Group Ideas for Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a process for coming up with as many ideas as possible to solve a problem. Brainstorming can be done in teams, or it can be done by individuals. A specific rule to follow in the brainstorming process is that participants are encouraged not to judge ideas and to have an anything goes mentality
Other People Are Reading
-
Round Robin Brainstorming
-
Set up easels with chart packs and markers for each team. Write on the top sheet of each chart pack a problem that needs to be solved. Each team spends 10 to 15 minutes brainstorming solutions to the problem. At the end of the time, teams move to the chart pack of another team and review the problem and solutions for 5 minutes. At the end of the time, they add more solutions to the chart pack. This rotation is completed until all teams have reviewed and added solutions to each problem. The facilitator takes all participants through each problem and solutions, and the whole group selects the solution they feel will be the most effective for each problem.
Brainwriting Technique
-
To facilitate a brainwriting session, give a sheet of paper that has 20 rows and five columns on it to each participant. Ask participants to write a problem they need to solve at the top of the page. Have them pass their page to the person on their left who is to write at least five solutions in the cells within three minutes. Ring a bell to let participants know they are to pass the paper to the left again. This process goes on until the paper gets back to the original person who identified the problem. The person who originated the problem now has a lot of solutions to consider.
-
Individual Brainstorming Plus
-
As the technique implies, individual brainstorming is initially started by the individual who is responsible for a project and then the group jumps in. It is often difficult to get started on a new project then procrastination sets in. Individual brainstorming jump-starts the process by getting an individual to think about some of the problems the team is going to encounter in completing the project. Writing down the problem gets the solution process going. The plus part of this technique is to share the results of the individual process with project team members to get the whole group working together on problem solutions.
Think of a Color Brainstorming
-
Too often people get into blocks when it comes to being creative about problem solving. One strategy to break the block is to have a group think of a color and to think about how that color represents a solution. For example, define the problem as low morale at work and identify the block-breaking color as red. Sample solutions might be things like everyone wears red to work on Fridays or an office slogan contest using "red" as the target word is organized.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
