At many meetings you present or listen to information. But at some meetings, you and your team generate ideas. As with any business practice, there are more effective and less effective ways to brainstorm.
There are two parts of your brain—a right side that is more creative and a left side that is more structured. The brainstorming process requires you to use both. The first stage in brainstorming is to simply generate ideas, as many as possible, without those pesky constraints of practicality, plausibility, or logic. The second stage is to evaluate the long list of ideas you have generated to make sure you select an idea that will actually work and help your team accomplish a goal.
The leader should:
When you’re brainstorming for ideas, you need a leader. That person may be predetermined because of her rank in the group or her stature as the head of the committee, or she may be appointed by the group for the purpose of the day’s discussion. The leader’s job is to manage the process.
The leader should appoint a scribe to capture the ideas. If the leader is both managing the group interaction and taking notes, she can’t participate as fully in the discussion.
The scribe in a brainstorming session has a tremendous amount of power. If a team member throws out an idea and the scribe decides to “tweak,” “massage,” or “clarify” the idea, the scribe has, in fact, changed someone else’s idea into something the scribe thinks is better. That’s why you are better off if the scribe writes the ideas publicly on a whiteboard or flip chart rather than on a pad. The leader can hold the scribe accountable for capturing ideas more accurately, and everyone feels his or her ideas are heard and respected.
Some people struggle to communicate their ideas clearly. If a team member states an idea awkwardly and you think he means something different from what he said, rather than capture it in his words, ask him whether it’s okay if you capture what he said as [suggested language]. If he readily agrees, you have helped him get his idea out. If he’s hesitant, backtrack and have the scribe capture the idea using the original wording.
The leader should state the problem clearly. We can’t generate solutions if we don’t know what we’re trying to solve.
The scribe should number the ideas. Numbering the suggestions encourages people to generate a volume of ideas. It also makes it easier later in the process to identify which idea you are discussing.
The leader’s job is also to make sure people comply with the spirit of brainstorming. When you lead a brainstorming session, you want to create an environment in which no idea is too far-fetched, extravagant, or just plain stupid, although some ideas might be all three. When people start to think more broadly without having to worry about application, they generate ideas that can later be tailored to meet reality. The leader needs to listen for and quash comments that tend to undermine creativity such as:
These comments and others like them tend to make people pause before contributing, and that’s the antithesis of the creative process.
The scribe should tear off and hang the flip-chart paper on the wall rather than flipping to the next page. If the ideas remain visible to all participants in the discussion, everyone can see what’s already been shared and what ideas they can build upon.
The leader should limit the discussion to one hour. The quality of the ideas dwindles as the group gets tired.
The leader should make sure the flip chart or whiteboard lists are recorded and distributed, if appropriate.
The leader’s job is also to make sure all voices are heard and that one person doesn’t dominate the discussion. See Chapter 5 on listening skills to understand how to manage the group.
Once you think you have exhausted the ideas of the group, it’s time to give structure to the chaos you’ve created.
Start by categorizing the items listed. Some of the items on your list are variations on a theme. Capture the essence of that theme. This may cause you to generate even more ideas.
After you have categorized all items into a few groups, it’s time to evaluate the viability of the ideas in each group and consider which idea is best overall. What constitutes “viable” and “best” depends on the issue and the group.