Some people feel that brainstorming is a waste of time. However, it’s a great way of inspiring creativity and innovation. You and your team may often find yourself in a challenging situation where you need to solve a specific problem. It may be as simple as finding strategies to help you achieve your goals but as soon as you start thinking about ideas, your mind goes blank. To get your creative juices flowing, you need to brainstorm.
In this article, you’ll learn some brainstorming techniques that you can use as a creative.
- Brain Writing
This method focuses on separating idea generation from the discussion. A team leader will share a topic with the team members, who’ll be required to note down their ideas. This way, anchoring buyers will be eliminated while individually sharing ideas will be encouraged.
Brainwriting also gives individuals ample time to think about their ideas, thus helping introverted participants. You can use this technique for a team that’s easily influenced by the initial ideas presented in a meeting.
- Brain-Netting (Online Brainstorming)
As more businesses continue to establish their services online, virtual teams are increasingly becoming common. In some organizations, using collaboration and email tools has become the norm. The challenge comes when the team needs to brainstorm. Using an email to toss ideas back and forth can be appropriate, but referring to them in the future may become difficult.
To combat this problem, you need to create a central online location to enable your team members to collaborate virtually. Fortunately, many brainstorming tools can facilitate a collaborative and more visual brainstorming experience.
- Figuring Storming
Figuring storming aims to accommodate how other people handle situations. If you’re in a team and looking for ideas, you may think about how a celebrity, boss, or the president will handle the situation you are in. Putting yourself in such shoes may give you and your team a varied perspective and help you see possibilities from a different angle. This method is excellent for teams who find themselves entangled with similar ideas for similar projects.
- Starbursting
In this type of brainstorming method, team members focus on creating questions rather than finding answers. It’s a great way to begin a session because it’ll help you know the who, where, what, when, and why of a topic. It ensures that every aspect of the project is addressed before execution. If your team overlooks certain aspects of a project and rushes to get things done at the last minute, they can use this technique to streamline issues.
- Stepladder
In this technique, every team member is allowed to contribute before other members influence them. Sessions start with the facilitator giving a question or topic to the whole team. Once the topic is given, everyone vacates the room except two members. The members in the room then discuss the topic and give their ideas. Other members are then added to give their input until everyone is back in the room.
Conclusion
Brainstorming is an excellent method of getting ideas from team members. Whether you’re coming up with ideas for a novel, directions for a business project, or inspiration for your next CNC machine project, these tips can be incredibly helpful. Not every brainstorming technique will fit every situation. So it’s vital to select the appropriate technique that’ll make your team more creative.
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