It is important for teams and organizations to find new and innovative ideas in order to grow and be successful. Brainstorming is seen as a creative and exciting process, but it is important to find a framework and idea-generation process that allows your group to produce meaningful results.
How can brainstorming techniques be used to make innovation a reality?
This post will explore brainstorming techniques that are effective for categories such as creative exercises and visual idea generation games. It will also consider virtual techniques that can be used to ideate online.
Additionally, we will touch on some tips for brainstorming, discuss the advantages of coming up with ideas as a group, and give some examples of workshop layouts that use these methods. Let’s get started!
What are brainstorming techniques?
Brainstorming is a way for people to come up with ideas, solutions, or knowledge by thinking freely and creatively.
There are several techniques that can help you generate a large number of ideas in a short amount of time. Workshops typically include steps to help participants change their perspective, work together as a team, and turn initial ideas into something even better.
If you want to help a group come up with ideas about a problem or new initiative, you can use some tried-and-true brainstorming methods. Some of the key ideas behind brainstorming are that people should not judge ideas too quickly, that it is better to have a few good ideas than lots of bad ones, that everyone’s ideas should be listened to, and that people should try to come up with unusual ideas.
What are the benefits of group brainstorming?
If you want your organization to be successful in the long term, you should encourage your team to be creative and come up with new ideas. This will have positive effects not just for the team, but for the whole organization. Here are some benefits that can come from group brainstorming: -More ideas are generated than if one person brainstormed alone -A wider range of perspectives are brought to the table -People feel more comfortable sharing ideas in a group -There is more diversity in the ideas generated
Encourage creativity
Creative games and exercises can help a team be more creative and generate new ideas. Brainstorming on a regular basis can help participants be more creative in their regular work and find methods that work for them to find new ideas and solutions. We love when group brainstorming leads to individuals giving themselves fresh ways to brainstorm too!
Inclusive, easy-to-understand activities
Brainstorming is a group activity in which people come up with ideas or solutions to problems. It is easy to understand and contribute to. generate ideas is something that can be done with little overhead or difficulty, no matter what skill level or competency a person has. This can help a team come together toward a shared goal in an inclusive and simple way.
Diverse ideas
If you only rely on certain teams or individuals to generate ideas, it can lead to a lack of progress. Maintaining a diversity of perspectives is essential to coming up with innovative approaches to problem-solving. Brainstorming is a great way to tap into a variety of perspectives.
Quantity of ideas
This means that you shouldn’t necessarily worry about the quality of your ideas when brainstorming, as it is more important to come up with a large number of ideas. A group needs to generate as many ideas as possible and share them before moving onto developing any of them further. The goal of brainstorming is to generate a lot of ideas in a short amount of time. This is a great way to get started on a project.
Get past creative blocks
If a team isn’t allowed to be creative and approach things from a new perspective, they will continue to have the same problems and never come up with new ideas. Games that encourage brainstorming are a great way to get a team’s creativity flowing and come up with new ways to approach stalled conversations. If you have a team that is having trouble solving a problem, a brainstorming session may be the answer.
Improve team morale
These types of sessions are often fun and energetic, and games and exercises that focus on idea generation allow everyone to contribute and feel heard as part of their team. Activities that help generate new ideas can help bring a team together and improve team morale. Everyone usually wants to take part in developing new ideas and being creative.
Get project buy-in
If you want a project to be successful, it’s important to get buy-in from people across departments and specialties. Involving them early on in the process of generating and developing ideas will not only lead to better ideas, but also ensure that the project is actually completed. In order to get buy-in from stakeholders, you should involve them in early brainstorming sessions. This will help to keep the creative energy going throughout the duration of the project.
Kickstart projects with energy
If you want your project to have a positive and energetic tone, start with a fun brainstorming workshop. This will help get everyone excited and ready to work on the project. Creative games can help your team break out of their usual way of thinking and approach the project with a sense of creativity and experimentation. Proven brainstorming techniques can help move your team forward effectively.
11 Core Brainstorming Techniques
Since people have always been looking for new and innovative solutions, brainstorming has been around for a long time. Anytime a group comes together to generate new ideas, it’s a productive use of time.
This section will explore some of the core techniques that have been effective in creating meaningful results and great ideas.
Popcorn Brainstorming
You may have already used the classic brainstorming technique known as a “popcorn brainstorm.” The technique has been used by everyone from school teachers to CEOs to generate ideas and create energy around new initiatives. It’s similar to how popcorn pops in a microwave!
Pose a question or problem statement and then invite participants to take a few minutes to think about it. Start a timer for one minute and have everyone contribute ideas out loud. Encourage them to build on each other’s ideas. It is best to have a single person taking notes, with the focus being on quality rather than quantity. There should be no evaluation, criticism, or discussion at this stage, just rapidly coming up with ideas.
Round-Robin Brainstorming
A brainstorming technique that has been proven to work, Round-Robin Brainstorming, ensures that everyone in a group can contribute to the brainstorm by keeping the discussion from being dominated by the loudest voices.
This method involves seating everyone in a circle and handing them an index card. Each person silently writes an idea on their index card before passing it to the person on their left. After each person has written an idea, they pass their card to the person on their left.
The upshot of this is that people are more likely to have their ideas heard and taken seriously during a more relaxed session that encourages a mix of coming up with ideas and collaborating. Perfect for teams with big personalities!
