Content
More and more companies are starting to use brainstorming techniques to find solutions. In this article, we will look at what brainstorming is, how to conduct it, and what conditions must be met for employees to be involved in this process.
What is brainstorm or brainstorming
Brainstorming is a tool for finding solutions to problems and is based on stimulating creative thinking. The task is to collect the maximum number of possible solutions to problems.
Brainstorming consists of 3 stages:
Statement/identification of the problem - it is necessary to define and clearly formulate the problem
Generating ideas - you need to collect absolutely any ideas. The problem here is often that people are tense and afraid. Under favorable conditions, it will take 3-4 sessions for people to open up. But they must be sure that they are safe, that any of their ideas will not harm them.
Selection, systematization and evaluation of ideas - selected ideas must be collected into a single pool, evaluated, and the most relevant applied.
It is better to divide people into 2 groups:
Idea generators
Idea evaluators
Key rules for brainstorming:
preliminary preparation is necessary: it is advisable to analyze cause-and-effect relationships and focus on the cause, not the effect, because of which you decided to brainstorm. Otherwise, you will treat the symptoms but not the cause, and it will happen again. And this, in turn, will form people’s cultural resistance to all future changes and the introduction of new tools. Also at this stage it is necessary to determine the circle of experts who will participate in the session;
it is necessary to gather as many participants as possible and 3 days before the session to convey to them the problem that is planned to be discussed;
all ideas must be written down. It is better to divide the idea generation stage into 2 stages: written generation of ideas and oral generation in a group. It is better to collect written ideas before the meeting, print them out, put them on the board, and already at the session carry out the second stage with discussion and additional generation of ideas;
no criticism or pressure, but better anonymity. Participants must feel safe. Therefore, it is better to collect written ideas in advance, print them out and place them on a common board;
maximum generation of ideas: it is better for each participant to formulate 2-3 ideas;
modification of ideas: no. be afraid to combine 2-3 ideas into one or create hybrids;
visual display: all ideas should be placed on a board or any other tool accessible to everyone;
the solutions found must be implemented, and not put away on the table: unrealized ideas are as dangerous as fighting the effect rather than the cause. Working on a table means discrediting the instrument and additional resistance in the future;
do not dramatize the situation and problem. Excessive pressure and motivation reduce the possibilities of creative thinking and form tunnel thinking.
Additional recommendations
Unfortunately, many managers believe that if they implement a tool, everything will work itself. But the brainstorming technique assumes that employees are ready to generate ideas. But why does the employee need this? Here it is necessary to understand how human motivation works, why does a person need this?
You can read in detail about the main theories of motivation here , but we will give a few more recommendations. Employees must clearly understand what work will be required of them, what result they will receive, and this result should be valuable to them. That is, based on the results of the discussion, selection of the most valuable solutions and elimination of the problem, the authors should receive encouragement and reward. Unfortunately, it is impossible to create equal rewards that are meaningful to everyone. It doesn't always have to be financial. Often, public praise, personal gratitude from the manager, and the opportunity to implement the idea that the person put forward are enough. It is necessary to understand what position the initiator occupies and what reward is most valuable to him: financial or not. Of course, it is possible that none of the proposals will work. But if you carry out assaults over and over again and do not implement anything proposed, then people will form a negative experience, and the tool will be discredited.
In addition, creative thinking is incompatible with directive management, bureaucracy and micromanagement: either there will be no creative people left in the company, or they will not trust the new tool. As a result, implementation will either become impossible or take a long time and require patience. If you want to use such a tool, you need to move away from “heavy” forms of control.
Conclusion
Brainstorming is an interesting tool when you need to find a solution to an atypical problem. However, this is a very labor-intensive tool that also requires creative thinking. If you are used to leading with an iron fist and are a strong leader, or, on the contrary, focus on a culture of rules, then you need to implement and use it with caution.