Brainstorm

I recently had the opportunity to present a topic on Brainstorming at the Northeastern Conference Youth Ministries Convention in Stamford, CT. January 15-18, 2009

The audience included a mix of youth leaders from many different Northeastern Seventh-Day Adventist Churches, looking for different ideas to take back to their respective churches and communities.

The slide text is given here:

Brainstorm
Seminar Session II: 11:00 -1pm
Facilitated by:
Christopher M. Logan
Noreen Buckley


definition
• a group problem-solving technique that involves the spontaneous contribution
of ideas from all members of the group ; also : the mulling over of ideas by
one or more individuals in an attempt to devise or find a solution to a
problem
– How can we apply this technique
– Have you ever participated in a brainstorming session?


useful technique
• Brainstorming is a Tool
• Used for developing creative solutions to a problem
• Helpful when you need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking
– Are your existing techniques achieving the results you expected?


useful technique…
• Encourages full team participation
– Individual experience adds to the creativity of the solution
• Increases the richness of the solution
• You can find better solutions; make better decisions
• Get buy in from team members
– Afterall, they helped create the solution!


lateral thinking
• Accepting all input from team players
• Brainstorming encourages the exploration of “shocking” or “crazy” ideas
• Thinking out of the box
• Change the ideas to improve them into useful solutions
• come up with stunningly original ideas!


encouragement
• During the session all ideas should be accepted
• Don’t criticize an idea
– Too early; this will only slow the process down and limit idea generation
• If the ideas start to get stale you can seed it with random input phrase or
word to encourage the session to progress.


types of brainstorming
• Individual brainstorming
– When you brainstorm on your own you will tend to produce a wider range of
ideas than with group brainstorming
– you do not have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and can
therefore be more freely creative.
– You may not, however, develop ideas as effectively as you do not have the
experience of a group to help you.
– Use mind map diagrams to help document your thought progress


types of brainstorming…
• Group brainstorming
– can be very effective
– uses the experience and creativity of all members of the group.
– tends to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming.
– risky for creative individuals
• Uncreativity can’t see the value and will leave creative members
humiliated


types of brainstorming…
• Visual Brainstorming
– Instead of speaking use crafts to represent real world objects
– Encourage every team member to participate
– Very few distractions


how to use the tool
• Define who will do what
– Facilitator: guides the session and enforces the rules of the tool and
encourages free, unrestricted flow of ideas
– Note taker: primary responsibility is to document the ideas in a non-visual
brainstorm
– Contributor: all the members of the group


how to use the tool…
• Define the problem you want solved clearly, and lay out any criteria to be
met.
– Should do…
• Keep the session focused on the problem.
• Define the idea goal for the session
– 50-100 ideas
• Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas to
create new ones.


how to use the tool…
• Ensure that ideas that come out of the session are documented. A good way of
doing this is to use a flip chart. This should be studied and evaluated after
the session.
• Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long. 4-5min on a thought;
25-30mins for the idea collection part of a session


how to use the tool…
• Ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session. Criticism
introduces an element of risk for group members when putting forward an idea.
This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of a good
brainstorming session.
• Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the group. Try
to get everyone to contribute and develop ideas, including the quietest
members of the group.


how to use the tool…
• Encourage people to come up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly
practical ones to wildly impractical ones. Welcome creativity.
• Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas to
create new ones.


how to use the tool…
• Evaluate the ideas at the end of the idea collection session
• Rate each idea as a team on a scale of 0-5.
• The idea with the highest score will best solve your problem. There might be
ties.
• Keep a record of all of your best ideas and their scores in case your best
idea turns out not to be workable.


how to use the tool…
• Have Fun!!
– The best ideas will flow in an environment that encourages it.


Brainstorm
• Brainstorm session
• Q&A
Thank you