10 Secrets to Successful Brainstorming

Stretch mental musclesbegin with warm up exercises

Sharpen the focusarticulate the problem at hand with an outward focus on your audience rather than internal goals

Write playful rules“defer judgment,” “one conversation at a time,” “yes, but...”

Use toys and rulesuse toys and guns to throw when people break rules. it ensures

people take rules seriously and not lose the spirit of creativity

Build and jumpbrainstorms start slow, crescendo and plateau. leaders nurture, get out of the way, and jump back in when energy wanes

Get physicalbrainstormings are show-and-tell. bring examples of

competitors’ products or good solutions to the problem

Quantity over qualitya bad idea is the lack of ideas

100% diverse participationencourage people of all backgrounds so there

are different perspectives

Number your ideasnumbered lists creates goals to motivate

Make the space rememberwrite all ideas down (don’t take notes - use scribes)

6 Ways to Kill a Brainstorm

Let the boss speak first

Give everyone a turn

Ask the experts only

No silly stuff

Everybody writing everything down

everyone rushes to agree with him

it is not a show

deep expertise in the field can be a drawback

it is important. wild ideas welcomed. brainstorming is fun.

writing obsessively shifts focus to the wrong side of the brain.