Strategies for Having an Organised and Productive Brainstorming Session
This is a guest post by Katie Brenneman. Thank you Katie for writing this for me.
Brainstorming, or brain squeezing as some like to call it, is an excellent tool that businesses can use to unlock new ideas. If done well, these sessions can help energise your teams, get them excited about new projects, and increase creativity and productivity. Unfortunately, not all brainstorming sessions are successful.
Group and one-on-one brainstorming can be highly collaborative and help bring your employees together to get them on the same page while also enabling them to bounce their differing ideas off one another. However, poorly organised sessions can do the opposite. Instead of inspiring your team, a bad brainstorming session can discourage them and leave them feeling deflated and uninspired.
If you’re determined to have a successful brainstorming session, don’t get give up just yet. A good brainstorm session can be highly beneficial and help your company improve its productivity. With a little guidance from the tips and strategies below, you can turn your brainstorming sessions around and have all of your staff wanting to join in.
Tips and Strategies for a Successful Brainstorming Session
One of the most common pitfalls for new businesses and even well-established ones is an inability to adapt and think on their feet. When you run a business, there are always going to be changes and things coming at you left and right. Having a team that is creative, flexible, and able to adapt will enable you to handle whatever comes at you and run with it.
Brainstorming sessions are what help you and your team learn to think on your feet and pivot with new ideas and solutions when needed. They also allow you to learn more about one another to allow for a more collaborative and synergistic environment. The following strategies can help you organise more successful brainstorming sessions to benefit your employees and your business:
- Define Your Goals
If you wait until the brainstorming session to define your topic and establish goals, you aren’t making good use of your time. What you want to discuss, what you want to achieve, and what problems you need to address should be defined before starting the session. It can be helpful to even outline these details and send them out to staff ahead of time so they can come to the table prepared and ready with ideas.
- Create an Agenda
Brainstorming sessions should allow for flexibility, but you also don’t want to go into it without any sort of structure or agenda. Try breaking the session down into three sections. The first is when you will briefly review the goals and what you want to achieve — this includes talking about what you already know, key terms of the central topic, and valuable context.
The second section is when you will essentially open the floor for ideas. Encourage your team to call out anything that comes to mind. No idea is a bad idea. Let the juices flow and write down all the ideas that are spoken. The third section will then be about sorting through the ideas, choosing the best ones, and discussing them in further detail.
- Allow for Time and Space
This tip is relatively straightforward. Basically, don’t rush and use a space that is open and free of distractions. You want to block off a good chunk of time to allow for the ideas to flow. You should also have the session in a closed-off room or office where there is room to spread out and to avoid external distractions from everything else going on in the office.
- Try New Techniques and Visuals
If one technique hasn’t worked for you, don’t be afraid to branch out. There are lots of different brainstorming techniques, and some might work for your team better than others. For example, you can go around the room using the stepladder technique and ask to hear from everyone, one person at a time. Or, you can use brain-writing, which is where one person stands at the front to write down all of the ideas that are called out. You should also use visuals to help, such as sticky notes, a physical whiteboard, or a digital whiteboard, so all of the ideas are visible to everyone in the room.
- Quantity is Key
Focus on quantity over quality — at least at first. As mentioned above, no idea is a bad idea. You want to encourage your team to speak their mind and call out whatever comes to them. Even if their idea doesn’t get chosen, it doesn’t mean it is bad or wrong, and it could be a good idea for something else in the future. Essentially, you want to get as many ideas on the board as possible. Write everything down. You can circle back later to narrow ideas down and vote on the ones that work best.
- Avoid Criticism and Negativity
Above all else, you should encourage positive words and actions. Again, no idea is bad. So avoid using negative words that make staff feel like their idea wasn’t good. For example, try saying, “I like that idea, but what about this?” instead of simply saying “no” or “I don’t like that.” You want your team to feel comfortable speaking up and contributing their ideas — which won’t happen if they are constantly getting shot down.
How Businesses Can Benefit From Using Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming can benefit teams and businesses in several ways, but the three most important benefits are that it:
- Teaches you to adapt and think outside the box
- Encourages creative and critical thinking
- Builds better teams and positive collaborative environments
The key to achieving success and experiencing these benefits is having confidence when running your brainstorming sessions and not being afraid to make mistakes. Fear of failure can keep you and your team from making decisions and make them feel insecure about speaking up and voicing their opinions and ideas. It’s essential to set a good example during brainstorming sessions to show your team that it’s okay to make mistakes and encourage them to have the confidence to speak up and make decisions to get things done.
Final Thoughts
If you have struggled with brainstorming in the past, don’t be afraid to give it another go. There are lots of different tools and strategies you can use and play around with until you find a method and structure that works best for you and your team. Some of the best ideas come out of brainstorming sessions. If you put a little more thought into planning and structuring your sessions and creating a positive environment that welcomes all ideas, you can benefit and achieve success.
Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in lifestyle, mental health, education, and fitness-related content. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.
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