Today we will be talking about hosting a brainstorming sessions effectively. We all host or participate in brainstorming sessions in order to explore and exploit ideas to solve problems.

Today I would like to cover five attributes of what not to do during brainstorming sessions.

 These five attributes will help you what not to do , thereby you will host or participate in an effective brainstorming session.

ONE – Do not enter without an objective

Make sure you always have an objective conveyed to the participants. You and participants are aware of the problem that you tackling today. It would be disturbing, if not, catastrophic, if you get into a room without the problem statement and objective.

TWO – Do not mix brainstorming and feasibility

Brainstorming is to exploit your brain generate new ideas. Feasibility is about analysing rightness of ideas to your needs. Time, cost, and resources are the three characteristics of feasibility study. Let’s not mix the feasibility study with your brainstorming.

THREE – Do not negate any idea

Yes, whether the idea that has come out a silly, wild, crazy or stupid, welcome it. Welcome the idea into the session. You don’t know which ideas would be a gold mine tomorrow. You should not be labeling an idea as good or bad. Devising a pen with the metal platinum – sounds weird. Yet, do not negate, listen, make a note. Your fast thinking brain immediately say who would devise a pen with platinum which is going to be super costly who would buy it. Welcome silly, wild, crazy or stupid ideas into the session.

FOUR – Do not fall in love with any one particular idea

Especially when you have your boss or a subject matter expert in the room , or a celebrity in the room, you tend to be biased towards the special person’s idea. Let’s not do that. Remember, your objective is to treat each and every idea unbiased.

FIVE- Do not rush to conclusions

Sometimes it so happen that as soon as you start your brainstorming session, in 15 minutes of time, you think you have collected enough of ideas and it is time to windup. But do not do that. Wait until the timeout happens or wait until everybody’s brain is drained out and there are no new ideas coming out. People generate as many ideas they can when you are open minded.

I hope you have learnt something new about brainstorming today.

Thanks for reading.