Group brainstorming techniques
Group Brainstorming Techniques can really help you because a lot of time is wasted sometimes when we gather our team around to generate ideas. We tend to wonder off in our own thoughts thinking about something else other than the issue at hand. This is quite natural but at the same time unproductive. Group brainstorming sessions is not to waste a lot of time although sometimes it can be inevitable because we got to dig deep in our thoughts in order to find creative ideas.
As business managers or team leaders, what you can do to tackle this issue is to practice good brain storming techniques. When you practice good brainstorming techniques it helps your brainstorming sessions to be more productive. These techniques can also help to stimulate new ideas which can be helpful for your company.
Below is a set of techniques you can use to improve your group brainstorming sessions and get everyone generating ideas. When you practice these techniques over a period of time you will surely notice the changes within your group. You will not waste as much time as before and you will find your meeting to be more productive.
Brain Writing
This is a very useful technique that you can use to get everyone involved in the brainstorm meeting. What you are going to do is firstly give everyone a sheet of paper. Write the problem on the head of the paper. You each then are going to write one idea on the sheet of paper then pass it around to another person. The cycle continues until the paper is finish or the leader said stop. What this is going to allow you to do is get inspiration from the idea on the different person’s paper you’ve got. This will give you a new perspective on the issue and probably lead to new innovative ideas. It also ensures that everyone contributes and no one misses out on the action.
Reverse Brainstorming
For this technique what you are going to do is start off with telling everyone about the problem. Then you are going to tell them to generate ideas on how to do the complete opposite of the objective you want to achieve. This will usually be a negative question. When the negative ideas are generated you can then turn the process around to use each negative idea into a positive step. It sounds weird but a lot of managers have found this strategy useful. Sometimes you got to reinvent the wheel which is a big part of being creative.
Create a Fun Environment
Make your environment look fun and creative. Your environment can really affect how you and your team think. If it looks boring and too professional nothing is wrong with that. At times though it can usually make some of your members feel intimidated and uncomfortable. They will take it too seriously and overthink just to make their idea perfect, which can block creativeness. Make your room look fun; create a certain atmosphere that can make them relax. If you practice this technique you will see how useful it can be. You can even have a group brainstorming session outside which will also help them to relax.
Embrace Quantity
Don’t limit your team to a set number of ideas you want to generate in a given session. Brainstorming is to come up with as much ideas as possible. This will then allow you to dissect each idea to see if it’s plausible enough to be implemented. Ideas do help with coming up with other ideas, so let your team know that no idea is too stupid and generate as much as possible.
Team Idea Mapping
What you are going to do for this technique is to start with a written problem on a huge board. You are then going to get everyone to privately generate ideas either on paper or store them in their head. Then when it comes time to map each of the ideas out on the board. You are going to write each of the ideas out and try to find connections between them and that can lead to new ideas. This is a great technique you can use to stimulate ideas for hours because you are going continuously build on each person’s idea.
Group brainstorming sessions can become very ineffective if you don’t practice good brainstorming techniques. The techniques shown above are just some out of a many techniques you can use in brainstorming sessions. These will help your team become more creative and generate ideas that will help your business thrive.