You’re leading a large group brainstorming session. What are the best facilitation tools to use?

1 Define the problem

Before you start brainstorming, you need to clearly define the problem that you want to solve. This will help you focus the group’s attention and avoid irrelevant or vague ideas. You can use a tool like the Problem Statement Canvas to articulate the problem in a simple and concise way. The canvas consists of four questions: What is the problem? Who is affected by it? Why is it important to solve it? And what are the criteria for a good solution? You can ask the group to fill out the canvas individually or in small teams, and then share their answers with the whole group.

2 Generate ideas

Once you have a clear problem statement, you can start generating ideas. There are many tools that can help you stimulate the group’s creativity and diversity of thinking. One of them is the Brainwriting technique, which involves writing down ideas on paper or sticky notes, and then passing them around for others to build on or modify. This way, you can avoid the dominance of vocal participants or the fear of criticism. Another tool is the SCAMPER method, which stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. This method helps you generate new ideas by asking questions that challenge the existing assumptions or perspectives on the problem.

3 Organize ideas

After generating a lot of ideas, you need to organize them into meaningful categories or themes. This will help you reduce the complexity and chaos of the brainstorming output, and make it easier to analyze and evaluate. You can use a tool like the Affinity Diagram to group the ideas based on their similarities or connections. You can ask the group to sort the ideas (written on sticky notes or cards) into clusters on a wall or a board, and then label each cluster with a descriptive name. You can also use a tool like the Idea Rating Sheet to rank the ideas based on their feasibility, desirability, and originality.

4 Prioritize ideas

Finally, you need to prioritize the ideas that have the most potential and value for solving the problem. This will help you narrow down the options and decide on the next steps. You can use a tool like the Impact-Effort Matrix to plot the ideas on a grid based on their impact (how much they solve the problem) and effort (how much time, money, and resources they require). This way, you can identify the quick wins (high impact, low effort), the major projects (high impact, high effort), the fill-ins (low impact, low effort), and the hard sells (low impact, high effort). You can also use a tool like the Dot Voting to let the group vote on their favorite ideas by placing dots or stickers on them.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?