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
- Set a time limit: depending on the problem’s complexity, usually sessions may take from 15–60 minutes
- 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
- Defer judgment or criticism: any form of negative feedback including body language towards any ideas raised should be avoided during brainstorming
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Be visual: Use diagrams, and colorful post to help others stay focused and so everyone could enjoy looking at ideas from different perspectives
- 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
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