Idea 68: Using brainstorming to generate ideas

Brainstorming is one way of getting a large number of ideas from a group in a short time. The ideas that are produced then have to be sieved and tested.

These simple, well-tried rules for brainstorming are hard to beat:

• Suspend judgment – no criticism or evaluation.
• Free-wheel – anything goes, the wilder the better.
• Quantity – the more ideas the merrier.
• Combine and improve – link ideas, improve suggested ones.

When leading a brainstorming session the four main steps are:

1. Introduce – explain the aim of the session and remind people of Osborn's rules.
2. Warm up – if necessary do a practice exercise (e.g. 20 uses for a hammer).
3. State the problem – not too detailed.
4. Guide – to provide time to think and in the following:
   • Generation of ideas.
   • No judgment/criticism/evaluation!
   • Clarification.
   • Maintaining a free flow of ideas.

When leading a session that is ‘sticky’ and short of ideas to start with, ask ‘what if?’ questions to stimulate thought.

Brainstorming sessions should always be followed up, perhaps in smaller groups. Ideas should then be evaluated by:

• Deciding the selection criteria.
• Selecting obvious winning ideas.
• Eliminating unworkable ideas.
• Sifting ideas into groups and selecting the best in each.
• Applying the selection criteria to obvious winners and identify the ‘best of’ the various groups.
• Testing the selections by ‘reverse brainstorming’ (i.e. in how many ways can this idea fail?).
• Informing participants of further developments.

You can achieve successful brainstorming by managers by asking yourself these questions:

• Do you use it whenever appropriate?
• Does it work? If not, are you leading it effectively?
• Is there a better person than you to lead a session?
• Can you point to where brainstorming sessions have improved creative thinking in your organization?
• Do you and your managers have a list of problems that could benefit from brainstorming?
• Do you use teams sufficiently to work on problems?

When taking good ideas to market, here are a number of questions you should apply to your organization.