Brainstorming is the process of generating ideas or solutions for a specific problem or topic. These sessions can be exciting and energizing, but they can also leave participants feeling frustrated if they aren't carefully planned for and facilitated. When you’re brainstorming with a group, the session should encourage people to freely contribute their thoughts and ideas in a non-judgmental environment.
Some common pitfalls to avoid include:
🗣 Dominant voices overshadowing others: There’s often someone or a couple of people who are really excited and want to share all of their ideas and opinions. While it’s great for people to be engaged, you want to make sure that the dominant voices don’t overshadow others and prevent them from participating. When this happens, you’ll end up with a lack of diverse viewpoints and only the ones from those louder voices.
One way to avoid this is by giving people time to think independently first and having everyone write their ideas on sticky notes before coming together as a group to discuss. This encourages divergent thinking and allows all ideas to be seen and considered. Here's a great article about convergent vs divergent thinking if you want to learn more!
😵💫 Too much unstructured open discussion: In these situations, your group may be confused exactly what they're trying to solve for and so the brainstorming session doesn't produce great results. Or maybe someone proposes a solution and the group spends an hour discussing why it won't work and before you know it, the meeting is over and you haven’t decided what you’re actually going to do to move forward.
This is why it's so important to plan thoroughly for the brainstorming session. In addition to making sure everyone understands the prompt, you should also pick a technique that fits best for the time you have, the psychological safety level of the group, and the results you want to leave the session with. A fun technique to try if you want to break traditional thought patterns is reverse brainstorming.
🙈 Generating lots of ideas, but no next steps: You want to stay away from brainstorming purgatory! Make sure you bridge the gap between ideation and execution and ensure your team's inspiration turns into tangible results. If you continue to host brainstorming sessions but your teams or groups start to realize that none of their ideas ever come to life, they’ll be less likely to participate and engage moving forward.
