Brainstorming Methods

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Author:
Glory Borgeson

I enjoyed the Martha Stewart apprentice show (not sure why "America" didn't like it). Even the frustrating parts of the show caught my attention, in an inquisitive, "here's something to learn" kind of way.

Week after week, Martha's apprentice nominees started a new project by gathering with their team to come up with ideas of how to implement their new task. Each team wanted to come up with something that was better than the other team so that they would be declared the winner.

And week after week, I observed mismanaged brainstorming and evaluating, resulting in frustrated team members and lukewarm ideas.

What did they keep doing wrong?

One week, team member Leslie from the (constantly) winning team came over to the losing team to lead them as their project manager. It took this team too long to perform the tasks of brainstorming and evaluating. During the brainstorming session, they kept evaluating. When they finally got to the evaluating part of the task in order to choose one idea, they kept brainstorming new ideas! Getting to the point of choosing one idea took them 6 hours, when it should have taken about 2 hours.

On another episode, Sarah, as the project manager, decided that her team members would start out by brainstorming silently. WHAT?

What in the world is brainstorming silently? I'll tell you what it is: It's nothing!

The basic idea of brainstorming is that everyone gets to hear everyone else's ideas, and that ideas generate more ideas! In other words, when people hear other peoples' ideas, it gets their thoughts going, and more ideas appear. So, even bad ideas generate good ideas!

And that leads me to the problem I've seen from Martha's apprentice candidates over and over. It is the same problem repeated in millions of businesses worldwide. While they're brainstorming ideas, they're evaluating ideas; and when they're evaluating ideas, they're brainstorming even more ideas.

No wonder it takes too long to get through this process!

Here is a very simple solution to this chaotic problem:

• The brainstorming phase is for idea generation only!
• When you are brainstorming, there is no evaluation of ideas allowed.
• During brainstorming, there is no development of ideas allowed.
• Schedule a set amount of time for brainstorming.
• Appoint someone as the "scribe" who writes all ideas on either a flip chart or a white board.
• Even bad ideas get put on the list (because "even bad ideas generate good ideas" ).
• Once the brainstorming session is over, the evaluation stage begins.
• During evaluation, there is no more brainstorming.
• Schedule a set amount of time for evaluation.
• First, weed out the ideas that are bad, goofy, distasteful, and just won't work (according to the group).
• Try to whittle the list down to the two best ideas (without developing the ideas yet).
• Once you have your two best ideas, spend a set amount of time brainstorming (yes, again!) how each of these two main ideas could be developed (and, again, only ideas and more ideas at this time).
• Evaluate one of the main ideas (and all of the development ideas you just thought of that go along with it).
• Evaluate the second main idea (and all of its development ideas).
• Decide between the two which you are going to implement!

If teams would focus on this method for brainstorming and evaluation, they would come up with better ideas and better ways to implement those ideas. Also, they would no longer feel that this process is a heavy, mind-numbing burden. Rather, they would feel that this process is fun, invigorating, and challenging (in the good way!).

Read on to my article titled "How to Brainstorm with a Large Team" (also available at EzineArticles.com) to find out how to do brainstorming with a large team. Even if you have a team of less than 20 people, the additional ideas will help you to use each individual team member's talents and skills to generate the best ideas possible.

© 2006 Borgeson Consulting, Inc.

Glory Borgeson is a business coach and consultant, and the president of Borgeson Consulting, Inc. She works with two groups of people: small business owners (with 500 employees or less) to help them increase their Entrepreneurial IQ, which leads to increased profit and decreased stress; and with executives in the "honeymoon phase" of a new position (typically the first two years) to coach them to success. Top athletes have a coach; why not you?

Click here for Borgeson Consulting, Inc.

This article was originally published in The Business Express, Borgeson's free monthly ezine. You may subscribe by clicking here: Ezine

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Brainpower... Better Brainpower Through Exercise Can you boost brain power with exercise? Several relevant studies were reported on at the annual Meeting Of The Society Of Psychophysiological Research in Montreal recently. The findings showed both immediate benefits from exercise, as well as long-term effects. Exercise seems to help your brain work more efficiently and actually make you smarter. In one study, the thinking ability of subjects was tested. After the tests, they ran on a treadmill for thirty minutes. Then, when their hearts returned to normal resting levels they took the follow-up tests. For all tests the subjects were connected to an elctroencephalogram (EEG), in order to track their brainwaves. The first thing researchers noted was that exercising had sped up the speed of their decision-making. It was a significant difference. Upon scoring the tests, it was also found that the subjects answered more accurately after the exercise than before. The study participants were between 18 and 24 years old, but researchers think the findings will hold true for other age groups as well. Another study showed that just ten minutes of moderate exercise each day can improve mood and reduce fatigue. Brainpower specifically wasn't tested, but it seems likely that less fatigue means better brain power. Best Exercise For Brain Power? Most research has focused more on the duration of exercise more than on the specific type. Aerobic exercise seems to be the common element in the studies that have shown improvements in brainpower, however. It seems likely that running, bicycling, swimming, dancing and any other aerobic exercises will have the same effect. Ten minutes of exercise is apparently enough to have effects on the brain. It's not clear how much more benefit there may be with longer exercise sessions....