Quick Brainstorming Activities for Busy Managers

Brian Miller, Thomas Nelson

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780814417935
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Author Brian Miller helps you explore the most effective brainstorming method for your team and generate the best results using straightforward, focused activities that each take less than fifteen minutes to complete.

Filled with clear, concise guidance and quick, easily implemented techniques, Quick Brainstorming Activities for Busy Managers provides supervisors, managers, and team leaders the fun, proven activities they need to get idea-packed brainstorming sessions started, and keep them going.

You will discover how to:

• ask questions that provoke responses and inspire creativity;
• react to and record ideas in a way that encourages participation and prompts more input;
• sort and categorize lengthy lists;
• evaluate ideas;
• and prioritize the most useful concepts and expand on them.

Contrary to popular opinion, great brainstorming sessions don't just happen. For brainstorming to be a truly productive activity, leaders must create the right environment to let employees' ideas flow. Complete with sample dialogues and well as resources for virtual team brainstorming, Quick Brainstorming Activities for Busy Managers helps you guide your team to generate great ideas.

CHAPTER 1

BRAINSTORMING 101

Creative power can be stepped up by effort, and there are ways in which we can guide our creative thinking.

—ALEX OSBORN, THE FATHER OF BRAINSTORMING

What Is Brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a tool used to generate creative solutions to a problem. It was developed in the mid-1900s by a Madison Avenue advertising executive, Alex Osborn. He described it as “a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members.”

Brainstorming combines lateral thinking with a relaxed, informal approach. It uses a set of rules or techniques that encourage team members to come up with ideas, which are at times absurd, bizarre, or ridiculous! Some of the craziest ideas, however, can be crafted into workable, original solutions to the problem. Or, they may spark still more ideas from the group that are themselves more workable.

Why Use Brainstorming?

Brainstorming encourages members of a team to break out of their stale, overused, and established patterns of thinking. Fresh, unique, and different solutions are sought out for problems old and new. Brainstorming jolts team members out of the “tried and true,” which is no longer working, and into uncharted, creative territory.

Brainstorming brings out and leverages the diverse experience and creativity of all team members. If two heads are better than one, imagine how much better a whole team of heads will be!

Brainstorming involves everyone. Team members feel included, which boosts morale. And since they were part of the solution, they are much more inclined to buy into that solution.

Brainstorming builds camaraderie and teamwork. Differences are not only respected, but welcomed and encouraged. Team members bond with one another because there’s a feeling of respect and inclusiveness that pulls them together for a common purpose.

Brainstorming avoids problems associated with traditional group problem solving. Big egos are left at the door. Authority in the room is neutralized. Less assertive team members are included, even encouraged to participate. Pressure to come up with a total, complete, and flawless solution is relieved. Groupthink—where team members, in an attempt to avoid conflict, reach consensus without really evaluating options—is minimized; team members are freed up to think “outside the box.”

Best of all, brainstorming is fun! It provides a positive, upbeat, and affirming experience for the team. And this carries over into regular day-to-day work.

What Are the Basic Rules of Brainstorming?

There are four basic rules for brainstorming. These are meant to reduce social inhibitions among team members, stimulate idea generation, and improve the overall creativity of the team’s work.

Rule #1: Focus on quantity, not quality (quantity will lead to quality later).

We need to think up plenty of tentative ideas, because, in ideation, quantity helps breed quality

—ALEX OSBORN

During a brainstorming session, the focus is entirely on quantity. There will be time later to qualify, or judge, the ideas, but for now, it’s all about quantity. Everything should be aimed at generating more and more ideas, regardless of their quality. The underlying belief is that it’s easier to pick good ideas (later) from a larger list than from a shorter one. It’s easier to evaluate or modify an idea (later) than it is to create a new one.

A fast-paced session focused on quantity reduces the likelihood of team members trying to evaluate ideas prematurely (see Rule #2 below).

It also promotes uninhibited thinking, which leads to wild, outlandish ideas (see Rule #3 below)—and in the context of brainstorming, outlandish is good.

And, participants will find it fairly easy then to create good ideas by combining lots of little ideas (see Rule #4 below).

Keep the ideas short. Don’t discuss the details of any idea. Just capture its essence and move on to the next idea quickly. With the focus off the idea itself, team members will feel less pressure to come up with “good ideas,” “complete solutions,” or those that are “well thought out.”

Think fast, reflect later.

Rule #2: Withhold evaluation (at least for now).

We should hold back criticism until the creative current has had every chance to flow.

—ALEX OSBORN

For most people, this is the most difficult rule. Hold off passing judgment on the ideas until after the brainstorming session is complete. This means no comments of how an idea is not feasible or what its downside is. While brainstorming, consider all ideas equally valid, and keep moving. This practice helps reduce inhibition in the team members, which then prompts greater quantity (see Rule #1).

Critiquing ideas takes brain power that could and should be devoted to idea generation.

Even positive reinforcement is taboo during brainstorming. If someone’s idea gets lauded, what kind of pressure might that person feel to come up with another “good” idea? And how will the next person feel if their idea is not praised?

Every idea may be a great solution. It may also spark another, different idea that may be a great solution (see Rule #4). Yes, even the silliest ideas can spark better ones. Judgment is strictly forbidden, so the good and the seemingly not-so-good ideas emerge.

Once more: no evaluation! Reinforce this rule by writing everything that is said, no matter how ridiculous. A team member may say, “No, I was just kidding!” Write it anyway. The message is that there really is no such thing as a bad idea right now. Anything and everything is gladly accepted.

Rule #3: Encourage wild, outlandish ideas (nothing is too extreme … yet).

It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one.

—ALEX OSBORN

Sometimes, the wilder and more outlandish the idea, the better. Sure, they may not make the cut when you do get to evaluating them, but often it’s the bizarre and unworkable ideas that spark further ideas that turn out to be very doable indeed. It’s easier to tame a wild idea into a valid solution than to try to boost a common idea into an original solution.

During brainstorming, no idea is too ridiculous or extreme. Raising the limits of acceptable ideas encourages team members to lower their inhibitions and generate more (see Rule #1) and better ideas. This is the rule that validates everyone’s unique viewpoint and perspective.

Encourage out-of-the-box thinking. Way out of the box. Push for the exaggerated and the extreme. But in so doing, don’t overlook the obvious. The plan is to keep everything a possibility for now.

Rule #4: Combine or build on ideas from others (because synergy means 1 + 1 = 3).

Most people have never learned … that they do possess the gift of creative imagination.

—ALEX OSBORN

Here’s where the synergy of the group comes into play. Team members use each other’s ideas ...