Resources

Conducting an Effective Brainstorming Session

Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Author: Business Consultants, Inc.

Conducting an Effective Brainstorming Session

Proposed by the Institute of Design at Stanford (D. School) and the successful design company, IDEO who celebrates Design Thinking are the following tips for a successful brainstorming:1

  1. Set a time limit: depending on the problem’s complexity, usually sessions may take from 15–60 minutes
  2. Start with a problem statement, identify possible questions, choose a plan, or a goal and stay focused on the goal. Facilitator should ensure members should approach this sharply defined question, plan or goal and stay on topic
  3. Defer judgment or criticism: any form of negative feedback including body language towards any ideas raised should be avoided during brainstorming
  4. Encourage weird, wacky and wild ideas: Allow ideas to flow, and try to avoid phrases like “too expensive, too old”, as long as ideas are flooding keep them coming
  5. Aim for quantity: with brainstorming “quantity breeds quality”, narrowing down ideas and fine tuning will come later so try to inspire as many ideas as possible
  6. Build on each other’s’ ideas: Try to suggest an “and” rather than a “but” towards ideas being raised. Building on each other’s ideas helps us discover new insights and allows ideas to trigger even bigger ideas
  7. Be visual: Use diagrams, and colorful post to help others stay focused and so everyone could enjoy looking at ideas from different perspectives
  8. One conversation at time: for a brainstorming session to be successful, communication skills should be practiced correctly where everyone listens to the speaker and conversations are smoothly building on each other

1https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/brainstorming

 

For more about this topic, download our latest book "From Idea to Innovation" for FREE:

E-Book: From Idea to Innovation