Ten Rules for Brainstorming Success

Periodically, the popular press raises the idea that group brainstorming isn’t effective at generating creative solutions. That assertion is erroneous for a variety of reasons. Groups can—and do—successfully brainstorm creative and useful solutions.

But research does show that effective brainstorming requires adherence to some specific guidelines. If it’s done casually, without guidelines, and the sessions are run by people with no knowledge of how to do it well, it will be significantly less effective than it could be. It will result in either unrestrained chaos with no momentum to move the project forward, or it will be just plain boring (which also results in no momentum).

For those of you who know that brainstorming is only one technique in a creative thinking toolbox, please excuse the shortcut. Most people think of brainstorming as any idea generation, and that’s the way it’s used here.

So, how do you set up your brainstorming sessions for success? Follow these rules. They will see you safely through the necessary level of chaos to the strategic momentum you’re hoping for.

1. Free them from fear. It’s difficult for people to share ideas if they’re concerned about possible negative consequences. A process and a setting that help people get past fear are critical for the brainstorming to be effective. One key principle in creating this setting is to prohibit any evaluation, even positive evaluation, during the idea generation.

2. Use the power of the group. Build, combine, and create new ideas in the moment. Don’t just collect ideas that people have already had. The building and combining is where the magic happens. Occasionally break up into pairs or small groups. This will encourage even more sharing and combining of ideas.

3. Get some outside stimulus. Duh. Asking the same group of people to sit in the same room and review the same information they’ve seen before is unlikely to result in exciting new ideas. Talk to your customers, talk to other experts, explore how other industries are doing it. Have the meeting in the park or in a museum. Bring some toys into the room. There are countless ways to shake things up; try something new every time.

4. Encourage the crazy. Everyone has heard someone say at the beginning of a brainstorming, “Every idea is a good idea.” And then there’s a collective eye roll because no one believes it. While it’s not true that every idea is a practical idea, it is true that every idea can offer useful stimulus for additional ideas. Sometimes ideas that are tossed out as jokes can be the spark that leads to a new direction and a winning idea. So allow, encourage, and use every idea, even if only for creative fodder.

5. It’s a numbers game. The more “at bats” you have, the more likely you are to hit a home run. So drive for quantity of ideas. Ensure the session is long enough to generate lots. If you only spend 10 minutes on brainstorming, don’t expect great results.

6. Laugh a lot. Humor stimulates creativity, so let it happen. One easy way to start off a session: Have everyone introduce themselves by answering a fun or silly question. One example you could use in autumn: “What’s something you don’t need more of for the holidays?” Some of the answers could even start sparking real ideas for the session.

7. Homework is required. Both individual and group efforts are critical for success. So expect and insist on individual preparation in advance and follow up afterward. Ensure everyone knows the goal in advance of the session, and ask them to do some homework before they arrive. When the session is over, create an action plan that allows ideas to continue to be shaped and added to as you move forward.

8. It’s not for amateurs. Effective brainstorming requires knowledge and skill to participate and especially to facilitate. It’s a set of techniques and expertise completely different from running other meetings, so don’t assume you can do it well just because you can run a great meeting. If you don’t have a facilitator on your team who has the skill to train the group and run the session, hire an external one or get some training to develop the skills internally.

9. If it looks like a duck but doesn’t act like a duck, it’s not a duck. If you can’t, or don’t intend to, follow the guidelines for successful brainstorming, then don’t call it brainstorming. For example, a meeting that just becomes a stage for one person to spout their ideas isn’t useful or engaging. And if brainstorming isn’t organized and structured appropriately, everyone in the room will feel how ineffective it is, and they’ll be sure to skip your next session. So, either set up for success or don’t bother.

10. You’re not finished until you decide. You’ve all been in this situation: It’s the end of a brainstorming session, you’ve created a long list of ideas, and someone volunteers to type up and distribute the list. And… that’s the end. There’s no action, or at least none that anyone is aware of. It’s demotivating to spend time and energy generating ideas and then feel they went nowhere. So, plan time for, and require, the group to prioritize the ideas during the session. Spend at least an equal amount of time on converging as you do on diverging. Yes, you read that right. If you generate ideas for an hour, also spend an hour on selecting, clarifying, and refining ideas at the back end. If you leave the meeting with a huge list of potential ideas, that’s not success. You want to leave the meeting with a short list of clear ideas and a plan for action on each of them.