Brainstorming

(basic guidline)
Petr Wawrosz
Newton College
 What is brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a process for generating new
ideas.
• Brainstorming is "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" (Alex Osborn).
• To brainstorm is to use a set of specific rules
and techniques which encourage and spark off
new ideas which would never have happened
under normal circumstances.
 Why brainstorming
• Team is more than a sum of its member
= people together generate more ideas
than sum of their ideas if they work
separately.
• Brainstorming helps to generate more
ideas even in a team
 Why brainstorming
• … can give new ideas for
• More money
• Faster promotion
• Increased creativity
• Better society
• More pleasant working environment
• Better employee relations
• A more responsive company
• Taking advantages of gaps in the market
• Creating new markets
• New products and services
• Better products and services
• Better management
• Less conflicts and arguments
• Improvements in productivity and reliability
• ….
 The aim of brainstorming
• To generate the most ideas
… helping solve some problems
… saying what is possible to do
… giving new opportunities
 Basic rules
• Focus on quantity (the number of ideas)
• Withhold criticism, every person and every
idea has equal worth
• Welcome unusual ideas
• Combine and improve ideas, build on the
ideas put forward by others
•
 Step by step – 1.
• Define your problem or issue as a creative
challenge
• Shortly, clearly
• For example: "In what ways might we
improve product X?" or "How could we
encourage more local people to join our
club?"
 Step by step - 2
• Give yourselves a time limit or idea limit
• Reduce a number of members
participating in activity (maximum 12/15
people).
• Prepare something for writing generated
ideas
 Step by step 3
• Define a facilitator of the work (he/she promotes
people to generate, prevents criticism …) and
other people helping work of the team (for
writing ideas and so on …)
• Try to make good and funny atmosphere. Ideally
you will then have a brief warm-up on a totally
unrelated and fun topic. This will get your
creative juices going and help establish a less
restrictive mood. You should only start the main
topic when the right mood is established.
 Step by step 4
• Once the brainstorming starts, participants
shout out solutions to the problem while
somebody writes them down.
• There must be absolutely no criticizing of
ideas. No matter how daft, how impossible
or how silly an idea is, it must be written
down. Laughing is to be encouraged.
Criticism is not.
• To ensure clarity, participants may explain
their ideas.
 Step by step 5
• Participants who have ideas but were
unable to present them are encouraged to
write down the ideas and present them
later.
• The facilitator should number the ideas to
be able to encourage an idea generation
goal.
• The facilitator should repeat the idea in the
words he or she has written to confirm that
it expresses the meaning intended by the
originator.
 Step by step 6
• When more participants are having ideas,
the one with the most associated idea
should have priority. This to encourage
elaboration on previous ideas.
• During a brainstorming session, managers
and other superiors may be discouraged
from attending, since it may inhibit and
reduce the effect of the four basic rules,
especially the generation of unusual ideas.
 Step by step 7
• Time management
• You will find that the brainstorming session
will go through phases of very rapid idea
generation, and then through slow
awkward times when no ideas are being
created. This slow time is when you
should return to the ideas which have
already been generated and build on
them.
 Step by step 8
• Brainstorming session can last anywhere from 5
minutes to 2 hours depending on the experience
of the participants and the nature of the problem
to be solved.
• However the time should be split up into
approximately 5- to 15-minute sections in order
to keep people fresh. There should be short
breaks for refreshments, relaxation,
encouragement, congratulations and gratitude.
• The breaks should not be strictly enforced and
should be determined by the flow of the group.
The freedom to stop and start is important as it
relaxes any pressures on the group to perform.
 Step by step 9
• When time is up, the facilitator organizes
the ideas based on the topic goal and
encourages discussion.
• Ideas are categorized.
• The whole list is reviewed to ensure that
everyone understands the ideas.
• Duplicate ideas and obviously infeasible
solutions are removed.
 Step by step 10
• Brainstorming is only the generation of the
ideas. When you start to analyze the ideas
you are not brainstorming. However,
brainstorming without analysis is pointless.
• Usually the group itself will, in its final
stage, evaluate the ideas and select one
as the solution to the problem proposed to
the group.
•
 Solution and its evaluation
• The solution should not require resources or skills the
members of the group do not have or cannot acquire.
• If acquiring additional resources or skills is necessary,
that needs to be the first part of the solution.
• There must be a way to measure progress and success.
• The steps to carry out the solution must be clear to all.
• There must be a common decision making process to
enable a coordinated effort to proceed, and to reassign
tasks as the project unfolds.
 Good brainstorming 1
• One of the first things you need to
determine is whether you need to use a
brainstorming session at all. A
brainstorming session should be used for
generating lots of new ideas and solutions.
It should not be used for analysis or for
decision making.
 Good brainstorming 2
• A brainstorming session must be targeted
to a specific topic or else you run the risk
of downgrading any future sessions. You
must define the problem area or the
opportunity area you want to create ideas
for. You must draw up a specific
probortunity (problem/opportunity)
statement which describes what you are
trying to achieve.
 Good brainstorming 3
• Once you have an initial probortunity statement
you should decide whether a brainstorming
session is appropriate. The time and costs spent
brainstorming can sometimes be saved by just
implementing a currently known solution and
spending your valuable time on more crucial
probortunities.
• You should not be planning a brainstorming
session if you already have several solutions
and all you want to do is to decide which one to
use (this is done by analysis). If you are only
going to ignore what everyone else suggests
then you shouldn't waste their, or yours.
 Good brainstorming 4
• It is necessary
to define:
- people (who take part)
- time, place
to prepare: all things (flipcharts, papers,
felt-tip pens, refreshments …
to introduce participant, to thank them in
the end of the brainstorming …
Good luck!!