To help organize your thoughts, consider using a flowchart or fishbone diagram in hand with this brainstorming technique. Remember, the only bad ideas are no ideas, and any idea shared shouldnt be shot down or judged. While some brainstorming techniques build the execution process into them, others might require you to follow up with brainstormers using project templates to map out a plan using creative solutions. This stifles participation. 7. A very off-the-cuff brainstorming technique, what if brainstorming is as simple as throwing out as many what if questions surrounding a topic as possible, similar to the rapid ideation brainstorming technique. Be prepared to pivot your brainstorming technique depending on what your group of brainstormers is most receptive to and also how many ideas you're juggling. Each team member writes a few ideas on a piece of paper. You can think of collaborative brainwriting like a herd of cows grazing in a field, except its brainstormers grazing on ideas throughout a week, anonymously jotting down thoughts or ideas. Other tools to capture ideas are whiteboards, notepads, pens, markers, and sticky notes. Being in a new setting might spur new ideas and even loosen up your brainstormers so that theyre more open to sharing ideas and helping you achieve quantity over quality. Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between columns. Continue passing those papers. Identify the subject for discussion 2. One quick way of paring down a large list is to give each team member five sticky dots. Sometimes the best thoughts emerge from this second round. Flip charts can provide a visual element to a meeting, particularly when brainstorming creative ideas. Drama lovers rejoice! Reverse brainstorming. A flip chart is a stationery item that consists of large paper sheets, typically fixed to a frame, to provide visual presentations and communication. Learn more about the DACI framework in this playbook. Likewise, every brainstormer should be open and curious to ideas. To begin starbursting, put an idea on the middle of a whiteboard and draw a six-point star around it. For instance, one brainstormer might be wearing an impact hat and only concern themselves with the impact of an idea and another might be wearing a constraints hat and only looking at the constraints of an idea. A neat method when the flipchart is full of lines is to switch colors and write between the lines that are already there. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Everyone must contribute at least one idea before the entire group can give feedback or share a second idea. Try this: bring a bag of random objects to your next brainstorming session. Once youve collected several ideas, either individually or from team members, talk through where they fall in the How Now Wow spectrum: How ideas are ideas that are original but not executable. Your email address will not be published. For example, imagine that you and the rest of your team are trying to design a new employee onboarding process. Finally, your team uses a matrix to determine how high impact and how high effort your solutions are to decide which ideas are worth pursuing. Clarify how much time is expected to be spent on this process. . Pro tip: limit this brainstorming technique to no more than 10 people to not be overwhelmed with ideas or time constraints. Brainstorming is a divergent thinking - group process aimed at generating a lot of ideas, topics or solutions. Best for: introverted team members and developing a surplus of ideas. A whiteboard or a flip-chart or a large sheet of paper on a table or wall. Begin by starting with a statement of where you are and then a statement of where you want to be. Required fields are marked *. Switch brains. When the participation of an entire team is desired. I ask questions, and then speedily record responses shouted out by my audience. What does this have to do with brainstorming? From there, youll cross-examine those hypothetical successes and pitfalls and narrow them down to the top three risks and opportunities. (Kobe beef steak) Go ahead and dream big. The nickname "brainstorm sessions" because participants were using their brains to storm a problem. Just as you encourage inclusivity, encourage imperfections and out-of-the-box thinking, too. Hey, sometimes the brightest ideas do come from shots in the dark. Write the problem or topic on a blackboard or flipchart where all participants can see it Write all ideas on the board and do as little editing as possible Number each idea for future reference Use one of the following brainstorming techniques: structured brainstorming free-form brainstorming, or silent brainstorming. Allow a minute or two of silence for everyone to think about the question. And I believe if you use visual techniques to facilitate your brainstorming session it would be much more effective. If a team member feels that one particular item is extremely important, that member might choose to put all of their five dots on that one item. Analytical brainstorming techniques 1. Here are a few ideas. Best for: individual and group brainstorms, visual thinkers, honing in on an executable solution. The following strategies will help you and your team, whether you're in person or remote, through all three stages. So, for example, if you start with blue, the fill-in lines may be in red. Bright ideas dont come as easily as flicking on a light. De Bono 6 hats thinking 9. Business Model Canvas 10. Eliminate: consider what you could remove from the idea or solution so that its simplified. Perhaps Idea generation should be separate from the discussion. Below the statement box draw five lines in descending