Brainstorming Summary

Brainstorming Techniques and Rules

Solicit quality ideas.
- Rule: Encourage the generation of lots of creative ideas.
Encourage everyone to participate.
- Rule: Quantity is wanted--every idea is accepted and recorded. The more ideas, the more to choose from and the more likely ideas will spark new ideas.
Encourage freewheeling and expression of different ideas.
- Rule: "Freewheeling" is welcomed. Freewheeling means the wilder the idea, the better. It is always easier to tame down an idea than to make one more exciting.
Do not criticize or evaluate ideas.
- Rule: Criticism is ruled out. Suspend judgment. Every idea is welcome without critique or ridicule.
Build upon other group members' ideas.
- Rule: Combination and improvement are sought. Ideas spark more ideas. Encourage everyone to participate and build upon the ideas of others in the group.
Record ideas accurately during the session.
- Rule: Record the ideas. It is crucial to record all ideas generated during a brainstorming session.

Factors for Effective Brainstorming

Brainstorming sessions are most successful when you make sure that certain factors exist before the brainstorming session begins. These factors include:

A well-defined and clearly stated problem to be addressed during the session.
A group member assigned to act as recorder and write down all the ideas as they are shared.
The right number of people.

Clues for determining the "right" group size:

You don't have trouble scheduling the brainstorming session.
You don't have individuals or factions of the group at war with each other.
Work is divided equitably among group members.
You are able to reach consensus.
You are able to generate new and creative ideas to think about.

Keep your ideas clear.

Questions to keep in mind in order to make sure ideas are clear:

How similar or diverse are the backgrounds of people in the group?
How wide is the range of technical skills and subject knowledge in the group?
Is there background information that needs to be presented to make the idea clear?

A group member assigned to enforce the guidelines/rules you have set.

Brainstorming Evaluation Check List

There are several questions that you should keep in mind during the evaluation of a brainstorming session.

How well did group members avoid evaluating the ideas presented?
How well did group members think up different topics or broad ideas?
How well did group members build, expand, or combine others ideas?
How well did group members actively participate?
How well did group members listen to one another?
How well did group members solicit ideas from other group members?
How well did group members avoid critiquing others ideas?
Did the group have a mediator? How did the group mediator function?
Did they have a recorder to write down the ideas the group generated? How well did the group keep a record of their ideas?

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