Enhancing Team Creativity: Effective Group Brainstorming Techniques (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about the top brainstorming ideas for your team. Well, on projects, we commonly find ourselves seeking ideas and solutions for problems or situations that we find ourselves in. You've heard that two brains are better than one. Well, I feel like the more brains, the better. So today, we want to talk about the group brainstorming. I want to also insert a little bit about the origin of the group brainstorming, and I want to share some ideas that I've used for my team. So first of all, let's talk about brainstorming and what it is. So brainstorming produces ideas or solutions by holding a spontaneous group discussion. So a little bit about the genesis or the origin of the group brainstorming started around the 1940s. There's a guy, Alex Osborne, who was an advertising executive and he was frustrated with the creative output from his team. So he started studying and researching ways to improve it. So around 1953, he published his first book called Applied Imagination, and what he discusses the group brainstorming process and how it's more efficient and effective than just the individual one. So he has two main concepts that he talks about to be more effective within the group. So the first one is to defer judgment, and the second one is to reach for a quantity of ideas, the more the better. So taking that, some of the top brainstorming ideas I've used for my team is based on that is defer judgment. You may have heard the quote that you cannot destroy and create at the same time. So you want to allow your team to generate and create ideas without being able to say whether those ideas are going to work. So save that process for later. So I believe it's better to start with the individual. Allow everyone on the team or in the group to think about ideas that they have for themselves and give them time to think. Then you take those ideas and then you follow up with the group session. So let everybody contribute their ideas and from that spark synergy, and with that just allow ridiculous ideas and let things flow out of the box. Also think about transference of ideas from other industries, maybe things you've seen in other industries and how to apply for what you're doing. Let the ideas just hang. It's not required that you determine if an idea is going to work or not. Maybe let it seed and percolate a little bit and see where it goes. And then I've always found to have fun, allow laughter and people to really enjoy the brainstorming session, again sparks more the quantity of ideas. So here's a good one, bridle the extroverts and unleash the introverts. So you don't want the extroverts to do all the talking. Let the introverts have their voice too. So you also want to set a safe environment and establish rules. You want to facilitate with the process and participate with respect. I've always found when people share ideas to have everyone in the group say thank you and acknowledge that idea and say, hey, I could see how that could work. If you just allow the possibility again, but the other part of the process where you determine if those ideas will work is a different process. But these are some of the ideas that have helped with my team and I hope they'll help you too. But if you need a tool that can help you with your brainstorming process, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.