How to Run a Productive Brainstorming Session

03/05/07

Your group is challenged by an unusual problem or opportunity that calls for both creativity and collaboration. What’s the best way to produce a slate of useful ideas? Try brainstorming.

For example, HR managers can tap the power of brainstorming to:

Propose inventive incentives to reduce absenteeism.

Generate fresh ideas for cutting recruiting and training costs.

Create a list of possible slogans to help launch a new employee suggestion system or training course.

Develop insightful questions to ask on exit interviews.

Follow these suggestions to make the process work for you.

Set a Clear Goal
Setting a clear goal helps participants arrive in the best frame of mind to tackle the issue. Don’t be too detailed; you’ll inhibit people’s thinking. General objectives enable thoughts to flow more freely. You can’t expect folks to “think outside the box” if you force them into one.

Setting your objective before the meeting starts also makes it easier to decide whom to include and what information to give them about the topic.

Screen Participants Discreetly
Each person should have some valuable quality to contribute to the idea mill, whether it’s technical knowledge, experience, a demonstrated flair for creative thinking, or certain insights that other members lack. Steer clear of nitpickers, poor listeners, and notorious egotists. Their potential for disruption may offset the value of their input.

This isn’t suggesting that you ban devil’s advocates, though. They can help you challenge faulty assumptions and prevent groupthink. If everyone in a brainstorming session thinks alike, some aren’t thinking at all.

Establish Ground Rules
Skillful brainstorming leaders guide the discussion without dominating it. Everyone, regardless of rank, should feel free to speak their minds without coercion or criticism. You’ll need some ground rules, however, to keep your brainstorming session from deteriorating into a general bull session.

Prohibit patently negative remarks. Some infamous creative thought killers:

That’s ridiculous.

Are you kidding?

That’s not how we do things here.

Higher management won’t OK it.

We don’t have enough time/money/people/authority.

We’ve done fine without it.

Keep discussion moving. Harvest as many unique ideas from the group as time permits. Worry about their practicalities later.

Challenge traditions, policies, procedures, rules, and other organizational obstacles. Some may be obsolete, unreasonable, irrelevant, or just plain stupid. Don’t let them throttle your creative juices.

Urge members to combine and expand on each other’s suggestions. This stimulates interaction and fosters enthusiasm. Great ideas are often a synthesis of lesser ones that share a common thread.

Tape Record Discussion
This is the only practical way to capture everyone’s input. Taking notes is impractical, because your note taker probably can’t write fast enough to get everything down and will be too busy writing to make many useful contributions.

Provide Closure
Convince participants that their time and energy produced worthwhile results. Before the meeting ends, summarize the main ideas or suggestions that the group generated and assign responsibility for follow up action if necessary. Discuss a tentative agenda and date for the next meeting-and don’t forget to thank everyone for their efforts.