Are you trying to solve a problem? Often, it’s easier to find a solution when multiple minds come together. It becomes a group effort when everyone offers different perspectives and ideas instead of just one person going back and forth. And a group coming together to solve a problem? That’s the power of brainstorming.
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming involves using group discussions and idea-generation techniques to generate ideas and solutions to problems. It’s an effective technique for promoting out-of-the-box thoughts, opening up countless possibilities, and allowing individuals to experiment through trial and error.
What’s excellent about brainstorming is that it’s open-ended — there’s no fixed finish line. Instead, the focus is on quantity over quality, generating as many ideas as possible. Once the brainstorming session is complete, the next step is to critique and analyse each idea to determine which ones best solve a problem or are most actionable.
What brainstorming techniques are there?
As you brainstorm, you’ll want various high-quality solutions so you aren’t wasting your time. A meaningful brainstorming session is more than putting everyone together in one room and asking, “What now?” It requires structure and an effective plan.
If you’re leading a brainstorming session, it’s important to come prepared with prompts or exercises to engage participants and generate excitement and energy so the team feels motivated to join in as well.
There are many benefits of brainstorming. Below are some of the main ways to facilitate a good session:
- Encourage a wide variety of ideas
- Build on each other’s thoughts
- Create a judgement-free, safe space for open discussion
- Share diverse perspectives
- Generate new ideas based on past experiences
- Be open to unrealistic or unconventional concepts
- Avoid criticism during the idea-generation phase
With practical, creative brainstorming techniques and a safe space for creativity, you and your team can develop a unique and impactful solution.
What are the benefits of brainstorming for teams?
Brainstorming is vital for a variety of reasons. When a group of people work towards a common goal in a creative yet supportive way, team morale is boosted. People feel less isolated and are more likely to bond. There is time for them to breathe, think, and have ideas flow freely. In a brainstorming session, people tend to feel heightened focus and lower distraction levels.
Brainstorming starts with each person contributing ideas from their own unique perspectives without the pressure of perfection. Then, through the various brainstorming tools available, each team member can begin to share, elaborate, refine, or tweak their ideas individually or together as a group.
What if there’s no brainstorming structure?
Group brainstorming with no structure can favour some personality types over others. Naturally, the quick thinkers, chatty talkers, and loudest voices will be the ones to take over the conversation. The quieter, more introverted personalities will often be left behind or left out, leading to an unbalanced or unproductive conversation. Knowing this, it’s crucial to acknowledge all team members. By creating a structure that allows for participation and inclusivity, more diverse ideas will come into play.
How to create a safe space for brainstorming
Telling members that a brainstorming session is coming up will create a safe space for more ideas. If you don’t inform your team, they will be caught off guard and unsure of what to contribute. However, if you share an outline of how the brainstorming will occur and give them time to prepare beforehand, they’ll have more time to resonate with the problem and come up with their best ideas.
As a leader, set a clear intention of what kind of results you want to achieve by hosting the brainstorming session and make sure you follow through. This will make the energy and time more worthwhile. Have a game plan for how long the process of brainstorming, analysing, picking, and actioning will take.
If you’re constantly brainstorming with the same people, maybe consider inviting new people to the conversation to gain a fresh perspective on the problem. As new people rotate through, keeping the environment safe for all individuals is essential so they can comfortably contribute.
Brainstorming techniques
To some, brainstorming is a group of people shouting ideas around a whiteboard. While this is one scenario, it’s not the only option. Let’s check out what other brainstorming tools are out there and which one would work best for you and your team.
These seven ideation techniques below can help you brainstorm well with your team.
Brainwriting
Brainwriting is a great way to give everyone the ability to shine. In a shared space, each person silently writes down three ideas related to the topic for about five minutes. Then, they pass their ideas to the next person, who expands on them.
After another five minutes, their idea will be passed on to the next person. It will repeat over and over until all ideas make it around the room. From there, ideas will be shared aloud and discussed to see which could be potential options.
This process works well because it encourages collaborative brainstorming and creativity without the pressure of speaking up. It allows everyone to participate and avoids potential fixation on first ideas or people being biased toward specific ideas. In brainwriting, everyone gets to be creative, open and less anxious that another member judges their ideas.
