Define your problem (please note that the word "problem"
is not necessarily negative - your problem could be "We
need a new product for the holiday season" or "How
can we effectively use our departmental budget surplus for
this year?"). Write out your problem concisely and make
sure that everyone understands the problem and is in agreement
with the way it is worded. There is no need to put a lot of
restrictions on your problem at this time.
Give yourselves a time limit - we recommend around 25 minutes,
but experience will show how much time is required. Larger
groups may need more time to get everyone's ideas out.
Everyone must shout out solutions to the problem while one
person writes them out. There must be ABSOLUTELY NO CRITICIZING
OF IDEAS. No matter how daft, how impossible or how silly
an idea is, it must be written down. Laughing is to be encouraged.
Criticism is not. Why? Because you want to encourage the free
flow of ideas and as soon as participants of the brainstorming
session begin to fear criticism of their ideas, they'll stop
generating ideas. Moreover, Ideas that first seem silly may
prove to be very good or may lead to ideas that are very good.
Once your time is up, select the five ideas that you like
best. Make sure everyone involved in the brainstorming session
is in agreement.
Write down about five criteria for judging which ideas best
solve your problem. Criteria should start with the word "should",
for example, "it should be cost effective", "it
should be legal", "it should be possible to finish
before July 15", etc.
Give each idea a score of 0 to 5 points depending on how well
it meets each criterion. Once all of the ideas have been scored
for each criterion, add up the scores.
The idea with the highest score will best solve your problem.
But you should keep a record of all of your best ideas and
their scores in case your best idea turns out not to be workable.
Adapted from JPB Creative
