SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Brainstorming
Brainstorming, Where Do I Begin?
How
Do I Lead a Brainstorming Session?
Brainstorming can be a prolific experience
for any business, whether launching a new product, facing new
competition, or ready to go through a strategic tune-up or
overhaul. To make the most out of business brainstorming sessions,
all a manager needs to do is follow a few simple guidelines,
and then let the self-fueling energy of an efficient, effective,
and productive brainstorming session take over.
How
many team members should participate in a brainstorming session?
An
ideal group for a good business brainstorming session is
about a half-dozen to a dozen people. That amount is large
enough to have a diversity of creative input and small enough
to maintain cohesion and focus. Having said that, a large
group can also produce tremendous strides in a well-managed
brainstorming
session, though it’s advisable to restrict the number of
participants to fewer than 40.
How
should a brainstorming session be managed?
From
the outset the manager should inform the group of the brainstorming
session’s objective. It should be expressed
in a way that challenges, inspires, and encourages the
participants
to actively participate. No
idea should be discouraged. No judgment should be given to
ideas at all in a brainstorming session. Now is the time
to encourage your team to make whatever suggestions they have,
all they have, however wacky. Sometimes you have to get through
some pretty crazy and impractical ideas to get to the good
ones, and if you squelch a participant’s creativity too soon
by evaluating the ideas they’re brainstorming, the brainstorming
has a way of fizzling out. Instead, greet every suggestion
and idea with the same level of gratitude and enthusiasm as
every other. The more your team feels safe sharing their ideas,
the more ideas they’ll have to share.
What
steps can you take to facilitate most successful brainstorming
sessions possible?
Brainstorming
sessions are best conducted in a relaxing environment. The
team members participating
in the session ought to feel
comfortable carrying on a conversation in an informal manner.
To
make sure no good idea gets lost in the whirlwind, it’s a
good idea to have a second facilitator present whose sole
job is to record the ideas suggested. During the brainstorming
session, the ideas should be written in a place where everyone
present can clearly see them, such as a whiteboard.
Later
on, someone in the group - whether one of the facilitators
or participants - can then take all that’s been suggested and
copy it down into a cleaner, neater, more organized, and distributable
format. From here, you as the manager can then start to go
through the ideas suggested and whittle them down to the most
practical and compelling handful.
Most importantly, express your gratitude to all the participants
before they leave the brainstorming session. That’s the best
way to foster even better future brainstorming sessions. # # # # # SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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