How to have a good brainstorming session without asking the question "Does brainstorming work?" later

You must have probably seen (or been in) this scenario:

  A manager booked a meeting with several members in a team, labelling it as a brainstorm session for the new campaign (or product, or next year's planning). She started by asking "does anybody has any idea?", holding a marker on one hand and lean the other on the white board (or clutching a handful of post-it notes, for brainstorm's sake). The first idea most likely came from the manager, so were the third  and the fourth. An energetic specialist who talked a lot in his work would jump in with the second idea. More encouragement convinced the fifth idea to emerge, but it was instantly criticized to the death by somebody. After a while, additional ideas kicked in, and debate escalated, while two members at the end of the table started talking about their reports in the afternoon. A shy, quiet girl seemed to be writing something in her notebook, but never spilt a word. As 30 minutes were supposed to be sufficient, it's time to leave the room. A quick vote took place to select the best idea, which 12 hours later turned out to be so bad that the manager decided to work on another one by herself. A virtual post-it note was attached to her brain, depicting brainstorm is a huge waste of time and should not be done again.

Admit it, you were in that kind of room from time to time in your career. I was, and I have been, and will be. We cannot escape brainstorm sessions, and sadly, most of them are not as expected. More dangerously, bad brainstorm sessions diminish the technique's credibility, and people will attend the next one with extremely low enthusiasm (which certainly contributes to that session's low quality). Goldenberg & Boyd in their book 'Inside the box' even disqualified brainstorm as an effective way to generate innovative ideas. Of course! But just in case of badly-organized brainstorm! A well-managed session, on the other hand, is proven to work remarkably. Group creativity is an excellent source of innovations, mainly due to its ability to connect multiple minds and idea 'pools' and combine them together. So don't lose faith in brainstorming yet, and make sure that the next brainstorm session you attend, these factors are to be emphasized:

1. It take times.

Everything takes time. Especially a good team-creativity activity. Amabile in her 2003 study pointed out that restraining in time hamper the ability to engage in creative activities in a group, in align with several study about the importance of this resource in creativity.  A grave mistake is to look for a quick win, as you simply cannot pull out a fantastic idea in less than 30 minutes. It take time to warm up the members, shaking their current tasks out of their heads. Decent thinking can only happen after several safe, ordinary and easy answers - which takes quite a lot of time too. Don't forget debate, discussion and even jokes (you want it to be fun). Unlike common meetings, brainstorm actually produces results, so don't treat it as a waste of time. Indeed, learn from the past and try to spend at least 1.5 - 2 hour. You can always finish early, and time well-spent is far better than time for re-work and re-discussion.

2. Diverge and Converge (From the largest number of ideas to the best single one)

Brainstorm sessions can look and run under many forms. They should all, though, follow the same pattern: 

• Divergent stage: At first, you want to come up with as numerous ideas as possible, regardless of quality. It's time for your mind to wander, go crazy and go past the zone of safety. You can apply a number of techniques here to increase both the quantity and quality of ideas. For example, asking everybody to write down their thought will encourage that hesitant intern to show his brilliant idea, or set a limited duration for each round of brainstorm can push your brain to run a bit faster.
• Convergent stage: All of the ideas will then be summarized, categorized, discussed and prioritized. At this stage, things will get solid, and you start to see patterns which can be used for creating the 'ultimate' ideas. It is the right time you should put effort in analyze the ideas, make them concrete and detailed, and name them stimulating names.

A lack of commitment in either stage results in a half-baked brainstorm session. Poor divergence generates too few ideas, or worse, too many safe and useless ones. Minimal convergence nullifies the advantage of brainstorm as an opportunity to combine and construct ideas together, as a brainless vote can easily create 1 or 2 satisfied persons, a bunch of upset ones and a pile of I-do-not-care members.