Mind Map
Mind mapping is one of the most popular handwritten creative brainstorming techniques. It’s pretty simple — you put your key concept in the centre, circle it, and then map out related ideas. You do this by drawing lines known as ‘branches’ and attaching additional thought bubbles to them. You write topics or thoughts related to the key concept in these bubbles.
This nonlinear visual brainstorming method helps teams to see connections between various concepts. With everyone’s diverse way of thinking, there is a good chance that no mind map will look the same as everyone will develop their associations with the fundamental concept.
Visualisation
If writing on paper isn’t for you and you’re more of a visual thinker, then the eidetic image method is for you. This works well for those who like to imagine all that’s possible. In this method, team members will focus on vivid images and how they can become a reality.
First, as a brainstorming leader, you must set the scene for your team. Tell the group to close their eyes and imagine a concept. If your issue is coming up with a new couch style, then you will tell them that the scene is designing a brand new couch for their ideal furniture company.
Then, ask the team follow-up questions about the couch details, such as what the texture is made of, what colours it comes in, how many cushions it would have, and how it would fit in a living room. The more questions you ask, the more specific the visualisations can become.
The goal is to keep the group members building on their designs, making them more detailed. Afterwards, everyone can share their enhanced version and record the key features. Leaders can see what’s possible, what can be improved, and what can be brought together.
Rapid Ideation
In this brainstorming tool, you bring a group together, tell them the problem, and ask them to write down as many thoughts as possible within a specific time frame. When the clock runs out, everyone puts their pens down, and ideas are collected and shared.
The goal is to let thoughts flow without judgement. This method always works best in a time-sensitive environment where people are pressed to think creatively and quickly. It gives everyone the chance to get their ideas heard. Once ideas are generated, they can be sorted into categories, such as pros and cons, or grouped by common themes.
Starbursting
This method is excellent for building a story and looking at a scenario from multiple perspectives. In starbursting, the team gathers to draw a star, placing the core question or challenge in the centre. Each point of the star is labelled with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. Teams can either work on one big star together or create individual stars. Using these prompts, everyone generates questions about the challenge, sparking new ideas and expanding on multiple possibilities.
Question storming
If you need help brainstorming, you can guide your team by asking key questions to set the right direction. This is known as question-storming. Start by framing the problem as a clear statement. Then, set a timer and have everyone write down various questions related to the statement to explore it further. Once time is up, gather everyone’s ideas and organise them into themes. After sorting, the team can collaborate to select their favourite ideas and move forward.
Brainstorming in a new place
Brainstorming can become redundant if it’s always in the same place. If employees feel unmotivated, try switching things up — take them to a city, cafe or park. A change of environment can inspire fresh ideas, as new surroundings and sounds often have a more significant impact than we realise. People frequently start to work, think, and feel differently by switching up what they’re around, triggering insights they hadn’t considered before.
Best practices for brainstorming in a group
As you host brainstorming sessions for your team, there are a couple of best practices to implement.
- Make sure brainstorming sessions are timed. The best creative ideas happen under time constraints, and you can quickly lose momentum when sessions drag out too long.
- Avoid getting stuck or fixated on one idea halfway through a brainstorming session. This will reduce the amount of brainstorming, so remind yourself and your team to keep going even if they think they have the winning idea already.
- Write ideas down on paper. Ideas on paper are more memorable compared to those that are typed. When writing by hand, the brain thinks slightly differently and tends to have more to say than when typing.
- Using sticky notes is an effective way to build on ideas and easily rearrange concepts as they develop.
- Work individually and then work together. The best brainstorming happens when everyone gets the individual chance to think it through and then can share in an engaging, welcoming environment.
- Make sure everyone clearly understands what’s going on. Ideas flow much more effortlessly when people are on the same page.
With these practices in your back pocket, you’ll be ready to take on a brainstorming session.
Bring your teams to brainstorm at Haven
Now that you understand the importance of bringing people together to generate great ideas, it’s clear how essential it is to have a suitable space for collaboration. That’s why we created Haven Workspaces. We aim to provide an ideal environment for forward thinkers and small businesses to work and grow together in shared spaces. Whether you’re after a private office, a dedicated desk, or even a meeting room for group brainstorming activities, we offer all the necessary amenities.
Learn more about our pricing and options here.
