Brainstorming is a process often used to find different ideas about a particular situation. It lends itself well to finding solutions to performance problems, as you can involve people from the various target groups in the process. This should mean that they develop a sense of ownership of solutions that arise.
Here are some guidelines for running a problem-solving brainstorming session.
How many people?
The best number of people to involve is about 12.
Who to involve
Aim for participants from a range of backgrounds.
Brief participants
If any of the participants have never taken part in a brainstorming session before, send them some information beforehand so that they know what to expect.
Choose the location carefully
Hold the session somewhere comfortable. Formal table and chair arrangements usually inhibit relaxation and creativity, so try to find somewhere with soft chairs that can be arranged informally.
Make the rules clear
Make the rules of the brainstorming session clear to everyone. Here are the basic rules:
- Do not criticise any ideas until evaluation starts.
- The wilder the idea, the better.
- Quantity is important.
- Adapt and build on other people's ideas.
Warm up
Never start your serious brainstorming session from cold. Always have a warm-up session to get people loosened up. Topics for this section could be such things as:
- useless ideas
- pet hates
Manage the slump
Continue accepting ideas until the slump comes, when people run out of ideas. When this happens, you can often get things going again by suggesting a 'wildest idea competition'.
Allow follow-ups
People will often come up with new ideas in the hours after the brainstorming session. It is therefore a good idea to give them a means of adding more ideas to your this the next day.
You can do this by giving each of the participants a list of the ideas already generated, and asking them to add any new ideas to the list and to send it back to you.
Evaluate ideas carefully
Evaluating ideas once you have finally finished brainstorming needs to be done carefully. The best approach may be to ask the group to identify which of the ideas look the most promising. You as the analyst and the owners of the performance problem should then consider this revised list.
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(C) Bryan Hopkins, 2005