How To Brainstorm With Your Team

One of the core strategies to spur business growth is giving room for creativity and innovation. Through creativity and innovation, ideas that will spur business growth are birthed.

However, one of the biggest aspects of innovation and creativity is brainstorming.

Brainstorming is a creative technique that involves deep thinking outside the box and generating unique ideas and strategies to solve a specific problem for the benefit of the company.

Through brainstorming, different ideas and diverse perspectives are shared in the workplace.

As a leader, manager or business owner, it is your duty to encourage brainstorming sessions in your organization as this will not only generate ideas for the company but also help your employees to be creative and relate well with others.

Successful brainstorming involves various steps; however, the goal is generating original and unique ideas for the company, boost confidence and also encourage creative thinking.

Understanding the brainstorming strategies and tips can provide you with the tools to lead an effective and productive brainstorming session.

Some of the strategies include:

Warm up the Brain with an Exercise

Brainstorming deals with the brain, therefore, the brain needs to be warmed up before the brainstorming session. Brain exercises could include puzzles, chess, question and answer session.

The goal is to stimulate the brain for the task ahead, that way, you can be more comfortable sharing actual ideas for a work project.

Record and Document the Discussion

This is one of the most important strategies for successful brainstorming. During a brainstorming session, several ideas are generated and chances are that you might not remember all of these ideas later on.

That way you can easily fall back to the ideas generated when you need them.

Create a Conducive Environment for Brainstorming

For an effective brainstorming session, ensure that the environment is conducive and comfortable for everyone.

If your employees brainstorm better when you’re not physically present, maybe out of fear or uncertainty.

It is wise to give them room to brainstorm without you as long as you’re open to various ideas.

On the other hand, if they are comfortable brainstorming with you, then be physically present to brainstorm with them. The goal is to create a comfortable environment for everyone.

Encourage Variety

Do not limit your mind and the minds of your employees to a certain idea or strategy. Everyone thinks differently, therefore give room to various kinds of thoughts and ideas.

Accept various ideas and have a long list of these varied ideas, this will provide you with a useful outline for future projects and allow you to recognize which ideas have the most potential.

Divide the Team into Small Groups

Another strategy for effective brainstorming session is by dividing your team into smaller groups. This is an effective strategy and gives room to various ideas and thoughts as well.

This is because, some employees might not be comfortable brainstorming with teams leads, managers and senior officers.

Ask Questions

Asking questions is a major strategy for a productive brainstorming session. This is because, sometimes, employees and other members of the company might be having difficulties in generating ideas for the company.

However, when you ask related questions, it has a way of triggering the mind to think creatively and generate creative answers.

On the other hand, if there’s a successful brainstorming session and various ideas are generated, asking certain questions will give you a better understanding of the ideas generated.

Additionally, every member of the team will be clarified on certain issues surrounding the ideas generated.