Brainstorming Remotely: rethinking group-think

Productivity has hit an all-time high for many in the workforce since the beginning of Covid-19 work-from-home mandates.  Business Wire reported a 47% productivity increase after evaluating some 100 million data points from 30,000 U.S.-based workers.  So great news for companies, right?  Well, not quite.  

As many of us are no longer physically working together, but we still need to generate ideas collaboratively.  A more accurate measure of productivity has to include more than just activity. Considering the need for continual innovation and the creation of new ideas is vital for businesses to succeed and to thrive.   

For many teams, innovation is born through collaboration sessions or brainstorming.  Alex Osborn, an advertising executive in the 1940s, is generally credited with the term ‘brainstorming.’ In a traditional work environment, with people working in offices and participating (primarily) in-person discussions, innovation sessions are frequent and often involve brainstorming.  Taking a problem statement and working through various options as a group until an agreed option(s) is/are settled upon.  

Most of us have been in these sessions.  And we quickly recognize the shortcomings of a typical brainstorming session.  Teresa Torres, who is a Product Discovery Coach, says, “the challenges with brainstorming arise from our behavior in groups. We tend to conform to the will of the group, reducing our creative output. We suffer from social loafing, where we assume that others in the group will contribute, so we don't work as hard as we would if we were on our own. Group behavior tends to devolve to that of the lowest-performing member.” 

In summary, group-think is not great-think.  

There are ways to lead a productive remote brainstorm session by addressing challenges that come from traditional, in-person meetings and taking advantage of a broader, diverse, and distributed set of brainstorming participants.  There are also new, innovative tools to add to the mix.  

First things first, invite a diverse group of contributors. Because you’re working remotely, you don’t have to limit participants by geography or who will be able to make the session physically in-person. Identify the roles and expertise you want, and then invite people who fit those descriptions—diversity matters. 

Make sure you communicate the specific problem the group is trying to solve before the brainstorm begins. IDEO, a design and consulting firm well known for its design thinking approach, recommends asking participants to do pre-work before joining the session.  Jotting ideas or – better yet – drawings before joining the meeting will allow people a safe, quiet space to develop their ideas without the risk of ‘group think.’ 

When facilitating the actual session, have each participant write his or her ideas down silently.  If pre-work was given, provide time for individuals to refine their ideas.  Encourage participants to go beyond words.  Quick drawings or sketches engage different parts of our brains.  

Then work in small groups as small as two and no larger than four and present ideas individually.  Do not dwell on the ideas.  Share the idea and then place the idea on the ‘wall’ (more on virtual walls to come).  One person, one idea at a time.  Have the small group work together to harness their thinking.  Then rotate the groups and continue the approach.  Brainstorming is about ideas and developing a hypothesis to solve the problem.  These are not design finalization sessions.  

Part of the value from a successful brainstorming session has to be the sticky note exercise.  Right?  New collaboration tools are moving us well beyond the capabilities of Slack, Teams, or Google Docs.   

• Spatial Systems (https://spatial.io) turns your monitor into your collaboration room.  Your hands become your mouse.  You can scribble ideas, use post-it notes, and high-five with your (virtual) colleagues.  Companies like Ford, Qualcomm, and LG are already using the technology.  
• Another technology, IdeaBoardz (https://ideaboardz.com),  is a web-based tool that allows you to set up a virtual board and invite collaborators. Users can create sections for the different areas they want to collect ideas. Then have everyone add “stickies” with their ideas.  
• Miro (https://miro.com) provides a similar solution and allows you to collaborate as a mind map, Kanban, roadmap, user story map, or customer journey map.  

Finally, structure a process that can unfold over time. A productive brainstorm doesn’t require everyone to be online at the same time: people may generate better, more distinct ideas if they’re working independently. Create a shared space where participants can add their ideas, and then ask them to collectively finalize the most promising ones at the end of the process.  

Now is the time to reinvent collaboration.  Bringing broader, more diverse voices to the table – and listening to them! – is more critical now than ever before.  Innovations in how we run brainstorming are poised to increase actual productivity and improve the employee experience.  

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Sources

• Forbes
• Management Today
• IDEO
• HBR