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Brainstorming: Creating Solutions to Challenges

Unlocking Creativity and Free Thinking in the Workplace

Sep 1, 2008 Jen Syrkiewicz

People use the term 'brainstorming' all the time, but what does it really mean and how can it be used as a really effective tool in the workplace?

Brainstorming can generate highly creative, radical and useful solutions to a problem and is particularly helpful when there is a need to break out of established patterns of thinking so that new ways of looking at things can emerge. It is particularly useful for developing new opportunities or trying a whole new way of approaching a particular situation.

Using it as a team-based activity can capitalise on the varied experiences of the whole team for problem solving, potentially giving better solutions to the problems faced, so better decisions can be made. It also enables a better level of buy-in from team members for the chosen solution, as they have helped to create it. Brainstorming is a lateral thinking process, as it asks for ideas and thoughts that seem at first to be a bit crazy. These can then be shaped into sometimes useful and often stunningly original ideas.

Individual Brainstorming

Individual brainstorming can be as effective as group work, as it tends to produce a wider range of ideas, as the thinker is not hindered by other people’s suggestions or egos. Ideas may not, however, be developed as effectively, as there is no group dynamic to support the process.

Group Brainstorming

The effectiveness of group brainstorming comes from its use of the experience and creativity of all members of the group. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage, developing ideas in depth.

Keep these pointers in mind when running a session:

Define the problem to be solved clearly and lay out any criteria to be met
Keep the session focused on the problem
Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the group
Welcome creativity and try to get everyone to contribute and develop ideas
Let people have fun – encourage them to come up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly practical ones to wildly impractical
Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long
Encourage individuals to develop other people's ideas or to use other ideas to create new ones
Appoint a person to note down ideas that come out of the session and study and evaluate these afterwards
Use colours and images to draw on creative areas of the brain, thereby opening the thought process out and including all types of people, regardless of whether they prefer linear or more ‘off the wall’ styles of thinking.

Brainstorming can be a useful and innovative way of removing obstacles in the workplace, promoting creativity and originality, and developing a wide and far-reaching strategy which can lead to more fruitful later developments.

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