The HRville guide to... Brainstorming
Five ways to ensure your brainstorming sessions go splendidly
If the idea of brainstorming sends chills down your spine, HRville has your back.
It’s time to let go of those traumatic memories where a bunch of people sat around the table in silence, until somebody said “Sooooooo….”
There are good ways to go about brainstorming, and there are less good ways. For example, our threats of violence initially increased idea output impressively, but in the end most of the ideas were just desperate attempts to get out of a punishment paddling.
Sent back to the drawing board, we looked into the best ways to get a brainstorm rolling. Now our brainstorms are so powerful that they disrupt wifi signals and send dogs in a one mile radius into frenzied fits of barking.
Because we’re such nice people, we’re passing on what we learned on to you, free of charge. (The non-electric kind.)
1. Advance Warning
You can’t expect to conjure up a brainstorm in the wrong atmospheric conditions. In order for brainstorm clouds to gather, every participant needs to know the issue to be discussed in advance — preferably at least ten minutes.
You don’t want people to sit down and then think about the problem, you want everybody armed and ready before you even start. Brainstorming isn’t just about flashes of inspiration and new ideas. It’s also about constructive feedback and building up the best solutions each person has to a problem.
2. Right Place, Right Time
4:30 on Friday, all clustered around one PC? Forget it. Brainstorms happen at proper tables, preferably without computers. Comfy chairs, quiet, and snacks are all bonuses.
Speaking of eating, don’t have your session too soon before or after lunch. A good time is mid-morning, when most people are freshest and can then mull over what was discussed at lunch and the rest of the day.
When it comes to numbers, more than 10 people is probably too many. It can cause crowding out and all that brainpower in one place might short out your office appliances. Stick to five to ten people.
Timewise, no longer than 30 minutes if you want to keep people from getting fatigued.
3. First among equals
Although everybody should be given equal priority to speak their mind, it helps to have somebody direct the discussion and keep things moving. This way over time, they can also develop skills to help facilitate ideas in future brainstorming sessions.
For example, they might tell somebody who’s the living embodiment of the Grinch to tone down their criticism, be the sole person with permission to use the whiteboard, or tell everybody to can it when the person who has been quiet for 20 minutes finally tries to pipe up.
4. Don’t be a stranger
Brainstorming is no good when participants are uncomfortable with one another. People are more closed when faced with new people, and feel less able to speak their minds. Any brainstorming should be done between colleagues already comfortable and friendly with one another.
If you’re organising, then you’ll have to be careful not to bring together two mortal office enemies, too.
5. Homework
So you finished the brainstorm and got now you have your board covered in 20 half-baked ideas. Excellent!
However, you haven’t finished your brainstorm; not really. A good brainstorm doesn’t leave you with more questions than answers.
The end of a brainstorm should be about culling the number of ideas down to a workable number. When you have three or four prime candidates, then you can send everybody on their way, telling them to think those ideas over.
You might even assign one idea to smaller groups of two to three people to discuss more thoroughly. The idea being that this will serve as the launchpad for another group discussion at a later date.
Also on a bonus note, given that this is HR, you should know that the possibility has been raised that “brainstorming” is potentially offensive to those with epilepsy (because seizures are due to electrical activity in the brain.) Most people with epilepsy indicate that they don’t find the term un-PC, but proposed alternatives are “thought-showers” or “pitch jams”.
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