order. It helps you spot any potential sticking points and manage them ahead of time. When your outline is ready, you need to produce those minor content details that make up a compelling paper. A divergent thinking tool for idea generation on a given subject in a limited period of time. Empower your team by giving them the tools they need to get their thoughts down in print. You just open the floor for ideas and take them as they come. Youll need a large piece of paper or whiteboard to do this. Brainstorming is a great way to begin. Mind Mapping. to bottom, To brainstorm with Post-Its, you will need: A large piece of empty wall or whiteboard space. Figure storming 6. And that makes sensebecause this technique is especially helpful for brainstorming and designing a series or a process. Youll divide your team into two groups: the failure team and the success team. Brainstorming methods. For example, if a company is setting out to design a new smartwatch, the brainstorming facilitator would encourage all brainstormers to close their eyes and quietly meditate on what smartwatches currently look like. Freeplane. MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. In this activity, students participate in a group brainstorming activity to imagine possible solutions to their engineering design challenge. Best for: extroverted team members, tight deadlines. Known as LDJ for short, the Lightning Decision Jam brainstorming technique requires 40 minutes to one hour to complete. Place the flip chart at the front of the room and stand to the side while writing or discussing a topic so everyone can see. There are many ways of brainstorming, including the use of a mind map, but the classic technique uses a group of people and a whiteboard or flip chart. Coming up with bright ideas is great. The eidetic image method is grounded in setting intentions, and it begins with group members all closing their eyes to do just that. Write in clear and bold font, preferably in capital letters. Continue to generate and record ideas until several minutes of silence produces no more ideas. Pontszm: 4,3/5 ( 45 szavazat). One of my favorite training techniques is using a flip chart to record brainstorming sessions. And whether you're operating as an individual or on a team, theres something uniquely satisfying about seeing your ideas come to fruition. Hey, even a bevy of silly ideas to build off of is better than no ideas at all. For example, what would happen to the project if we substituted this for that? Most brainstorming techniques can be applied to groups of brainstormers, but these specific brainstorming techniques promote (and some even require) participation from everyone. You might want to book a few rooms for this one. a flip chart at the open end of the U. From there, team members can build off of those ideas on their own time and anonymously provide feedback. We often call these prewriting strategies "brainstorming techniques.". how to conduct a premortem in this playbook. When you invite people to call out their ideas, you have each group member say one original idea in turn. Nominal group technique Brain-netting - This is similar to Brain Other techniques writing, but uses an electronic document stored on a central server. Brainstorming is a very important decision making skill, because it's so effective at generating ideas to solve your problem. This can be done individually, in small groups, or as a whole-class activity. How it works: Its human nature to get stuck in our own perspectives, but role playing can help you think about things in new ways by putting yourself in someone elses shoes. this playbook see how you can use problem framing. Once each slip of paper has gone around once, its time to discuss. Share the work or ideas you need feedback on and then invite team members to smash it: mark it up, pose questions, and offer criticisms, etc. This brainstorming technique is great for introverted team members and also for larger groups to ensure everyone can contribute. To use this brainstorming technique, simply keep asking yourself or your team of brainstormers: Whats driving [insert problem]? and then, Whats driving [insert answer to the previous question]? Similar to why analysis, the deeper you dig into a problem, the more well-vetted it will be and the more confident you will be in executing solutions for those problems. Overtime I've grown the site to help tens of thousands of Six Sigma belt candidates prepare for their Green Belt & Black Belt exams. You can pick and choose which angles are most important to your organization. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. . How it works: S.C.A.M.P.E.R stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, eliminate, and reverse, and you follow each letter of the acronym to really noodle on your ideas. If the brainstorming session was skipped, the probability that the shortlist would be missing a key item would be greater than if the team had brainstormed the larger list first. When to Use Brainstorming When a broad range of options is desired When creative, original ideas are desired When participation of the entire group is desired Brainstorming Procedure Check out more improv games to try out with your team. With this technique, a team leader provides context for team members, providing information such as questions on the topic, deadlines, budgets, resources and other factors affecting project initiation. How it works: Brainstorming doesnt have to be all about coming up with innovative new ideas. This will help you think through all aspects of your idea and make sure that you truly are on the right path. You can do round-robin brainstorming by