Brainstorming is one of the most powerful techniques of all for developing synergy and unlocking creativity in a group, team, or organization. One of the chief responsibilities of effective managers is to conduct regular brainstorming sessions with their staff focused on business improvements. You cannot afford to leave the creative potential of your people untapped. You have to create an environment that encourages them to contribute their best ideas to the success of your business.
The Brainstorming Process
Here are six guidelines for practicing brainstorming to stimulate people’s creativity:
1. The ideal size of a brainstorming group is four to seven people. Fewer than four people tends to diminish the number and quality of ideas generated. More than seven people becomes unwieldy, with some people not getting a chance to contribute their best thinking.
When I conduct brainstorming sessions with larger groups, I break them down into groups of four to seven people and have them work separately, sharing their ideas with the overall group at the end of the session.
2. The length of an ideal brainstorming session is fifteen to forty-five minutes. Thirty minutes is optimal. It is important that you announce the exact time of the brainstorming session and then cut it off at exactly the agreed time. There is something about generating ideas toward a time limit that increases the quality and quantity of ideas considerably.
3. A brainstorming session’s goal is to generate the greatest number of ideas possible in the time allowed. There is a direct relationship between the quantity of ideas generated and the quality of the ideas. Sometimes, the last idea generated during the last minute of the brainstorming session is the breakthrough idea that transforms the future of the organization.
4. The brainstorming session must be completely positive. This means that there is no judgment and no evaluation of ideas as they are generated. Every idea is a good idea. Your goal is to encourage the greatest number of ideas, and you do so by praising and encouraging even the most ridiculous ideas.
It is not uncommon for one ridiculous idea to be combined with another ridiculous idea to create a third idea that is revolutionary. Make it fun. Make it silly. Make it humorous. Make sure that everyone has a good time. The more laughter that occurs during a brainstorming session, partially because of the silliness of the ideas, the better the quality of the ideas and the greater the quantity will be. Aim for as many ideas or solutions as you can generate, and don’t worry about whether or not they are good.
5. Before starting the brainstorming session, agree upon who is going to be the leader. The leader has the specific responsibility of ensuring that each person gets a chance to contribute. The best way to accomplish this level of participation is for the leader to go around the table, person by person, requesting one idea from each participant before moving on. This is an amazingly effective process. It is very much like starting an outboard engine. Once you have gone around the table once, everybody starts to become excited and involved. People will be throwing out ideas from all sides, waving their hands and fighting for airtime.
The job of the leader is to ensure an orderly process, encouraging each person to share ideas and making sure that each other person has a chance to talk.
6. Each brainstorming session also requires a recorder. This is the person whose job, along with contributing, is to write down the ideas as they are generated. In a particularly energetic brainstorming session, you may have to have more than one recorder because you will be generating so many good ideas. Whenever I conducted group brainstorming sessions with IBM, and with other companies, I would suggest having a competition between and among the tables about which group could come up with the most ideas. This idea of a “competition” caused everyone to put an emphasis on generating the highest quantity of ideas without judgment or evaluation.
Nominal Group Technique
This is a simple but powerful technique that is used in brainstorming (as well as Mindstorming) to elicit creative answers to specific questions or problems. The simplest example of nominal group technique is sentence completion exercises. For example, you could complete the following three sentences with as many different answers as possible:
1. We could double our sales in the next ninety days if. . .
2. We could cut our costs by 20 percent in shipping and handling if. . .
3. We could become the leading suppliers of our product in this marketplace if. . .
Go around the table and complete these sentences, or other sentences that you make up, with as many different answers as possible. Assume that a logical, workable, and affordable solution already exists and is just waiting to be found. Your job is to provide the stimulus in the form of these sentence completion exercises, to elicit the very best ideas possible from the people involved.
Regular practice of this method will greatly increase the quality and quantity of creative thinking of everyone in your organization. This is an excellent way to find solutions that are right under your feet, but you are just not aware of them yet.
ACTION EXERCISES
1. Select one problem or goal that could make a major difference if it was solved or achieved in your business.
2. Assemble your brainstorming team, explain to them the process (described in this chapter), and then have them brainstorm as many ideas as possible to solve your problem or achieve your goal. You will be amazed at the result.