Widely used in business, brainstorming stimulates collective creativity to solve a problem, generate new ideas or come up with innovative solutions. By drawing on collective intelligence, this method also encourages team participation and commitment. But to be really effective, brainstorming needs to be structured and run according to a few key rules. So how do you go about it? Here are 3 key steps.
1 - Preparing for the session
Contrary to popular belief, brainstorming is not an informal meeting. To produce results, it needs to be structured.
Before starting, the presenter must :
- define a clear and precise problem
- visit project background and challenges
- make sure that all participants share the same objective
- Announce how the session will unfold and the time allocated to each stage
Brainstorming generally takes place in three phases: introduction, idea generation and idea selection.
2 - Encouraging the generation of ideas
The creative phase consists of producing as many ideas as possible. This is often referred to as divergence phase.
To encourage collective creativity, a number of rules need to be observed:
- suspend any criticism or judgement
- avoid hierarchical relationships that can inhibit speech
- focus on a wealth of ideas rather than their immediate quality
- accept proposals original, quirky or unlikely
- bounce ideas off others to enrich them
- make a note of all contributions to keep a record of exchanges
Simple tools can make this stage easier: post-it notes, collaborative boards, digital tools or a wall of ideas.
3 - Analysing and selecting ideas
Once the creative phase is over, it's time to convergence phase, which involves sorting and structuring ideas.
The team can then :
- group together similar ideas
- eliminate those that do not correspond to the objective
- evaluate proposals according to defined criteria (impact, feasibility, cost, timeframe, etc.)
The ideas retained can then be formalised in a form specifying :
- the problem it addresses
- how the solution works
- the conditions for implementation and its feasibility
In a nutshell
Successful brainstorming is based on three essential elements:
- clearly defined objective
- a framework that encourages creativity
- structured selection of ideas
Properly managed, it becomes a real lever for innovation and collective intelligence.
