Brainstorming:
what it is and how to do it

Brainstorming is a process to help people come up with new ideas. It can be done by one person alone, but is usually more effective in a group setting.

It can be done to generate ideas for personal life, business, work, problem solution in any area of life. It can be done to come up with everything from skills to put on your resume for a specific job, to how to solve world hunger!

There are however some simple rules to follow to make sure you get maximum benefit from your session.

Once the topic for the session has been decided, the process is this: anyone can tell any idea they come up with regarding this topic.

Every idea is recorded in on a chart or board so everyone can see.

No idea is ever judged, or refused. No-one can say things like “that won’t work”.

Some ideas that are suggested will probably be quite outlandish, and most people will be of the opinion that they won’t work but these can be the gems of the entire session.

Often someone else will later revisit the more unlikely solutions and from them come up with something really excellent.

So from unreasonable ideas brilliant ones can come – so don’t shoot any ideas down in flames.

Just keep on firing away with ideas, writing them down, and creating a large collection of ideas.

This is the goal of the first part of the process.

The second part is not really brainstorming, but it is necessary if the process is going to produce anything worthwhile.

The second stage is the Analysis stage, where all the ideas are looked at.

Here the ideas will be grouped into groups of:

• Absolutely YES!

• Has Possiblities

• Very Unlikely

Next you have to examine the Absolutely YES! list and decide which ideas to use or how to use them, how to make them create the solutions you want and need… this can of course, involve another brainstorming session!

Have fun - the best ideas often come when you're enjoying yourselves.

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