes through loud and clear.

7. Play the devil’s advocate
It’s always good practice to question concepts to make sure they’re foolproof. What good is an idea riddled with problems and limitations of its own? By asking the tough questions, you will eliminate poor ideas, whittling down the list of possible solutions.

8. Collate ideas
Wrap up your brainstorming session by honing in on the ideas that address the goal and jotting them down on a list. Remain focused on the goal by keeping your list to no more than three or four solutions. This will help to specify the course of action that will address the project’s goal.

9. Bring in an outsider
Bringing in someone who is completely unrelated to the project will give an injection of fresh ideas, which could prove very valuable. Sometimes being too close to an idea can cause members to become over-analytical and an outsider offers objective advice and solutions.

10. Evaluate the solutions
After the initial sessions, assign relevant tasks to team members to work on for a few hours before reconvening to evaluate which solution will work best. Planning and trouble-shooting will help to identify problems within the execution of an idea. Stepping back and looking at ideas in their entirety can help identify the best and most workable solution.

What are your tips for brainstorming?

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• Developing your creativity
  

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This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.