An article I wrote for Pulse about how to brainstorm better. Cue the thunder and lightning.
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If you’re like me, you’ve been asked to “brainstorm” a lot over the course of your career. But, if you’re also like me, you’ve always been a bit confused about how to brainstorm effectively. Recently, my curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to do some research about this powerful and mysterious process. Here’s a little of what I learned.
Recognize the name Alex F. Osborn? It’s ok, I sure didn’t. Turns out, ol’ Alex is the inventor of brainstorming. (What?!? Someone invented brainstorming?!?). As an ad man in the 1930’s Alex was trying to help his employees come up with more ideas, more quickly. He thought pairing people up to create mental fireworks would do the trick, and as we all know, it did. Brainstorming was born! To help his workers get the most out of these sessions, the newly-minted Father of Brainstorming had two guidelines: defer judgment and go for quantity.
Defer judgement is a fancy way of saying don’t scrutinize your ideas as you’re coming up with them. There’ll be plenty—and I mean PLENTY—of time for that later. Just let the creativity flow. When you put off judgment, you create a friendly, open environment where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, as feeble and incomplete as some of them may be. And when people feel comfortable, they put their guard down, relax and share more. Make an extra effort to welcome contributions, avoid eyerolls and WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. That signals that every idea—and by extension, group member—is important.
Go for quantity is pretty self-explanatory: come up with as many ideas as you can! Here’s a helpful way to think about it. Instead of trying to think up with the “best” or “right” idea, try to think up every possible idea. Doing so will push you into new territories that you never would have explored otherwise. You can even challenge yourselves to come up with 200 ideas in an hour (for example) just to stretch the limits and keep things fun. Again, ideas don’t have to be perfect to be shared. Just get them out there.
A few more ideas from other smart folks...
Follow the “Two Pizza Rule.”
The Two Pizza What? This one comes from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos... you may have heard of him. He says you should never invite more people to a brainstorm than can be reasonably fed by two pizzas, which, adjusting for various appetites, comes to roughly 5-6 individuals. Keeping the group small ensures the session doesn’t get sidetracked and that everyone gets a chance to share ideas… and pizza.
Prepare for the Storm
Asking the group to do some thinking beforehand can make your brainstorm much more efficient. Team members will already have a grasp of the problem, as well as some ideas to get the ball rolling. It’s like in track. You wouldn’t run a 100-yard dash without limbering up a little bit. The same principle applies here.
Think Outside the Conference Room
We’ve come to think of a “brainstorm” as a bunch of people sitting around a conference table while one person writes on a whiteboard. But you don’t always have to use this format. Instead, you could “brainstorm” by taping a big piece of paper to the wall in a common area, and inviting everyone to write down ideas as they walk back and forth during the week. Or you could open a Google Doc and give everyone 48 hours to contribute a few ideas. Or you could try “Brain Writing” where everyone writes a couple of ideas down on a piece of paper and then passes it to someone else. That person reads the ideas silently and adds their own thoughts before repeating the process again. Keep an open mind, brainstormer—there really are a lot of ways to come up with ideas.
Alrighty, lots of good stuff. To sum up…
1. Put down your gavel – give ideas a chance
2. More is more – ideas, ideas, ideas
3. Allow for prep time – rumination before collaboration
4. Keep it small – let the pizzas be your guide
5. Play with the format – no conference room, no problem
Happy storming.