Moving Ideas Forward: What to do after Brainstorming Sessions

Few years ago, my friends and I decided to go to Phoenix on a Thanksgiving trip. We decided on the destination after throwing our bags in the car. It was a long weekend and we had about four or five destinations but couldn’t pick. So, we brainstormed the activities, pros and cons, and used the audience poll to arrive at the destination. We arrive in the evening only to find most places were shut because of the holiday!

My friend, that is a lesson on what not to do after a brainstorming session.

With friends who don’t care much for plans, anything is salvageable. That is not the case for your innovation or strategy projects. However, the reason why many a project fails, is that we jump too soon into action.

Brainstorming sessions are high energy events - very stimulating and inspiring!

To choose a single direction at that point of time is natural. It’s like deciding to sit on the front row of a roller coaster. Fun at first but you know the feeling when the train reaches the top.

So, what should we do?

Insert - a - pause.

Wait at least a day. In some cases, give it a week especially for critical projects. If you are deciding on a multi-year strategy, a longer time is suggested before you take the decision.

The pause allows you to reflect on all fronts.

During the ideation sessions, it may be natural to get swayed along a train of thought. The group energy may be such. Some ideas may feel like the best thing since chocolate filled cookies. And yet, marching forward at that time may get you stuck. We haven’t had time to flesh out all perspectives especially the execution details.

After ideation, you should move one or max two ideas for prototyping to confirm the merit of each solution.

Here’s how you get there after the brainstorming session:

• Summarize the discussion grouping ideas together.
• Highlight the ones that had the group salivating.
• Ask the group to think and reflect on each highlighted one.
• Use a framework, example SWOT, on all. This should be done after the pause duration.
• Select the ideas to prototype ahead based on your considerations.

The ideation session feels like kids in a toy shop. Everything seems fabulous and possible.

After that, we put our adult hats and determine what to take ahead forward.

That’s it from me for today.

Happy ideating!

Hemang.

p.s.: Our Phoenix trip ultimately turned out very memorable. We visited many surrounding places, went on hikes, discovered historic towns, and had good fun!