Starbursting
Starbursting is a visual brainstorming technique that you or your team of brainstormers should use once you have focused on a single idea. Start by putting an idea in the middle of a whiteboard and drawing a six-point star around it. Each point will represent a question:
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Who?
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What?
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When?
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Where?
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Why?
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How?
Every question you consider should be related to your idea, for example, Is there a demand for this product? or What are the potential obstacles to launching this program? This will help you to anticipate problems or challenges you hadn’t thought of before.
Best for: large group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly
The five whys, a.k.a. why analysis
The “five whys” brainstorming technique is a way to evaluate the strength of an idea by asking why five times. Ask yourself why a certain topic or idea is important at least five times and keep track of the new problems you discover. It is just as important to note how you could address these problems. To help you organize your thoughts, you can use a flowchart or fishbone diagram with this brainstorming technique.
Best for: individual and group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a brainstorming tool that can be used to help qualify an idea. The notion? Discuss the following aspects of your topic to determine whether it’s worth executing:
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The idea being discussed has some qualities or traits that make it better than other ideas. These strengths can be used to help make the idea more successful than its competitors.
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Are there any flaws with the idea which could make it fail?
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What other opportunities can you take advantage of based on this idea?
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What could go wrong if the idea is launched?
Best for: individual and group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly
How Now Wow
The How Now Wow brainstorming technique is all about categorizing ideas based on their uniqueness and implementation difficulty. Once you’ve collected several ideas, either individually or from team members, talk through where they fall in the How Now Wow spectrum:
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An idea is only an idea if it’s original and not executable.
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Now ideas are unoriginal ideas that are easily executable.
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This is referring to ideas that are both fresh and easy to implement.
It’s important to have a lot of “Wow” ideas because they can be put into action and also because they can make you stand out from your competition or break up the monotony in a company. organize your ideas, you might want to use a table with four boxes, with difficulty on the vertical axis and innovation on the horizontal axis.
This method is good for both individuals and groups to help find a solution that can be executed.
Drivers analysis
Just as the name implies, driver analysis is a brainstorming technique that analyzes the drivers or “causes” of a problem in order to find solutions. To use this brainstorming technique, keep asking yourself or your team: “What’s causing the problem?” and then, “What’s causing the answer to the previous question?” Similar to why analysis, the more you dig into a problem, the more confidence you will have in executing solutions for that problem.
Best for: individual and group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly
Mind mapping
Mind mapping is a visual brainstorming technique that can help you overcome the anchoring effect, which is a common challenge during brainstorming when people fixate on the first ideas instead of coming up with new ones. Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that uses the first idea to inspire other ideas.
You will need a large piece of paper or whiteboard to do this. A To begin, draw a topic in the center of a piece of paper. Then, draw lines out from the topic, connecting it to tangential ideas. This helps you understand your topic and what might impact its execution or even expedite it.
Best for: individual and group brainstorms, visual thinkers
Gap filling, a.k.a. gap analysis
If you’re not sure how to carry out an idea, gap filling can help you identify and overcome the barriers preventing you from doing so. Begin by starting with a statement of where you are and then a statement of where you want to be. Our company creates smart watches and we want to expand our portfolio to also include fitness trackers.
Make a large list or diagram of all the ideas that come up during your brainstorming session, so everyone can see them. This will help generate more ideas and keep the conversation going. What is preventing you from achieving your goals? List the obstacles and work through solutions for each of them. Your brainstorming session should help you develop a clearer plan of how to achieve your goals.
This approach is most effective for people who brainstorm best alone or in small groups, as well as those who think visually and need a way to map out their thoughts. If you’re trying to come up with an executable solution, this is probably the best approach for you.
SCAMPER
The SCAMPER brainstorming technique encourages brainstormers to look at an idea from different angles and it uses its acronym to inspire each lens:
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What if you replaced one part of the solution with something else?
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When thinking about potential solutions to a problem, it can be helpful to consider what would happen if you combined one element of a proposed solution with another. This technique can help you to generate new ideas and find the most effective solution.
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Think about how you could take an idea or solution and apply it to a new situation.
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Think about how you can improve an idea to make it more powerful.
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Ask yourself how you could use your idea in a different way.
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Instead of considering what you could add to an idea or solution, consider what you could remove from it instead so that it’s simplified.
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Think about how you could reorganize an idea to make it more effective.
An effective brainstorming technique to use during a group session is to provide templates to track responses, or to combine the SCAMPER method with brainwriting in order to get every angle of an idea.
Best for: individual and group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly
Lightning Decision Jam
LDJ is a brainstorming technique that takes between 40 minutes to one hour to complete. What will you have by the end? The result of the brainstorming session was buy-in from the entire team.
This brainstorming technique is great for remote team alignment. To begin, write down what is working well and what is positive about the topic. Then, identify the areas that need improvement and what should be addressed most urgently. This is followed by a few minutes of reframing problems as questions, then brainstorming solutions for those problems.
Your team uses a matrix to determine the impact and effort of your solutions to decide which ideas are worth pursuing. To learn more about LDJ, watch this video created by design agency AJ&Smart. LDJ is a brainstorming technique that can help you come up with new ideas.
This text is best for people who need to brainstorm in a group, people who work remotely, people who have tight deadlines, and people who need to find an executable solution.
Brainstorming ideas isn’t the end of the process. Make sure everyone is aware of your progress and include them in future plans as needed. There’s nothing like seeing your team’s great ideas come to life!
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