December 12, 2010
with arauser
This post has 1 Comments, add yours! Tagged under: Advice
Creativity is not necessarily a gift. Environment and practice can mold people into becoming more creative.
Ideas are inspired by other ideas; they’re contagious. That’s why you have to look outside your own thoughts in order to become inspired. In fact, our most important creativity tool is brainstorming.
Anyone can brainstorm, you might say, but good brainstorming isn’t as easy as it looks. If you want solid results, I suggest several tips to help you brainstorm effectively:
Come prepared
It's good practice to have a general idea about the subject of discussion. People may already walk into a brainstorming session with their ideas but make an effort to avoid solo presentations and create dialogue that includes your thoughts too.
Set the rules
No comments. That’s right, no negative comments and no ratings. You want a fox with a firecracker, you got it. Let it all go. Don't think about technicalities; don't think whether an idea lives up to the brand or if whether it’s feasible. Have one person facilitate the brainstorm and make sure people keep their negativity away. At the same time make sure everyone stays on track.
Combine your ideas and branch out
Maybe the fox doesn't work, but firecrackers combined with clowns in shopping malls do. Brainstorming is a collaborative work in progress.
The more the merrier
Get as many ideas together as possible and have everyone take their own set of notes. You will find that a lot of ideas are similar, so you can merge them, then filter them to see which ones work best.
Take a break
Let people digest the brainstorm and hold another session the next day if you haven’t created enough ideas yet. This will give team members a chance to create some concepts on their own that are usually held back during the session. You can also use this time to research and refine some of the ideas you already came up with.
Sort out the results
Finally, you can measure your ideas against your initial objectives. You still like the idea with the fox, but you know that rabbits are on par with your brand. So maybe you decide to substitute your initial idea with the next best thing, and you might just have yourself a winner.
Think of your next brainstorming session as a creative process and see if you surprise yourself. Do you have any more tips to add?
I like your tips alexander. I know that creating a comfortable environment for brainstorming can also help. Sometimes that jsut means creating a beautifuly designed space or going out of the box (the office) in order to think out of the box.