Have you been in a
"brainstorming" session where each person just defended their own
ideas? Worse is when people don't suggest ideas at all, for fear they'll be
attacked. That's no way to brainstorm. Brainstorming is using the power of many
minds, and ideas should flow freely and trigger other ideas. How do you make
that happen?
The Key To Good Brainstorming
You have to have a good leader to
have good brainstorming. The leader isn't there to impose his will, though, but
to stop the imposition of anyone’s will. His role is to stop criticisms,
arguments, and even strong opinions, at least in the first part of the session.
A brainstorming session needs to
be spontaneous, open and uncritical. "Bad" or "silly" ideas
can lead to helpful ones, so suggestions have to be left un-judged at first. To
brainstorm effectively, you can't stifle the creative process. The leader’s
job, then, is to make everyone feel free to suggest any ideas.
An Example Of Good Brainstorming
The scenario: your business needs
to cut delivery costs. The group throws out ideas and thoughts. "Let's not
deliver," someone suggests, and when another starts to criticize, you
remind him of the rules. "Negotiate lower rates," somebody says,
"Or just find a company with lower rates," another adds. Ideas like
reducing package weight and charging customers more are suggested, and lead to
other ideas.
You keep it civil, take notes,
and eventually call a halt to this free-for-all part of the session. Now it's
time to evaluate and develop the ideas for whatever usefulness they may have.
To keep the creativity flowing in
this stage, have participants defend or develop ideas that are not their own.
This brings new insight to the idea, and prevents the problem of
ego-identification that causes people to get "stuck in a rut" with
their own ideas.
For example, ask the man who was
critical of the idea of not delivering to work with that idea. "We have to
deliver," he might start with. Then he thinks for a second and says,
"I suppose we could deliver to central distribution points instead of to
the individual customer. The customer could drive a short distance to pick up
their order. That might save us on shipping."
Someone else suggests that the
customers may like the arrangement. They would be able to return the product
immediately if they were dissatisfied, with no need to pack and ship it. You
assign a couple people to look into it, and move on to the other ideas.
Good leadership keeps the whole
process working. In the last example, you've even used a "bad" idea
to come to a possible solution. That's good brainstorming.
No comments:
Post a Comment