One of the things i get asked to do by clients is to run “brainstorming” sessions.
As Wikipedia says, the definition of brainstorm is a sudden realization, thought or idea.
For those of you who follow my tweets, one of my #quotes was: Having ideas is easy, having a good idea is hard.
When i run a brainstorm session, that quote still holds true, so the idea of a session is to have as many ideas as possible in an allocated space of time. So how long a session? How many people? Who should be involved?
Simple answer is, it depends. However, some guidelines to follow:
- agree scope of brainstorm. What is the topic or result you wish to achieve?
- have enough people, but not too many in a session to enable everyone to have meaningful contributions in allocated time
- don’t dismiss any ideas. It may not sound good at first, but it could become a gem of an idea!
- allocate someone to be the “scribe” and note down every idea mentioned/discussed
- have a ready supply of tea/coffee/water and chocolate biscuits
- encourage ideas from everyone
- have a mix of stakeholders for the project involved
Once the session is complete, the allocated “scribe” should then distribute all the ideas documented for all participants to review before a follow-up session to agree and plan what ideas will be followed through.
Sounds simple?
The hard bit is the ideas. How can i help you?