Brainstorming about Brainstorming

I remember a brainstorming meeting a number of years ago where my company was looking for new revenue opportunities for our products.  The company president was leading the meeting.  I suggested an outline of an idea and the president immediately responded with “we have already tried that before and it doesn’t work”, then moved on to request other ideas.  My enthusiasm level went down as I didn’t get to complete my proposal.  This continued with a few more people suggesting ideas and the president offering instant negative judgments that killed many ideas before they were explored.  Ultimately, the brainstorming session only produced a few ideas very similar to what we had already tried.

Fortunately, effective approaches to brainstorming exist. As important as selecting an approach is getting agreement by the participants to use the same approach.  Selecting the approach should be the first step at any brainstorming meeting.

To have an effective brainstorming meeting that generates many new and unexpected ideas, follow this rule:    Cleanly separate idea generation from idea evaluation.   Do this for two reasons. First, idea generation uses a different part of the brain from idea evaluation.  When people are critiquing ideas, they reduce their creative abilities. 

Second, separating the two steps helps build the team’s enthusiasm.  When the team gets a chance to build on each others ideas and even suggest “crazy” ideas, more ideas come out. In contrast, when every idea is immediately critiqued, people are unlikely to generate the more unusual ideas.  What ends up coming out during "instant critique" meetings is generally more of the same - because it is safer.

One approach for brainstorming process that I have found effective follows distinct process steps.  Prior to the meeting, email people the topic and require them to come to the meeting with at three rough ideas and at least one crazy idea.  At the start of the meeting, let people know what the process will be and stick to it. The meeting can be broken into segments as shown in the following; in some cases multiple meetings can be held covering these areas:

Generation

Going around the room, each person can suggest exactly one idea per round.  The idea is written up on the board without discussion, although people are allow to ask simple clarifying questions. At each round, individuals can pass if they have run out of ideas, or build off ideas that others have suggested.

Building

Everyone can spend time building on ideas that are already up on the board, whether they generated them or not.

Categorization

Next, attach one or more category labels or tags to ideas on the board. Allow everyone to add short tags.  Work together to build a consistent set of labels and reuse labels as much as possible among different ideas.

Discussion & Evaluation

Start an unstructured discussion of the ideas. Get opinions and expansions of ideas. As moderator, don’t allow a single individual to dominate or talk for more that a few minutes. 

Ranking

Give everyone a fixed number of votes – 5 to 10 works well. Everyone can put one or two votes next to each idea, but no more.  With the votes in – highlight the most promising ideas.

Action

Also, agree in the meeting who should take notes and record action items. If results of a brainstorming session are not used in some way, the energy for the next brainstorming session will be low.

An effective brainstorming can produce many great ideas. 
Ineffective ones are worse than just a waste of time.