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Why do organizations brainstorm ideas? Brainstorming paves the way when the process of ideation reaches a point of stagnation and helps to find innovative solutions or fresh ideas.
This is especially true if you are part of a team where everyone has something to contribute toward achieving a common goal.
Brainstorming sessions are informal meetings that encourage free thinking without a set agenda. Their only purpose is to generate a large number of outstanding or actionable ideas. However, if you are not careful, brainstorming sessions can end without providing any definitive solution.
Streamline your brainstorming sessions with effective brainstorming activities and ideas that’ll lead you to success.
Types Of Brainstorming
For a successful brainstorming session, it’s important to get everyone on the same page about the agenda and how the meeting will be conducted. If not, you may be looking at a mishmash of incomprehensible ideas.
Brainstorming ideas is the essence of creativity in groups. Different types of brainstorming encourage employees to take initiative, share their thoughts and opinions and work together as a team.
Honest and open discussions play a significant role in idea generation. They bring out the best in people and give them a space to speak their minds freely. Even a single idea holds the power to transform; so think about how much you can do with many great ideas at your disposal!
Here are a few common brainstorming techniques:
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Storyboards
Storyboards are a type of creative brainstorming where you use a visual technique to present your ideas. Here, you can imagine or build a scenario around your product or service to drive the point home. Not only do these brainstorming activities help you convey your ideas effectively, but also give them a perspective. You can assess your ideas as simulations and experience them firsthand.
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Role Storming
Brainstorming exercises like role storming are similar to improvisations where you act out a possible situation. This helps you understand things from different perspectives and give you an idea of how things might play out with a customer or a client. It’s like role-playing to see your idea in action by putting yourself in your clients’ shoes. Role storming will help you see how effective the strategy is, identify loopholes and mitigate failures.
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The Five Whys
Brainstorming ideas can be used to come up with effective solutions to complex issues. One of the best brainstorming techniques for problem-solving is the ‘five whys’ technique. This follows a question-answer pattern where you try to get to the bottom of a problem with questions like “why did this happen?” or “why wasn’t this problem anticipated?”. These questions offer you a chance to understand why a problem occurred in the first place.
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Rapid Ideation
Brainstorming sessions can run for hours if you are not paying attention to the time. Unless you specify a time limit, you may spend an entire day thrashing out ideas. Rapid ideation is a great strategy for creative brainstorming to get quick results. Under this technique, you have to write down the first idea that comes to mind without overthinking it. For instance, if the facilitator shares a word like ‘winter’, you can write down anything that comes to your mind, like ‘holiday’, ‘Christmas’ or ‘hot chocolate’. These can then snowball into more concrete ideas.
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Starbursting
A technique that can bring order to a brainstorming session is starbursting. Participants ask questions like who, what, where, how and why to set the pace. These brainstorming exercises help you to get a deeper understanding of the problem or issue at hand. Asking the group targeted questions helps them find suitable and topic-specific answers. Otherwise, the sessions can go in directions that are not relevant to your goals.
These five brainstorming techniques are only a few among many that you can implement. You can even devise your own strategies depending on the strength of your team and organization. Brainstorming, when used effectively, can produce feasible ideas that you can use after refining and polishing.
Learn more about brainstorming techniques and develop creative ideas with Harappa Education’s Unleashing Creativity course. You will learn about out-of-the-box thinking and how to develop a creative mindset. Our course is designed for individuals who want to do more than just the bare minimum. Become an innovator with a unique approach to problem-solving and creative thinking!
Explore topics such as What is Brainstorming, Brainwriting Techniques to Generate Ideas, Creative Thinking & Convergent vs Divergent Thinking from Harappa Diaries and develop ways to get your creative juices flowing.
