Effective Techniques for Group Brainstorming

Brainstorming can be an effective method to stimulate creative thinking. Anyone can learn to generate creative solutions for a wide range of problems. Below are some tips that will help you garner results.

1. When meeting, include a brief explanation of the problem and its history. The more specific and focused a session, the better the results will be.

2. When inviting, consider people with different backgrounds and degrees of expertise. A fresh outlook can come from someone who isn't considered an expert or close to the problem.

3. Distribute brainstorming rules before you begin, i.e., no criticism of ideas; encourage all ideas no matter how wild; the more ideas, the better; and every participant should try to build on or combine with other ideas.

4. A session shouldn't last longer than 30-40 minutes. Brainstorming can be tiring and if you haven't formulated an idea after 40 minutes, then continue later.

5. Always be supportive of all ideas.

6. Always break a group of 10 participants or more into teams of 5 or 6 people and have each one brainstorm. Smaller teams remove formality and make people feel more at ease.

7. Write your objective where everyone in the room can see it. Put it in question form, starting with either "How can we...?" or "What can be done to...?"

8. Always be sure to capture everyone's ideas. An interactive whiteboard is great for brainstorming since ideas displayed on the surface are easily edited, then can be copied and saved to a computer.

9. If the flow of ideas begins to fizzle, the leader should step in. Some ideas:

• Re-read every third idea-this may spark additional thoughts.
• Ask a participant to select an idea and reasons why they like it. This may generate conversation and provide opportunity to build.
• If you're a leader, keep an idea or two to yourself. When conversation dies, share these ideas to stimulate more discussion.

After the session, edit all notes, arrange the ideas in related groups and send a copy to each participant. Ask each to select 5 ideas they think are best and request that they also explain why these ideas are promising, and how they would implement them. And finally, be sure to include a deadline for when you'd like ideas returned.

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