Effective Project Management Tools
Brainstorming
Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral thinking. The idea of brainstorming is to encourage people to come up with thoughts and ideas, that at first may seem a bit crazy. But by using this encourages other ideas or solutions to certain problems. This jolts people out of their normal way of thinking.
It is important to avoid criticism during brainstorming sessions as this may restrict peoples thinking. This also goes for rewarding good ideas. This is because judgment and analysis of ideas at early stages would stop idea generation and limit people’s creativity. Evaluation should happen at the end of the session.
Prepare The Group
Present The Problem
Guide The Discussion
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral thinking. The idea of brainstorming is to encourage people to come up with thoughts and ideas, that at first may seem a bit crazy. But by using this encourages other ideas or solutions to certain problems. This jolts people out of their normal way of thinking.
It is important to avoid criticism during brainstorming sessions as this may restrict peoples thinking. This also goes for rewarding good ideas. This is because judgment and analysis of ideas at early stages would stop idea generation and limit people’s creativity. Evaluation should happen at the end of the session.
Why use brainstorming?
Conventional group problem solving can often be very important but the downside to this structured, analytical process is that this may lead to limited and unimaginative ideas. Opposing this brainstorming leads to free and open idea generation without limits and also means that people won’t be left out or excluded during this process. In the brainstorming stage quirky ideas are often developed.
Brainstorming increases the richness of ideas which are explored, meaning better solutions are often round.
Brainstorming isn’t as formal as other idea generation tools, meaning this can be done in a relaxed and chilled environment which means that people will be more likely to express any ideas which they have.
The downside to this is that with the amount of ideas which are generated people’s moral may suffer, they may feel their ideas aren’t appreciated or good enough.
Individual Brainstorming
Individual brainstorming is often more effective at generating idea than normal group problem solving. Several studies have shown that individual brainstorming produces more and often better ideas than group brainstorming does.
One thing which occurs in group brainstorming which doesn’t in individual is blocking. This is when group members tend to focus on other people’s ideas and less on their own idea generation. Also with group brainstorming bad behaviours tend to emerge which my hinder the making of ideas.
Also, when brainstorming alone you don’t have to worry about other people’s egos or opinions and because of this you’ll be more creative and express ideas which other people may find stupid. For example, you’d be more likely to bring up an idea which you would hesitate to talk about in a group.
Again, idea development would be limited on your own because you don’t have the ideas or opinions of other group members to develop your ideas.
Group Brainstorming
The main benefit with group brainstorming is that when another member of the group gets stuck with an idea, the other members in the team may use their own experience or creativity to take that to the next stage. The idea develops greater depth than that of it on its own. Also all team members feel like they have contributed something to the session therefore great for team building.
Group brainstorming can be risky for individuals. Unusual suggestions may appear to lack value at first sight – this is where you need to chair sessions tightly, so that the group doesn't crush these ideas and stifle creativity.