Bring the Thunder: How to Brainstorm Effectively

Like Ben Franklin and his key, the best brainstorming sessions leave you feeling positively electrified. The worst, on the other hand, can make you feel like you just sat in the rain for an hour waiting for a ride that never showed up because … well… it’s raining.

So, what separates brainstorms that sizzle from those that fizzle out? We asked our WF team members for their thoughts. And their rules for brainstorming can help you catch lightning in a bottle (without the risk of electrocution). We’ve broken them out into three phases, starting with the all-important pre-work.

Phase 1: Preparing for The Perfect Storm

Get yourself a Ben Franklin (aka Facilitator)

Ideally, your brainstorming session won’t be this person’s first go-round with bringing out people’s creativity. Find a facilitator who can ask the right questions, encourage participation and, most importantly, bring people back to center when the conversation veers off-course (because it will). They should be confident, upbeat and good at reading people. Bonus points if they are someone your participants already know and trust.

Create an agenda

An agenda can do a lot of things. It can help ease the anxiety people may feel about speaking up in front of a group. It can keep the group on track throughout the session. And it can emphasize the session’s overall goals. Attach your agenda to the meeting invite, then share it again with the group the day of the meeting. (You know, for that person who may have missed it the first time.)

Invite the usual (and unusual) suspects

Don’t limit your invite list to just writers, designers or even creatives. Your attendees should be dictated by your goals, not the other way around. If you’re brainstorming a name for your new HR initiative, for example, invite a few members of your HR team. It can even be helpful to invite people who you know have different opinions and perspectives and aren’t afraid to share them.

That can be an intimidating concept, but echo chambers are where great ideas go to die. They’re also where terrible ideas become very public social media jokes, because no one was willing to say “Wait, maybe that’s not…”

Phase 2: Creating (and Maintaining) the Right Conditions

Create a safe space

There’s no room in a brainstorming session for judgement, drama or office politics. All egos should be left at the door, preferably in a locked container marked “poison.” The key to getting everyone to participate is to make sure they feel like their ideas will matter, and your facilitator can help set the right tone by being positive, friendly and open.

Help everyone participate

You know Janie? The member of your team who is hesitant to speak up, or who gets drowned out by those who are more vocal? Create space for her to be heard. This could mean asking her a direct question, or inviting the group to pause and think on what’s just been shared. When given an opening to share her ideas, Janie may be less hesitant to add her voice to the conversation. But be careful — there’s a line between promoting participation and making someone feel uncomfortable. Be encouraging, but not pushy.

Include visuals

While some great ideas may have been the result of sitting around a conference table and staring at one another, it sounds like a painful (and boring) process. Instead, plan some activities that encourage participation and include visuals. Break out that dry erase board and those colored markers. Give people different colored post-it notes to jot down ideas. Or, use one of the million digital collaboration tools you can find online.

Whichever method you choose, be sure it taps into the senses of your participants – sight, touch, hearing, and maybe even taste. (Never underestimate the power of snacks.)

Welcome any and all ideas

Legend has it that the first ever brainstorming session was held sometime in the late 1930s. Alex Osborn of the agency Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborn (better known as BBDO), in an act of desperation, invented an idea he called “thinking up.” The premise was to “think up” as many ideas as possible, from the tame to the downright outlandish. It was a novel concept at the time. But his quantity-over-quality approach saved the agency, and it could also lead to your next amazing idea.

Just remember this: There are no rules for brainstorming. And while some of your group’s ideas may not make the final cut, that initial session is not the place to say “No” or “We can’t.” Instead, try this…

Say “Yes! And what if…”

Osborn also encouraged participants to build on each other’s ideas. Like lightning after thunder, one person’s idea can light a spark in another person’s mind. We imagine that this approach led to innovations like the Porto Vino wine tote, the Baby Mop, or the Cheesy Gordita Crunch (What if we put the hard shell inside the soft shell? Yes! And what if we put melted cheese in between them?!)

Take copious notes

If your brainstorm session is virtual, make sure you save all of your work, or better yet, record your call. If you’re meeting in person, invite someone who can take notes. Good notes. Detailed notes. Notes that can be referred to after the storm clouds have parted. Save these in a place where everyone who participated can access them, or better yet, have someone start the voice recorder on their phone.

Phase 3: Keeping Up the Energy

Share your outcomes

Remember those notes? Clean them up and send them out. Save them in a convenient place (not eight folders deep in a drive only a few people can access). Memory is a tricky thing – these notes will serve as your source of truth as you take next steps. They can also jog the memory of someone who had an amazing idea at the time but lost it.

Separate the good from the bad from the ugly

It’s a guarantee that you’ll have some ideas that are definitely not making your shortlist. These could include things that are impossible to execute, like renting a blimp and showering flyers on the crowd at a national sporting event. Other ideas, on second thought, could reflect poorly on your brand or fall flat with your audience, like positioning your carbonated beverage as the remedy for all forms of social injustice. Take these ideas, thank them for coming, and show them the way to the trash.

Actually take the next step(s)

These will be determined by the results of your brainstorming session. It could be kicking your ideas up the ladder to other stakeholders, or writing a creative brief for your new company name and logo. It could even be writing a blog post about brainstorming (how meta!)

Whatever it is, hold yourself and your team accountable. And remember, even this next step doesn’t have to be perfect.

You’re now officially ready to host the most amazing brainstorming sesh’ of your career. However, if the process still seems daunting, we’re happy to help. We’re pretty good at this brainstorming thing. Plus, we all have matching galoshes.