Brainstorming and Generating Ideas

WHAT is it? - Fun, invigorating experiences that can take a project or team to a new level.
WHO is it for? - Groups or individuals seeking to create new ideas.
WHY use this method? - Helps to create ideas without imposing restrictions, thereby encouraging participation of the group members and extending the boundaries of solutions and problem-solving approaches that are allowed.

Overview

Source: Kelley (2001)

• Brainstorming is not a regular meeting. You don’t take turns speaking in any orderly way. It shouldn’t consume a morning or an afternoon. Sixty minutes seems to be the optimum length though occasionally a brainstorm can productively stretch to an hour and a half. The level of physical and mental energy required for a brainstorm is hard to sustain much longer than that. Brainstorming sessions aren’t presentations or opportunities for the boss to poll the troops for hot ideas. Nor should they feel like work. And brainstorming is most definitely not about spending thousands of dollars at some glamorous off-site location.
• Brainstorming is the idea engine of a group or organization. It’s an opportunity for teams to ‘blue sky’ ideas early in a project or to solve a tricky problem that’s cropped up later on. The more productive the group the more it brainstorms regularly and effectively. The buzz of a good brainstorming session can infect a team with optimism and a sense of opportunity that can carry it through the darkest and most pressure-tinged stages of a project.

Fundamentals of brainstorming are sticking to one conversation at a time, not limiting or censoring ideas, and building on the ideas of others.

Associated pages

• Secrets for Brainstorming
• Brainstorming Pitfalls
• Supportive Listening
• Strategic Personal Planning
• Freewriting and Write-and-Pass
• Combining Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and Invention Strategies to Develop New Ideas
• Six Thinking Hats
• Complaint Lists for Writing
• Techniques for Generating Ideas
• SCAMPER Technique
• Attribute Lists
• Metaphors
• Complaint List
• Questioning Assumptions
• Propose a “Camelot”
• How-How Diagram

(Original page by Mary Frangie)