How to Prepare for a Brainstorming Meeting
You never know what creative thoughts might be hiding in the minds of your staff. Brainstorming is a tried and true method to get the ideas flowing and to increase staff enthusiasm for upcoming projects. If your company does not normally have an environment that fosters brainstorming, preparing for a brainstorming meeting should be focused on making employees feel relaxed and at ease with having their say. The ultimate test of brainstorming success is whether an idea thrown out at a session becomes the best-selling product of your next fiscal year.
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Things You'll Need
- Large whiteboard
- Easel-sized paper
- Whiteboard markers
- Felt markers
- Colored sticky notes
- Pens
Instructions
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Choose a location for the meeting. The space should be conducive to brainstorming -- well-lit and with room for people to walk around or break into groups. The setup should encourage free-flowing ideas and a relaxed atmosphere. If the room is commonly used for high-stress discussions, rearrange the furniture to give it a different feel.
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Choose attendees for the meeting. Include all staff members if your company is small enough to accommodate it. At a minimum, invite a cross-section of people from different departments with different jobs. The brainstorming session will benefit from ideas drawn from varying perspectives on the business. Despite the disparity between occupations, all of the company's employees should share the goals of the company.
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Designate a brainstorming facilitator. This individual will write down ideas on a large whiteboard or easel-sized pieces of paper. He will also begin the group discussion, posing an initial question, leading the group through word-association exercises and identifying a key problem the brainstorming session has the objective to solve.
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Brief the facilitator, and possibly all meeting attendees, on the way the meeting will work. The intent is to gather as many ideas as possible. Ideas are not to be criticized or evaluated during the course of the brainstorming session; ideas are simply to be offered and built upon.
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Prepare materials to help staff members think creatively. Consider distributing colored sticky notes to write ideas and put them on a wall, in response to a specific question. Tack a picture up of a new product and ask every employee to write down three keywords they associate with the image. The facilitator can then read out the ideas to the group and encourage further brainstorming.
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Remind senior employees not to overwhelm the meeting. To encourage all employees to generate ideas, they should feel no sense of intimidation. The natural inclination of most employees will be to defer and build upon the ideas of management, unless management chooses to take a back seat. Tell senior employees to sit in the back of the room and allow junior staff to speak freely.
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References
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