4 Tips to a Better Brainstorm

We’ve all done it: sat down with your team for a “brainstorm” and spent the next fifteen minutes staring blankly at each other.

Friendly reminder: that isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

Brainstorms can be great tools for all kind of problem solving. We all know this. The problem is that they can be difficult to pull off properly.

So, what do you do when you’re put in charge of a team brainstorming session? How do you encourage your team to utilize their full potential and come up with an amazing idea?

Use the 4 P’s to guide you to a great brainstorm.

1. Plan

  • Set aside a specific time and place for your brainstorm. Make it as early as possible so that you have enough time to develop your ideas before a deadline attacks.
  • Make sure that your team know what the goals and expectations for the brainstorm are. Arm them with all pertinent information.
  • Decide on what format you want to use to record and organized ideas ahead of time. Whiteboards and sticky notes are great options, but feel free to explore others.

2. Prioritize

  • Make sure that your team is prepared to work before and after a brainstorming session. Don’t accept mediocre effort or a lack of preparation.
  • Stay focused on the goal of the brainstorm. Keep side talk and irrelevant tangents to a minimum.
  • Remember: you can polish a “meh” idea into a decent one, or you can take something great and make it brilliant.

3. Persevere

  • Don’t let the room go silent. When there is a lull in the conversation, try looking back and making new connections from the ideas you have already developed.
  • Make sure that everyone is sharing his or her ideas. Even the strangest idea can spark something, but only if it's shared.
  • Take the top 3-5 ideas from your session and expand on them. Keep pushing boundaries until you’ve exhausted all possibilities

4. Practice

  • Keep looking for ways to flex your creative muscles. Push yourself to think outside the box in everyday situations.
  • Try to learn something new about an area you aren’t familiar with. Having a broad knowledge base will give you more material to draw from when searching for a creative idea.

What are your tips for brainstorming success? What strategies have you used to encourage your team to flex their creative muscles?

Nicole Clark | Firm Editor and Blog Manager

Nicole Clark is a senior at GVSU, where she is majoring in Writing and minoring in Public Relations. She is excited to be GrandPR’s Firm Editor and Blog Manager. She is also an intern at Rogo Marketing and Communications and a volunteer for the American Red Cross. In her free time, she enjoys listening to podcasts, learning about social issues, and teaching herself new skills. She is excited to use her extensive understanding of storytelling and grammar, and to learn new skills that will help her after graduation.

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