Preparing for a Productive Brainstorming Session

By definition, brainstorming is a “spontaneous” group activity in which participants try to generate as many ideas as possible, however outlandish, without criticism. Brainstorming can take a lot of forms, and the “spontaneous” part is often misinterpreted as “if you invite people into a room and tell them to brainstorm, then magic will happen.” That (almost) never works. I believe that brainstorming requires a lot of structure and planning to be productive.

I’m interested in creating a safe space where

• people feel free to contribute and
• that contribution results in an actionable direction for the project when we’re finished.

There are three basic components to preparing for this type of session: the room you reserve and the resources you provide therein, who you invite, and the mindset of the participants. You’ll see throughout that I put a lot of emphasis on preparing the mindset of the participants and minimizing distractions.

Resources for Brainstorming

There are six resources you’ll need to keep top of mind, and one bonus resource that everyone thinks they need (but don’t!).

The first resource is one we all struggle with: time.

1. It’s been my experience that the most productive brainstorming sessions take about two hours, so schedule accordingly. Any shorter and the session seems to end before anyone feels like we’ve really accomplished something. Any longer and the participants will burn out. In two hours, you can rehash the scenario, put forth a ton of ideas without feeling like you’re too under-the-clock, and wrap up with all the notes you need for a preliminary scope.

The next resources concern the space in which you’re brainstorming. If you’re virtual, that might mean picking a tool like Zoom that has the type of collaborative whiteboard capabilities you might need. If you’re in person, you’ll put your attention to choosing a room with certain features:

2. A whiteboard. Make sure you have markers and eraser for the whiteboard. The whiteboard can serve two functions, but don’t feel like you have to use it to have a productive session; it’s just important that it be there, just in case. As participants try to convey their thoughts to one another, they can use the whiteboard to sketch out their data flow, screenshot, or other ideas for everyone to see and discuss at once. Or, as group ideas emerge, they can be recorded to the whiteboard for further development or as a list of those features the group has agreed on. If a whiteboard isn’t something you can access easily, consider using post-its.
3. A large central table. You want to be able to seat everyone comfortably at this table, but it doesn’t need to accommodate more than 8 people.
4. Doors. You’ll want to close the doors and block out the distraction of hallway noise and other people walking by.
5. If you’d like to take some time to demo a database, form, or other electronic or networked resource at your company, make sure you pick a room with a working network connection and a working display. Assign a point person from the company to arrive to the meeting early and set up any demos so that valuable meeting time isn’t wasted waiting for the computer to turn on or for the demo to cue up.
6. Everyone should have blank paper for taking notes. This gives people the freedom to make notes on the ideas of others, or sketch out some ideas of their own before sharing with the rest of the participants. You can ask them to bring their own, but I’ve found it works best if you supply the paper and the writing utensils.

Finally, here’s the bonus:

7. Do not provide food or set up a coffee station. These are distractions. People can bring their own beverages, but this time shouldn’t be doing double-duty as breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon break. This will also save you a lot of hassle in terms of coordinating dietary restrictions and catering.

Who to Invite to a Brainstorming Session

A lot of politics can go into who gets put on the “dream team” that’s going to be responsible for the next great innovation at your company. While that can’t always be avoided, here are some guidelines that might help you justify why certain people need to be in the room.

There are really only two rules you need to follow here:

1. There should never be more than 5-7 people in a single brainstorming session. I have found this to be the ideal number of people to comfortably sit around a single conference table. You can’t be that productive when people are writing on their laps as they sit in a circle, or are craning around to see all the visuals. Also, with a group this size, it’s harder for people to get left out of the process.
2. Each of these 5-7 people should represent or be a key stakeholder in the final product. As a rule, at least one of these people is an administrator or team leader that understands the company’s “big picture” as it relates to this project/scenario. One or two people should be selected from each of the groups that will be using the final product; this can be especially helpful if these people were using the “old way” of doing things and can contribute their thoughts on what they did and did not like about that way. If this system will generate reports, make sure that one of the people that needs those reports is here; the back-and-forth between the people entering the data and what they know “on the ground” can be useful in informing what’s possible on the reporting side.