dividing participants into 3 or 4 teams and asking them to brainstorm on a whiteboard or flip chart as a group. The failure team will brainstorm all of the potential reasons your project could take a major nosedive, while the success team thinks about all of the ways your project could be worthy of your best victory dance. Then, each person walks around the room, going to each groups board and removing the ideas they dont support. To begin starbursting, put an idea on the middle of a whiteboard and draw a six-point star around it. Opportunities: what else can you capitalize on based on this idea? Theyd all open their eyes and discuss again, essentially layering on the possibilities for enhancing a product. Say, the top 5. Brainstorming is an effective way to help learners get ideas on paper. Brainstorming is typically conducted in a facilitated session or workshop environment to stimulate creative thinking, to create novel or innovative solutions to a problem, and to introduce "controlled chaos" into the thought process. How it works: Maybe you just need to get your teams brains warmed up, ready to work, and used to thinking on their feet. The golden rule of all brainstorming sessions is quantity over quality. A standalone timer or laptop with an online timer in the fullscreen mode. A person on each team called the recorder takes meticulous notes. Ensure everyone is participating in the brainstorm session and understands and agrees on the aim of the session. All brainstormers identities can be left anonymous even in the meeting. Thats exactly the point. When you all have your wishes, share them with the group and talk about how your ideas might not be that far-fetched. When brainstorming in a group, ask members to write down their ideas and questions. Combining (also known as piggy-backing) and expanding on others ideas is encouraged. It might be worth it to pull your team together one more time to refine some of those suggestions and zero in on your best bets. Define and display guidelines. Youve put a brainstorming session on the calendar and youre ready for the brilliant ideas to start rolling in. Hemmingway Notebook - collect ideas 7. The final ideas will be placed on an impact and effort matrix to determine which are worth pursuing. Invitees can be colleagues from different departments, customers or clients for a focus group, or an outside consultant. Now, jot down questions that start with each of those terms. But now you can comb through all of those ideas and pull out the best ones. How it works: Sometimes you just need to get your teams neurons firing even if it has nothing to do with your end goal or project. Problem-framing challenges you to pinpoint the core problem that youre solving for (for example, improving collaboration between your marketing and sales teams) and then draft a problem statement. Once everyone agrees, document that order so everyone has it for reference. Five useful strategies are listing, clustering, freewriting . It may not have anything to do with, well, anything. how to turn your S.W.O.T. Thats where brainstorming techniques come in. Wow ideas are never-been-pitched before ideas that are also easy to implement. The more context you can provide brainstormers from the get-go, the more fruitful ideas they can produce. Its a great way to step away from your own biases and shake things up! Great for teams that get sidetracked or have difficulty staying focused in meetings, the rapid ideation brainstorming technique encourages brainstormers to race against a clock and come up with as many ideas as possibleand importantly, not take themselves too seriously. You can also apply this as a brainstorming technique, meaning illustrating or drawing a problem and possible solutions. This brainstorming technique requires a minimum of six brainstormers to wear imaginary hatshence the name that require them to look solely at an idea from one specific angle. Best for: vetting ideas thoroughly, honing in on an executable solution. Find the normal case, then brainstorm alternative cases or exceptions. Threats: what are potential downfalls that could arise if the idea is launched? Walking through the scenarios might help spur new obstacles pertaining to your problem. Best for: group brainstorms, visual thinkers, developing a surplus of ideas. What are brainstorming techniques? It is a quick way to generate thoughts, measure prior knowledge, and evaluate learning. Its fun, its team-focused, and it gets people moving around, so they arent falling asleep at the conference room table. It is the most widely used technique to cultivate ideas. Best for: large group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly. 1. How could you actually make them a reality? There are tons of advantages of brainstorming as long as you do it right. Supplies Each U-shaped table set up will need a flip chart; a large felt-tip pen; masking tape; and paper, pencil, and 3" x 5" index cards for each participant. The highlighting is just a link to the benchmarking page so people can read about that material if they are not familiar. The 4-H Name and Emblem have special protections from Congress, protected by code 18 USC 707. These techniques provide structure for brainstorming sessions, ignite creativity across all brainstormers, and ensure your ideas come to fruition. Heres how it works: A brainstorming facilitator introduces a topic to their group of brainstormers and then dismisses all but two brainstormers from the room. Help the group define the goal - this helps establish ownership of the process and outcome 3. The SCAMPER brainstorming technique encourages brainstormers to look at an idea from different angles and it uses its acronym to inspire each lens: Substitute: consider what would happen if you swapped one facet of a solution for another. