Brainstorming For Fun and Profit

May 24. 2004

Brainstorming is a powerful, yet underused tool for creating business solutions.

Different perspectives colliding into each other is what brainstorming is all about.  Each person who participates will see the issue in a different way.  By rapidly bouncing ideas off of each person, new ideas will form and new solutions will present themselves.

To be effective, brainstorming sessions should follow a pattern involving both the gathering of ideas and the analysis of results.

Efficient brainstorming sessions must be focused.  Pick a question or a topic sentence and write it down in large letters.  If the flow of ideas strays off topic for more than a few minutes, repeat this topic out loud to shift the focus back to where it should be.

As ideas are called out, each one should be accepted.  If the flow of ideas is slowing down, say whatever pops into mind, even if it's completely unrelated.  Sometimes the zany comments will lead to useful ones in the course of laughing about them.

Humor loosens up the rigid hold on the "normal way of doing things" that many of us have, allowing new ideas to surface.  Laughter is a very important part of effective brainstorming.  Crazy-sounding ideas will help create the comical mood that fosters a fantastic idea session.

	Brainstorming Tips * All ideas are good for something, even if just a springboard to more ideas. * Use humor to loosen up mental inhibitions and have a good time. * Write the ideas down so that everyone can see them. * Look for patterns and categories to help organize ideas. * Pick the top ten ideas and implement them. * Practice - practice - practice.  It takes time to master this skill, but the results are well worth the effort.

It's not brainstorming unless it's positive.  No ideas are worthless, since the strangest juxtapositions will result in ideas that seem to come out of nowhere.  Negative comments should be bottled in for later.

It's absolutely vital that all ideas are written down, preferably in a way that everyone involved can see the list of past ideas.  The written record will be needed for later study.  It is also helpful as the stream of ideas slows down, to review what you've come up with and see if anything new pops into mind.

Only spend about thirty minutes to an hour coming up with ideas.  After that, it's time to put those ideas to work!

After the idea session, review the complete list of ideas and look for patterns.  Categorizing the ideas will make them easy to find later.  It will also bring out new concepts and connections between ideas.

While categorizing, each idea is evaluated for both good and bad qualities.  Put the best ideas together by selecting a top ten.

Use the top ten list to plan how to use the new ideas.  Determine the best way to integrate the new ideas with any current processes and measure results.

To complete the exercise, type a summary of the brainstorming session.  The short, one-page summary should include the categories identified, which ideas were the best, and the final plan of action.  Keep the list of all the ideas with the summary for a record to examine later for more ideas that might have been missed.

Like any skill, brainstorming improves with practice.  The more often it is used as a tool, the better the results will be.