Regarding business marketing, innovative ideas play a significant role in ensuring success. However, sometimes it is challenging to come up with new ideas. That said, brainstorming in business helps get the creative juices flowing; how? Let’s discuss it in detail.
Role of Brainstorming in the Corporate World
Within a corporation, strategies or ideas sometimes become repetitive from the same individual. In that regard, brainstorming is a gateway to inviting diverse viewpoints. However, debates will likely occur over various brainstorming sessions that encompass effective and promising solutions.
Irrespective of how well-established a business is, problems are bound to occur. Critical thinking is the key to resolving issues that every team member must possess. Brainstorming, as per the Harvard Business Review, helps employees critically deal with problems.
One of the most significant benefits of brainstorming is that it teaches group members how to work together efficiently. It opens your eyes to particular talents or expertise of a coworker that might benefit you in the future.
Tips to improve your team’s brainstorming sessions
As a leader, a lot is riding on your shoulder to ensure a successful brainstorming session. Therefore, you must keep in mind a few things. For instance, deciding upon the mode of delivering the session.
Physical locations like The Executive Centre are a better option because in-person meetings offer more opportunities for people to contribute than in virtual settings. Furthermore, being in the same room promotes better interpersonal communication. While this was one of the factors to keep in mind when arranging brainstorming sessions, mentioned below are a few more recommendations.
1. Simplify the topic of discussion
A successful brainstorming session is one where every participant voices their opinion. That is only possible when everyone understands the subject matter. To ensure you are not met with silence, avoid technical jargon and team acronyms, especially if outsiders are present.
Brainstorming sessions are likely to get messy when the topic is too broad or complex. Either way, to simplify things, one way is to ask the participants to repeat what they understood in their own words.
It gives you insight into whether the participant’s interpretation of the topic was similar to what you wanted to convey. Simplifying the topic helps one understand the context deeply and uncovers information that benefits resolving a particular problem.
2. Set ground rules
The brainstorming session aims to ensure that every participant speaks their mind. Despite that, a few still hesitate to share their views out of fear of criticism. This is where setting ground rules before the commencement of the session is essential.
Setting ground rules ensure that everyone is comfortable sharing even the wildest ideas. Besides that, it improves team building and helps set expectations. Some ground rules for effective brainstorming sessions are building on participants’ ideas, making the session fun, and prioritizing quantity over quality.
Ground rules for any effective brainstorming session should be established such that it encourages creative thinking. Team members should be encouraged to create their own rules for meaningful ground rules.
3. Appoint a facilitator
As mentioned earlier, a brainstorming session can turn into chaos, with a lack of direction being one of the reasons. A brainstorming facilitator develops a plan for the session and ensures the conversation remains on track.
A facilitator has various roles, from structuring the session to politely enforcing the rules and clarifying the topic for participants. A facilitator might be pivotal to the brainstorming sessions, but they shouldn’t dominate the discussion.
During the session, it must be ensured that all the voices, including the leader and facilitator, are equal. Remember that a facilitator’s role is limited to keeping the participants focused and ensuring that the session smoothly moves forward.
To avoid mismanagement, decide whether you should lead or if someone else is better at the task before the meeting starts.
4. Adopt a technical approach
The brainstorming session aims to allow everyone to voice their ideas, but sometimes things don’t turn out as planned. To ensure that doesn’t happen, adopt a technical approach.
One of those approaches is using the step ladder technique to encourage individual participation in group decision-making. The technique ensures that every participant is heard, focusing on allowing shy individuals to present their ideas before the influence of other group members.
Furthermore, the technique allows for considering everyone’s viewpoint before making a final decision. The stepladder technique reduces resentment among group members as a collective decision holds every member accountable for the outcome of the decision.
5. Set a time
During brainstorming sessions, participants must consider putting their ideas out in the open. In today’s day and age, where everyone is glued to their devices for most of the day, it is a challenge to hold their attention.
Therefore, the brainstorming session must be of appropriate time length that doesn’t overwhelm or exhausts participants. Ideally, a session lasting 15-60 minutes allows for the discussion to flourish. However, if brainstorming sessions are meant to be held longer, discuss simple topics for a short period.
The benefit of setting a time limit is that for participants who perform well under pressure, the limited time acts as an accelerator for generating ideas.
Conclusion
Brainstorming is a great tool to drive innovation in business if conducted successfully. A session that falls flat is only a waste of time. Contrary to popular belief, brainstorming sessions are not the home ground for only outspoken participants.
A brainstorming session is an opportunity for every participant to speak their mind. Appointing a facilitator, adopting a technical approach, and setting some ground rules are proven ways to ensure a productive brainstorming session.