The third component of a productive brainstorming session – mindset – helps you decide what to say in your invitations

Mindset for a Productive Brainstorming Session

It’s essential that everyone be on the same page in terms of what you’re there to do and why you’re all attending another meeting. You can handle this in the personalized meeting invitation you send out, the one where you make clear the valuable role this person will play in representing their part of the business process.

It’s also essential that you get the creative juices flowing before the meeting even starts. No one can offer insight if they’ve just started to think about the problem.

It’s all about preparedness and mindset.

There are three simple guidelines you can follow to help everyone get the most from the brainstorming session:

1. It’s important that everyone in attendance have a clear sense of what they’re there to think about. One way to think about this is to give everybody a scenario to work from. This provides a “big picture” that can be filled in with smaller details as needed. While it’s likely the case that the people from your company will already be familiar with this scenario, it’s important that you at least get this information to the external development team, if applicable, as early as possible before the brainstorming session so they have time to “get on the same page” before showing up to brainstorm. (If you’re not sure how to work from a scenario, I’ve got some examples below.)
2. I have found brainstorming sessions to be most useful when they are conducted face-to-face. That also means no conference calls, and none of the participants are allowed to “phone it in.” The face-to-face nature of the meeting helps to minimize some of the more obvious distractions, the kind we all like to indulge in when we’re on the phone and no one is watching us, like playing cards or browsing the web or running errands. (If you’re working in a virtual environment, minimizing distractions can be harder to control, but not impossible. As with an in-person meeting, this is largely down to mindset. It might also involve a little technological literacy, like helping people hide their own camera feeds in gallery view or turn on a virtual background.)
3. It’s important that everyone understand that they’re there to contribute. They’re not “attending” a brainstorming session, they’re “participating.”

If you’re thinking that this sounds nice but isn’t how the real world works, here’s an additional tip that can help:

• Brainstorming shouldn’t be something that competes with other tasks and deadlines. Be mindful of things like quarter-end reporting cycles and big project deadlines. If you schedule a brainstorming session in the midst of one of these big pushes, then of course everyone will be looking at the clock and grumpy that you’re taking them away from something that they’re being held accountable to outside of the brainstorming room. Scheduling this session at a “down time” will allow everyone to focus and contribute without worrying about what this is taking them away from.

Scenario-focused Brainstorming

It can be difficult to get everyone thinking about the problem at hand in a way that’s action oriented. Here are three sample scenarios that might help you think about how to prepare your own brainstorming attendees.

• Sample Scenario #1: Let’s say you want to replace a paper form with an electronic form. First, it’s important that everyone get a copy of that paper form. Next, tell a quick story about how that form should get used: what the form helps people accomplish, who can access it, who signs off, how it’s filed, and anything else that might be relevant to the overall form process. Now everyone is ready to think about things like (1) whether the paper form should just be duplicated electronically, or whether there were things the paper form was lacking in some way that an electronic version could solve, (2) how to notify people when that form is ready for their review, (3) what else you might want to do with that data now that it’s electronic and more easy to analyze, and (4) whether to completely throw out the old way of doing things and replace it with a new way of doing things that better fits your current business model. Your employees also have time to (5) gather together any complaints or suggestions about the paper form that they’ve been collecting along the way.

• Sample Scenario #2: Let’s say you want to start collecting some data that you’ve never collected so you can start running some reports that you’ve never run. First, it’s important that everyone understand the “big picture” and why you think that report is the answer. Now everyone is ready to think about what data needs to be collected and how it should be collected, and whether that report really is the best way to meet your business needs.

• Sample Scenario #3: Let’s say you’ve just had an external efficiency review that found that you underutilize available technologies. First, distribute the relevant portion(s) of the review. Next, create a quick list of the employee positions involved and the value they add to your business practices; pay attention to tasks these employees need to perform individually or in cooperation with each other. If you want, you can also list how you’re currently utilizing technology to perform these tasks. Now everyone is ready to think about how technology could enhance your business processes. This is an interesting example, because the solution might not be what you expect. Don’t rule out the possibility that you’ve overbought technologies; you don’t need more technology to solve the problem, but better practices for the technology you already have or a reduction in the amount of technology you’re trying to incorporate.

What’s next?

Do you have a tip that I didn’t discuss here?

Did I cover something new-to-you that you’re going to try out?

If you’ve got questions about how to run your brainstorming session, check out my Q&A post Brainstorming: You brought us here. What do we do now?