You should try this…creative brainstorming techniques
We know how much you’re all enjoying our ‘You should try this…’ series so we thought, why not add to it! We recently wrote a blog all about brainstorming and how it can become a tool of communication. Now we want to take a look into some creative brainstorming techniques you can all use in your next team meeting. Anything to help make them less boring, am I right!
The Basics
Beginning your brainstorming session, the first thing you need to do, even before making your seventh coffee of the day, is to clearly define a question of problem beforehand. Your team needs something they can focus their attention on. Brainstorming is less effective for problems that are difficult to describe or that require thorough specialised knowledge. So be clear, precise and direct about the issue at hand!
Now, there are four main rules that all brainstorming sessions should follow on a basic level:
- No criticism: criticism stifles creativity! People need to feel like they can speak freely without being ridiculed. The more comfortable your team is, the more creative ideas will be generated. Save the criticism for the evaluation stage!
- Accept unusual ideas: new methods of thinking and looking at the world can provide the solution you’ve been looking so long for.
- Quantity: at this brainstorming stage, the more ideas the better! With a range of ideas to explore, the better the possibility of producing a valuable solution.
- Unite and improve: through communication your team can collaborate to merge their ideas together and create an even stronger, more effective solution.
Now let’s look at some different techniques to help you get your creativity on!
Individual Brainstorming
Nothing but you and a piece of paper. Simple! Brainstorming traditionally takes place in a group but there’s nothing wrong with getting the ball rolling when you’ve got a spare five minutes to yourself. Don’t underestimate how many ideas you can come up with when you’re thinking freely.
Group Brainstorming
The classic. The one we all know and love (or perhaps just tolerate). As the saying goes two heads are better than one. Well, 10 heads together is even better than that! Remember to mix up your group though and bring in a range of people from different disciplines and perspective.
Role storming
We all like to think what our lives would be like if we were someone else. Come on, we’ve all thought about what we’d do if we were a billionaire! With role storming, you’re encouraged to take on other people identities and brainstorm with that mindset. Role storming aims to reduce the inhibitions that many people feel when sharing their ideas with a group. It also helps people come up with ideas that they may not have otherwise considered.
Teleporting storming
No special powers required for teleporting storming! Just bring your imagination and free thinking. All you have to do is close your eyes and imagine that you’re in a different environment, easy! You could imagine you’re in some place familiar or place yourself in the environment of your client and focus first hand on the problem you’re facing. My putting yourself in the situation, in the location, you are better equipped to face the issues you’re trying to solve in the brainstorming session.
Roadmap storming
How do you get from point A to point B? This is the purpose of this technique. During roadmap storming, your goal is to map out each step in the process to connect you from A to B in a successful way. This type of storming often works best in a group because everyone can contribute their ideas and help develop a map!
Blind writing storming
This technique often works best when you’re working alone. Give yourself a sheet of paper and 15 minutes on the clock. Use that time to continuously write! Don’t censor yourself and write down everything that comes to mind. Focus solely on getting your ideas down as quickly as they come into your mind. At the end of the time you can then look over what your brain spat our during the time and see which ideas are worth pursuing.
SWOT analysis storming
Who doesn’t love a SWOT analysis. Here at make it pop we have a SWOT analysis for every situation. For those of you not familiar with the technique, it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This technique is often represented with four boxes in a quadrant, each box labeled with one of those four words. The goal of doing a SWOT is to determine each of the four areas related to the problem you’re tackling. From this brainstorming you can often find the way forward by minimising the threats, maximising the strengths, building from the weaknesses and embracing the opportunities.
You’re welcome!
If you’re still looking for even more creative techniques for brainstorming (like we haven’t given you enough!) then be sure to look here and here to get your creative ideas flowing for your next team meeting. Oh and read our blog all about quick round ideas, it’s another great way to help your team communicate and develop new ideas or move on from a long standing problem. We’ll see you on the flip side!
