Do you recall a situation where you were asked to come up with multiple creative ideas after receiving a prompt or question? Maybe you were asked to solve a problem or find a creative way to market a new product. Typically, after providing a few ideas, we hold back and judge each one—wondering if it’s too weird, foolish, or even worth sharing. The stress increases, and the more we judge, the less we believe in our own capabilities.
What will the rest of the team think of me? I don’t want to sound foolish!
But that’s exactly what kills creativity. In 1939, advertising executive Alex F. Osborn began developing methods for problem-solving. He was so frustrated by employees’ inability to generate creative ideas individually for ad campaigns that he started focusing on creative thinking and writing about it. After years of hosting group-thinking sessions, he discovered a significant improvement in both the quality and quantity of ideas produced by employees. Osborn identified two key principles that contribute to “ideative efficacy” [1]:
- Defer judgment – Hold off on judgment until everyone has shared their ideas. Particularly, do not criticize an idea just because you think it’s not technically feasible.
- Reach for quantity – The principle that “quantity breeds quality.” The more ideas you share, the higher the chance of finding a great one.”
#1 Start with a warm-up
Generating ideas alone, where nobody hears or sees them, is something many people can do without issue. However, the idea of sharing all those thoughts with others can be stressful—especially when you’re working with introverted team members.
That’s why it’s important to reduce stress and create a safe environment where people feel comfortable opening up. As the facilitator of a brainstorming session, it’s your role to ensure that people feel at ease and aren’t afraid to share their ideas in front of others. You need to show them that even abstract or seemingly silly ideas are more than welcome, and that no one will be judged. This helps people feel valued, like they belong, and that their contributions matter. To do this, you can use warm-up exercises such as:
- Synonyms & antonyms – Ask participants to come up with synonyms and antonyms for random words. The more absurd or abstract, the better it works for unlocking creativity.
- Run-on story – Start telling a run-on story, with each person adding a single word or phrase. Again, the weirder it sounds, the more it encourages creative thinking.
Typically, after a few minutes of such exercises, people feel more relaxed and open. There’s also an interesting dynamic at play. People who don’t speak during the first few minutes of the meeting often don’t speak much throughout the rest of the session. That’s why the first few minutes are so crucial—it can change the entire dynamic of the meeting.
(…) as a general rule, the sooner people speak, the more engaged they will be throughout the meeting.
Dick Axelrod, Business Collaboration Expert
#2 Set a clear goal and visualize it
It may sound pretty obvious, but let’s start with the basics. Every effective brainstorming session should have a single, defined objective. Osborn argued that brainstorming should address one specific question. According to his findings, sessions that tackled multiple questions were inefficient. Having a broad focus may lead to great ideas, but they may not necessarily help solve the problem at hand. On the other hand, remember that too narrow a focus can make it hard for people to generate enough ideas or think ‘outside the box.’
In addition to explaining the goal verbally, it’s also useful to visualize it. Think about your ideal outcome or purpose, then write it down in a central location, like the center of a whiteboard. Such visualization can help remind everyone of the original point of the conversation, allowing you and others to refocus and stay productive when discussions start to drift away from the original problem.
#3 Welcome wild ideas
The biggest sin in creativity is not generating wild ideas. To get a good, long list of suggestions, wild ideas need to be encouraged. People often skip bold and unconventional ideas because they sound unrealistic and instead focus on more tangible solutions. But wait! Isn’t that the anti-pattern of the creative process? Exactly! If your problem can be solved by a simple, cut-and-dried solution, then maybe you shouldn’t bother your team with a brainstorming session at all.
Rejecting wild ideas, kills creativity.
Never reject an idea just because you think it’s not feasible. First of all, maybe it seems unfeasible to you now, but in a month or two, the situation may change, and it could become feasible. Sometimes, the most innovative technologies emerge from ideas that initially appear too bold or impractical. Secondly, maybe this idea seems undoable on its own, but if you combine it with another, it could make perfect sense.
As a facilitator, collect all the ideas your team members propose. In many cases, the wild ideas you gather may help spark creativity in future brainstorming sessions.
#4 Combine and improve ideas
As the slogan goes, “1+1=3.” You can stimulate the generation of more ideas by utilizing a process of association [1]. Aim for as many new ideas as possible. To do this, try considering different angles of your problem.
For example, if you want to brainstorm a new application to offer, ask yourself: what features describe an application? An application targets a specific group of people, is developed for a certain device, is related to certain industries, and offers a key feature. You can add as many categories to the problem as you like. You could consider things like the pricing model, the type of marketing you might use, etc. Collect all the ideas and evaluate them with your team.
Now that you have a table full of various ideas, you can play around with them by picking one item from each column and discussing its quality and feasibility. Some combinations might not make sense, but I bet there will be some that no one has ever thought of before.
#5 Make sure the group is diverse
The diversity of participants can have a significant impact on the creativity of a brainstorming session. It’s common for brainstorming groups to consist primarily of experts in the same field, such as marketing specialists. However, involving professionals from other areas—like product managers, UX/UI designers, and even customer support—can offer fresh perspectives. Different departments bring unique viewpoints, and these varying perspectives often lead to creative breakthroughs.
For example, a customer support specialist might highlight concerns that a marketing specialist wouldn’t have considered, or a marketer might provide insights into how a feature will resonate with users. In short, the more diverse the group, the more innovative the ideas.
#6 Write down and be visual
When a person presents an idea to two people, there’s a chance that both will interpret it very differently. Misinterpretations are one of the most common issues during brainstorming.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
That’s why, instead of just talking, write it down. This simple rule helps eliminate ambiguity and allows visual thinkers to grasp the idea more clearly. During brainstorming, people throw out hundreds or even thousands of ideas, and no one will be able to remember them all. Nothing helps solidify an idea faster than visualizing it.
#7 Break it up to shorter sessions
Brainstorming sessions may sound like fun, but in reality, being creative and generating new ideas is a complex and exhausting process for the human brain. That’s why, if your brainstorming session lasts more than 1 to 1.5 hours, it’s worth splitting it into shorter sessions.
Shorter blocks within meetings help prevent the group from losing energy or motivation and allow people to return to the problem with a fresh perspective. Additionally, scheduling multiple sessions gives participants time between meetings to conduct further research and draw inspiration from others’ ideas.
References
[1] Osborn, A.F. (1963) Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem solving (Third Revised Edition). New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.