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Invented in 1992, the stepladder technique of brainstorming motivates each individual member of the team to make individual idea contributions prior to being influenced by other members in the team. To start the session, the facilitator shares the question or topic with the entire team. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464). Make sure everyone understands the subject of the brainstorming session. Brainstorming is a popular group decision-making technique that is used for generating ideas. an elevator pitch sessionin this playbook. Once finished, the ideas are put onto a board and then organized into groupings (affinitize). How to Use Materials needed: Chart paper and pen/markers. Thats when its time to ask a lot of hypothetical questions in the form of what if? For example, what if the problem were worse? Pinboard Cards The questioning technique The reversal technique The subjunctive method 2. Therefore, brainstorming tools can aid the brainstorming process, creating a richer outcome, with more ideas, topics and solutions. This is simply all about raising questions and collecting valuable feedback. This might mean setting a timer for each brainstormer to talk and acknowledging those who are dominating conversations. A brainstorming facilitator isnt the only one in a brainstorming session who needs time to prepare for a meeting. Within each point of the star, write the following terms: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Summarize ideas as necessary and record them on a flip chart. Make sure to name a stakeholder for each, so you know who should be actively managing each risk throughout the project. For these reasons, especially in group brainstorming sessions, be sure all team members check their criticisms at the door and let it be known that the only bad ideas are no ideas. Given the requirement that everyone must share an idea, its best to allow brainstormers time to prepare ideas before each round-robin brainstorming session. How? You'll need four flip charts with different questions or different perspectives on the issue for each one. How it works: This technique helps you visualize how customers experience your product or service, as well as how they feel along the way. It is nice to have different colors. Mind mapping Mind Maps are a great technique to organize information, connect related ideas, and help capture the flow of ideas during a brainstorming session. The practical approach of this course enables you to acquire an essential skill-set for generating ideas, with plenty of: - Fun e-tivities and exercises; - Practical lectures and tips; - Video representations of the techniques in action. Try these ideas: Tell a story a word at a time by going around in a circle. Sparring is a useful way to get peer feedback and land on the winning idea. A short and fun brainstorming technique, crazy eights delivers on quantity by encouraging brainstormers to think quickly using a template that has eight boxes and only eight minutes on the clock to sketch out eight ideas. Below are a variety of brainstorming techniques in four different categories, so you can help everybody pull out their best ideas and make the most of your time together. This will help uncover obstacles you might face and maybe even shed light on what youre capable of overcoming. Be sure to set a clear deadline of when the brainstorming session closes to ensure all brainstormers have an opportunity to chime in. Now ideas are unoriginal ideas that are easily executable. Study notes and guides for Six Sigma certification tests. Intrigued? Yvonne (Bonnie) Wichtner-Zoia, Michigan State University Extension - The 5 Whys (or 5 Why, 5W) is a brainstorming technique used in Lean. Using a 6 x 6 rule is even better. Best for: group brainstorms, honing in on an executable solution. See why Confluence is the content collaboration hub for all teams. Then organize them using nodes, lines, metadata, and styles. Help generate energy and free-thinking through encouragement. Mind mapping does this by using the first idea to inspire other ideas. Say one original idea in turn aid the brainstorming session on the aim of the session than 10 to. Ideas on a piece of paper you and the rest of your team of brainstormers: Whats driving insert... 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Techniques is using a flowchart or fishbone diagram in hand with this brainstorming,., well, anything prior knowledge, and then a statement of where you want to book few... Of where you want to book a few rooms for this one anonymous even in the of... Establish ownership of the session, the ideas they dont support winning.... Are unoriginal ideas that are also easy to implement and write between the lines that also! Ideas that are easily executable Business Model Canvas 10 how you can through... Shots in the form of what if sticking points and manage them ahead of time clear! One idea before the entire team 888-MSUE4MI ( 888-678-3464 ) the form of what if idea... Easy to implement, then brainstorm alternative cases or exceptions youll need a large list is to switch and... Ideas will be placed on an executable solution, simply keep asking yourself or team! For brainstorming sessions is quantity over quality of those ideas and pull out the best thoughts emerge from this round... Bevy of silly ideas to start the session, the ideas are no ideas at all audience. For brainstorming sessions - this helps establish ownership of the brainstorming process, creating a richer,...
