Thinking Differently—Module Deep-Dive #2 🌟

Hi! 👋

 

Welcome back to our newsletter, where we've been going into the details of each module in the Thinking Differently training series. Last time we talked about how it's tempting to jump straight to brainstorming when you start a project or hear about an issue. However, taking the steps to define the problem is essential. So your collaborative problem-solving process might look like this:

 

🔭 Discover: Take the time to explore what all the possible causes of a problem could be.

🔎 Define: Decide which specific problem you should focus on solving.

🧠 Ideate: Brainstorm all the possible solutions to this problem.

✅ Decide: Choose the best solution to the problem, and start taking action.

 

Today's newsletter is focusing on Brainstorming Strategies.

Common brainstorming pitfalls 🕳

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.

➡️ Turning ideas into action

💬 "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” —Edward de Bono

 

Once you’ve generated a lot of ideas, that’s great! But you can’t stop there. You have to make sure you take action and keep moving forward! This helps 1) ensure that ideas don’t just get stuck as ideas, and 2) make participants feel that their time spent brainstorming was valuable. 

 

There are a few different ways you can do this. One easy way is to vote and use those votes to decide which ideas to move forward. It’s important to know in advance if the majority will win, or if there is a decision-maker who will take these votes into account and then decide what to do.

 

Prioritization techniques can also help you decide which ideas and solutions to focus on first. We'll dive into this more in the next newsletter!

Thinking Differently Training Series

In the Brainstorming Strategies module of the Thinking Differently training series, you learn about and practice:
 

💡 Techniques to help spark creativity and increase collaboration.

💡 Tips to create safe, inclusive environments that encourage diverse ideas.

💡 How to end brainstorming sessions in a way that leads to action.


These skills will allow your teams to collaboratively come up with the best possible solutions to solve the problems you're facing. And they might even be able to have some fun at the same time! 🎈

If you're looking to increase the collaborative problem-solving skills on your team in a way that focuses on action, Thinking Differently could be the right fit for you. Email me directly at caitlin@thinklysolutions.com and we'll find some time to chat!

Until next time, keep thinking differently!

Caitlin

P.S.


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