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Brainstorming…For Radical Ideas!
To survive and grow, in today's advanced and
competitive markets, organisations have to come up with
needs ideas. They have to be ready to respond to any challenge
before competition. Brainstorming was originally developed
as a tool that everyone in an organisation could use to
be more effective. It is by far the most widely used tool
to stimulate creative thinking. Developed in the 1940s by
an American advertising executive Alex Osborn, it is a lateral
thinking process designed to help people to break out of
regular thinking patterns into new ways of looking at things.
Brainstorming and the types
Brainstorming is a process wherein a group
of people focus on an issue/ problem and then come up with
very many radical solutions to it. They bring out ideas
as they think of them, regardless of the content of the
ideas, such that each of the participants has the opportunity
to build on the ideas of others. No discussion, evaluation,
or criticism of ideas is allowed until the brainstorming
session is complete. Every brainstorming session should
have a facilitator assigned to record all ideas.
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Individual brainstorming: When you brainstorm
on your own you do not have to worry about other people's
egos or opinions, and can therefore be creative and generate
more ideas. However, the ideas you develop individually
may not be as effective since you do not have the experience
of a group to help you.
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Group brainstorming: Group brainstorming
can be very effective as it uses the experience and creativity
of all participants. The advantage here is that when an
individual participant reaches his limit on an idea, another
participant's creativity and experience can take the idea
to the next stage. Group brainstorming, therefore, tends
to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming.
Methods of brainstorming:
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Freewheeling brainstorm, wherein group
members voice their ideas spontaneously. The facilitator
records the ideas as they are suggested.
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Round-robin brainstorming, where the
leader or facilitator asks each member, in turn, for an
idea. Members come up with ideas in turns and the session
continues until all members have given their ideas. Ideas
are recorded as in freewheeling.
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Slip method, which differs, markedly
from the other two approaches, wherein the leader asks
participants to write down their ideas on slips of paper
or index cards. The ideas are then collected, organised
and presented to the group.
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Towards effective brainstorming:
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When scheduling the session, be sure
to include a brief explanation of the problem and its
history. This enables participants to be mentally prepared
for the session and focus on the particular issue. The
more specific and focussed a session the better the results!
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When inviting participants for a brainstorming
session, consider people with different backgrounds and
degrees of expertise. Often, a fresh outlook comes from
someone who is not considered an expert or close to the
problem. However, care should be taken while bringing
together people from various management levels. Often,
in the presence of a senior-level manager, people will
be either reluctant to participate or overdo it.
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Distribute a copy of the rules of brainstorming
before the session begins. Criticism of ideas should not
be allowed. After all, the main aim is to open up new
possibilities and breakdown wrong assumptions about the
limits of the problem. Judgment and analysis at this stage
will stunt idea generation. Every participant should try
to build on or combine the ideas of others. Ideas should
only be evaluated once the brainstorming session has finished
exploring solutions, using conventional approaches.
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If there are more than 10 participants
in a brainstorming session, divide the group into teams
of five or more for better focus and capture of ideas.
Highlighting objectives and capturing ideas!
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Write the objective of the session where
everyone in the room can see it. Frame questions beginning
with either "How can we…?" or "What
can be done to…?" For instance, "How can
we better understand the needs of our customers?"
or "What can be done to improve the quality of this
product?"
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When scheduling a brainstorming session,
the meeting should not last longer than 30 or 40 minutes.
Brainstorming sessions can be tiring and if a satisfactory
idea/solution has not been arrived at after 40 minutes
then it is best to adjourn the meeting. Participants should
part with the understanding that there will be another
session later for which they can come better prepared
after thinking about the problem.
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Be sure to capture all the ideas emerging
in the brainstorming. Using a whiteboard is ideal for
brainstorming, since ideas are displayed on the whiteboard
and this often stimulates additional ideas. The facilitator
can later compile these ideas. It is important to ensure
that all the ideas are saved for future reference.
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After the brainstorming session, edit
the notes, arrange the ideas in related groups and send
a copy to each participant at the earliest. Ask each participant
to select the five ideas he thinks are best, why these
ideas are most promising and how he would implement them.
Ensure that you get the feedback within a specified time.
More tips on brainstorming:
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Clearly define the problem to be solved,
and lay out any criteria to be met
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Ensure that the focus of the session
does not shift to other topics
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Encourage an enthusiastic attitude among
members of the group. Try to get everyone to contribute
and develop ideas, including the seemingly reserved members
of the group
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Let there be an element of fun. Encourage
participants to come up with as many ideas as possible,
from hardcore practical ones to wildly impractical ones.
Welcome creativity
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The focus should never be on a single
or few participants
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A single train of thought should not
be followed for too long during a brainstorming
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Encourage participants to build upon
each other's ideas, or to use other ideas to create new
ones
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Ensure that one person documents all
ideas generated during the session
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Avoid using phrases like "We have
always done it this way", "It will never work",
"We have tried that before", "Great idea,
but not for us" as they hinder creativity
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Present ideas in terms that everyone
understands and appreciates
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Let the senior boss speak: Often, in
the presence of a senior, participants tend to agree to
his ideas and make more room for his ideas. This kills
the essence of brainstorming
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Brainstorming in large groups: If the
group is large, everybody does not get a turn to express
ideas fully due to time shortage
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Ask the experts only: When it comes to
generating truly innovative ideas, deep expertise in a
field can actually be a drawback. Ideas from seemingly
unrelated fields can often lead to authentic breakthroughs
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Going off-site: By conducting off-site
brainstorming sessions, you reinforce the thought that
great ideas are always not generated in the proximity
of your daily work.
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Only serious ideas from participants
are accepted: Often, wild and seemingly silly ideas work
and bring innovative breakthroughs.
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Write down everything: Note-taking in
brainstorming should not be obsessive. A short note that
preserves a thought is acceptable. However, detailed writing
destroys momentum, dissipates energy, and distracts participants
from the main purpose of the exercise: unfettered thinking.
Many challenging situations arise in every day work life
where answers to several questions like "what",
"why", and "how" are critical. One of
the best ways to do this is to brainstorm. Brainstorming
is not just for good ideas, or even for new ideas; it often
aims to gather a large number of ideas in a short time.
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