3. You shall not criticize... at least now.

A criticized idea is a dead idea. Maybe not, maybe its creator will fight to the death to protect it, and continually enhance it along the way. Yet most of the time, he/she is just too discouraged to participate in the brainstorm any more. Criticism, especially that which points to the wrong target ('how can you be sure about that, I've been here for blah blah blah years, so I know better than you'), is the number one reason brainstorm dies young across the globe.

The trick is, you need to allow criticism at the right time. A healthy dose of arguments and skepticism will be useful in convergent stage, when everybody filters the ideas to select the best ones. Discussing one another's ideas may sometimes lead to a brand new one combining the strengths of both. Try to avoid criticism at divergent stage, when all ideas are encouraged to step out of people's head. The first proposals are most of the time too safe to work, and those 'dreamy' visions frequently bear amazing wisdom. If you're worried about a too 'wild' idea can mislead the session, create a parking space to put this type of brain stream there, and promise to come back later.

4. Be specific about the goal(s)

It's hard enough to be creative. Don't make it harder by giving obscure or general goal such as "please come up with some good ideas". There is no such thing as good ideas, nor beautiful designs. A subjective requirement can be interpreted in many ways, which can damage the quality of a brainstorm session. Contrary to some belief, a restrain can actually improve creativity. As our brain subconsciously collect information and produce novel ideas, only a right amount of pressure can require our attention and push raw thought into further refinement. Several study, for example a study of 400 project teams by Pinto and Prescott (1988) proved that a clearly defined mission improves the concentration of the team and increases likelihood for a successful innovation. If you host a brainstorm session, do your homework, and please do not come in the room except with a clear objective on the white board:

"We need to create a landing page that can capture the attention  and retain 80% of our segment A customers within 10 second of first impression."

5. Encourage Combination and Improvement 

Confirm at the beginning of the session that taking somebody else's idea is not stealing - as long as you can improve it in some way or combine it with other ideas. Some people believed that creativity is no more than combination of old elements. And you know what, they're probably right. Even within our own mind, every passing second sees the linkage of numerous images or concepts, and out of a million of failed cases, a marriage of ideas give birth to a successful innovation. Imagine the same case in a brainstorm session, where multiple neurons from multiple persons join one another, thus a combined idea is naturally supposed to be born. So prevent the participants from perceiving it as a forbidden act. You can try to run a session that demands people to think of over twenty ideas within a very short time, in which case basing your idea on that of a different person is a must.

6. Have Fun!

Did I mention it before? I want to emphasize it again. Remember the time you had such a great idea that you want to jump out of the bathtub naked. It was never a sad, or depressing, or stressful moment. Keep your brainstorm session goal oriented, but also exciting and full of laughter. A trick to do it is having a happy and inspiring facilitator, who can manage to reduce the tension in the room. I once attended a great brainstorming where people grouped their ideas into categorized such as 'Disney-like ideas', 'Bone-dry ideas', 'Hitler ideas' (you love them in some way, but you feel like it's too unethical to bring them to the customers).

In short, a brainstorm session is a superb opportunity to bring different intellectual hotpots together to serve a common purpose - solving a problem in a novel and effective manner. Since its popularization by  Alex F Osborn in 1953, the activity is continually carried out across the world. As long as you can maintain a specific goal, a reasonable resource, a right process and a merry atmosphere within the meeting room, you will be amazed by your team member who never spoke a word during his previous meetings.

Phan Luong is a long-term seeker of Innovation and Creativity within every daily work - life opportunity. Major in Innovation Management and Creativity for Innovation, he's currently working for Vietnam International Bank (VIB) to transform banking in Vietnam (in a good way) and introduce the relatively new field of Innovation Management to his country.

Reference

Pinto, J. K., & Prescott, J. E. (1988). Variations in critical success factors over the stages in the project life cycle. Journal of Management, 14, 5–18.

Amabile, T. M., Mueller, J. S., Simpson, W. B., Hadley, C. N., Kramer, S. J., & Fleming, L. 2003. Time pressures and creativity in organizations: A longitudinal field study. HBS Working Paper 02-073.