You can be sure that all the great ideas of mankind went through different concepts and approaches before they were considered original and revolutionary.
This helps to demystify the opinion that geniuses have creative flashes and, at once, conceive an idea and apply it.
In fact, the brainstorming process consists of writing down the most diverse ideas and working them out, until you get a satisfactory result and according to your goals.
And the same can happen in your work environment, you know?
By investing in different brainstorming techniques , for example, you and your team can explore ideas that are seemingly inapplicable, but which can surprise you when working as a team.
These techniques can be used for the most diverse situations. From brainstorming to create company names , to finding the best model for a workflow.
So, check out in this post how to apply brainstorming techniques that can show a solution that, many times, would never have been achieved without a group selection of ideas.
See also: Creativity techniques help to stimulate the mind and make it more productive and dynamic
To recap: what is brainstorming?
Between the 1930s and 40s, publicist Alex Osborn developed a dynamic that stimulated a group to literally create a storm of ideas.
The concept comes down to collecting the suggestions and ideas – without judging how unusual they may seem – from each member present at the meeting, so that everyone can improve, here and there, their characteristics until they reach the desired result.
And this brainstorming technique can be used for everything, basically, from developing new products to solving problems.
It turns out that, over the decades, new brainstorming techniques have been developed. And, to inspire you, we will present 3 of them, so that you can see the one that best fits your goals and needs.
1- Post-it technique
To relieve the pressure of an environment that can judge the creative ideas of its members, how about freeing up a whiteboard or space on the wall dedicated to ideas?
So, whenever someone has an idea, a post-it is posted in that space reserved for practicing this brainstorming technique.
It is also worth determining a time interval for suggestions.
Thus, the secret is to gather your team and equip them with post-its and pen, and clarify the purpose of that brainstorming.
At the end of the defined time interval, ask everyone to expose their ideas, one at a time, moving their post-it to an area of the “ideas already presented” wall, as soon as their exposition ends.
The person must briefly explain his idea and everyone goes back to his drafts.
After another period of time, participants are now asked to comment on the idea of another , or join several, taking the corresponding post-its and transporting it to a third area on the wall, of ideas that will be refined by the group .
At the end of this discussion about the idea (or ideas), a new post-it is created, summarizing what was thought of by connecting several ideas, and placed in that first initial area of the dynamics.
With that, the goal is to make everyone stimulate themselves with the rain of suggestions and, in the end, work on shaping a definitive idea.
These steps can be repeated as many times as necessary, until a final consensus idea is tapered off.
2- The “opposite” brainstorming technique
This popular brainstorming technique allows everyone to visualize the ultimate goal – for example: how to improve the relationship with the consumer – and then start to suggest resolutions for a challenge completely opposite to the one proposed.
In this case, it would be something like this: “how to make the relationship with the consumer worse”.
And, through the suggestions of your team, it is possible to analyze the ideas in reverse , later, bringing creative and unusual solutions.
This is a way of removing the blockage of people’s minds, because doing the opposite of what you owe is already a form of transgression that makes your brain work more freely.
3- Mind map
Also known as mindmapping , this brainstorming technique is simple and has a good effect on participants – much in part because of its ease of use.
Source: 6 Tips on How to Create an Online Mind Map with ExamTime.
For this, the following step by step must be taken into account:
- Write the problem or challenge to be solved in up to 3 words and circle them.
- Encourage everyone to relate words to the first circled word, connecting them with lines that help connect the meanings in common.
- Then do the same with the second word and progressively until the third word has all the words related to it exhausted from your team’s vocabulary.
The idea is to analyze, later, the words that were suggested to find differentiated and effective solutions to solve the challenge proposed to your team.
This is because, by analyzing the words separately, connections are created between ideas that had not previously been perceived.
And that is exactly what it is: connecting ideas that apparently have no relation to each other.
How to succeed in your brainstorming techniques
It is clear that, in order to obtain more chances of having a productive meeting and full of good ideas, it is advisable to thoroughly understand the methodology of your brainstorming technique in order to be able to apply it in a structured, organized and assertive manner.
But did you know that there are those who believe that group brainstorming techniques do not work?
For those who share this opinion, the pressure of the group and the fear of being ridiculed end up leading people to only give opinions that do not cause controversy, avoiding exposure, which is totally against the methodology of any brainstorming technique.
