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What is brainstorming?
It is a thinking process that allows
people to bring together a wide
range of ideas, from those that seem
practical to those that seem the
strangest at first and then improve
and channel them into useful, unique
solutions.
When do we need to brainstorm?
Brainstorming is very useful when
there is a need to come up with new
ways of doing things (breaking away
from old ways that do not seem to
produce expected results).
Brainstorming helps open up new
opportunities for improvement.
Brainstorming can be used at the
workplace or in regular day to day
problem solving.
Who can we involve in a
brainstorming session?
For brainstorming to be effective
participants should come from a wide
range of fields. This will bring
people with different experiences to
enrich the process with a variety of
ideas in order to come to the most
favorable solution for the problem.
Tips for running a successful
brainstorming session
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State the problem that is to be
solved and define the criteria
that needs to be met
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Encourage contribution of all
kinds of ideas whether they seem
normal and practical or strange
and crazy.
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Criticism of ideas should be
discouraged when generating
ideas because it discourages
creativity.
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Encourage everyone to
participate in generating ideas
including the quietest members
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Avoid lingering on the same
trend of thought in order to
explore more possibilities
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Encourage enthusiasm and fun
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Participants can be motivated to
build upon other people’s ideas
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Have someone write down all
ideas in order to facilitate the
evaluation after the session
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At the end of the session the
group evaluates all ideas and
improves them to come up with
solution that fit the original
problem
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Individual brainstorming may
result into a wider range of
ideas due to freedom of
creativity but a group
brainstorming session results
into more in-depth development
of ideas due to the richness of
experience that only a group can
bring
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