Since its inception, brainstorming has become a global phenomenon. Everyone employs brainstorming strategies to stimulate their creative faculties. There are now many strategies for conducting brainstorming sessions that are more successful, including mind mapping, brainwriting, starbursting, role-storming, rapid ideation, and the 5 Whys analysis.
There are numerous approaches to brainstorming. When you organise your thoughts, brainstorming becomes a fluid and more efficient process, regardless of whether you prefer lists or are a more visual thinker.
Prioritize quantity
The adage “quality over quantity” is probably one you’ve heard, yet when it comes to brainstorming, the exact opposite is true. The more thoughts, the better.
Work toward quantity to generate as many ideas as you can rather than trying to conceive of one big concept. This approach will give you additional possibilities and may stimulate creative thinking in others. Though not every idea will be brilliant, one lousy one could inspire numerous fantastic ones.
In the end, the likelihood that there will be more useful ideas to work from increases with the number of ideas submitted.
Don’t criticise.
The brainstorming process is not the place for negativity. There is no superior concept, therefore limiting the number of ideas that are communicated directly challenges Osborn’s first principle of quantity above quality.
By eliminating criticism, a space is created where people can express their opinions freely without worrying about being labelled “wrong” or “dumb.”
People are more willing to share more ideas, including silly and entertaining ones, when they are no longer afraid of criticism. In order to effectively brainstorm, unusual ideas must be considered.
Welcome original concepts
Encourage the expression of all thoughts, odd or not. Even while they may not always be practical, eccentric and unconventional ideas can provide fresh ideas for problems that you hadn’t previously considered.
The number of ideas expressed during a brainstorming session increases when unconventionality is encouraged.
Alexander Osborn said that taming down a wild concept is easier than coming up with a new one.
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Bring ideas together
Develop concepts. Of course, not every concept will be feasible for your team, but you can use some as inspiration.
Concepts can be combined to produce new answers. Determine which concepts are workable, original, and best suited to achieving your objective by evaluating each one. Leverage those concepts and offer modifications or related options. No concept is perfect. Even though it wasn’t your idea in the first place, you can still contribute to improving it.
Imagine that you and your team are discussing strategies to facilitate users’ adoption of your product more quickly. One suggestion made was to include tools and advice in the product dashboard. That concept inspires someone else to develop an interactive wizard that takes users through the features of the product.
Finding the best answer to the objective or issue will be made easier by building on the ideas already put forth.
