Facilitate a Brainstorming Session

I observed a CSM class by Scrum Alliance CST Mr. Zia Malik. After the class on the second day, there was a public event where Mr. Zia facilitated a brainstorming session. I read about the same technique in the Wicked Problem Solver course and thus decided to share it with a larger audience via this blog. Maybe, many of you are already familiar with this.

While solving a problem collaboratively team(s) can perform the activities like Gathering, Organizing, and Prioritizing the information.

Use quiet-writing brainstorming technique to gather maximum input from participants on the topic over a White Board (Physical) or Digital Board (Mural/ Miro etc.)

Team members silently write ideas on sticky notes and post them on a whiteboard. It’s a simple, yet powerful tool as it forces people to collect their thoughts and enter them into a shared workspace.

Group/ Cluster similar stickies. It helps quickly arrange unfiltered ideas into simple categories that are discovered through the process of grouping/ clustering.

Add a new sticky note that accurately defines each group/ cluster. It helps clear the clutter from the board.

Sort these newly created stickies based on importance, relevance, urgency, desirability, etc.

Voting guides the team to quickly prioritize and converge on preferred options, it makes ideas selection transparent and collaborative; building on the collective wisdom and experience of the team.

You can learn more about Facilitation and Problem-solving Techniques here .