SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Brainstorming
Brainstorming, Where Do I Begin?
Brainstorming:
Start Here
Brainstorming can be a powerful way to discover
incredible new ideas and take your life and your business in
incredible new directions. It can also, however, be an exercise
in futility if not handled properly. A disorganized and untrammeled
brainstorming session can, at its worst, lead to total chaos,
confusion, frustration, and despair. Fortunately it’s easy
to avoid this possibility, as there are very few key elements
that keep a brainstorming session on track. Quite possibly
the premiere of all these elements is to start the session
with a clear objective.
One of the most
common errors in conducting brainstorming
sessions is to charge headlong into it without first clarifying
the purpose of the brainstorm. Every brainstorming session
has to be about something - more often than not able to be
stated as a problem needing solving.
For example, maybe your company is ready to develop a new
product, but unsure in which direction to put its focus, what
market need needs filling. Maybe your company has a new product
and you’re seeking the very best way to launch it on the public.
Maybe the company is losing money and needs to brainstorm ways
to cut costs without cutting corners (or jobs), or alternatively
to increase profits without increasing expenses.
On a personal level, maybe you’ve been looking for a new job
or a new place to live for a while and keep coming up short.
A brainstorming session can be a great way to come up with
innovative solutions for finding that perfect job or home.
Maybe you’re having challenges with your children or parents
or partner and would like to come up with new ways of dealing
with old problems.
The best
brainstorming objectives are simple, meaning that
they’re fixed around a single, central idea or issue that can
be concisely stated in a single sentence. After you hone in
on the fundamental challenge, you can then start to isolate
and identify those other factors and elements that are contributing
to it.
Keep the essential challenge, the objective of your brainstorming
session, to one concisely-worded main idea. But once that main
idea is identified, feel free to then expound upon it and define
it as fully as you can before beginning to seek solutions.
The clearer you’ve defined your challenge, the clearer the
solutions will come to you.
Brainstorming can perform miracles in nearly any situation
and with nearly any issue, as long as the situation or issue
is clear and specific. If you have multiple problems that need
solving, multiple goals to achieve, then consider holding separate
brainstorming sessions for each of them.
To leave a completed brainstorming session fulfilled, with
at least one and ideally several new ideas to explore and put
into action, you must begin with a goal. As in every other
area of life, stating a goal is the better part of achieving
it, because once you know what you want, the path to having
it is laid out before you.
It’s no different with brainstorming sessions. Start out with
no goal, and you’ll likely get nowhere in return. Start out
with a specific objective you’d like to achieve, a certain
problem you’d like to solve, planted firmly in your mind (whether
alone or with a group) and you will very quickly see how brainstorming
got its name.
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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