10 Ways to Boost Brainstorming Creativity

Ever sit in a brainstorming meeting that is more “drizzle” than “storm”? You, of course, blame it on the left-brainers at the table. However, research is showing that the entire brain is used in creativity.

“Beautiful Minds” in Scientific America’s blog states that the old way of describing the brain: left = logical, practical, scientific, and right = creative, innovative, poetic does not tell the whole story. The entire creative process relies upon different regions of the brain – on both sides of the brain.

So throw away your out-dated ideas of how the brain works in creativity and improve your brainstorming session by bringing in different tools. Try:

1. Stepladder Technique – brings in fresh ideas from new members before hearing what the core group has already created.

2. Online brainstorming.

3. Writing ideas - this makes everyone contribute and doesn’t call into the traps of letting the most senior person’s ideas reign.

4. Unrelated objects – bring in objects, photographs, word, website and articles that are unrelated to the problem and get the team to create connections between the “unrelated” and the issue.

5. Mind mapping – start with the goal in the center, draw a map of related topics & sub-topics.

6. Reverse storming – start as if the solution exists and ask “what can I do to block this from occurring?”

7. Time travel – generate ideas for you would solve the problem if it were 100 years ago or 150 years into the future.

8. Location change – how would you solve this problem if you were located in another country?

9. Rolestorming – how would another role solve this problem? Owner, parent, super-hero, Buddha, Einstein, Leonardo DaVinci, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, the competition, your customers.

10. Challenge your assumptions – capture the assumptions you are making and challenge each.

Want to read more? Click on 4 Tips for Supporting Creativity at Work

Want to talk about brainstorming? Contact me at Valerie.MacLeod@HainesCentre.com