5 Steps Leaders Can Take for Better Collaborative Brainstorming
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Does an invite to a collaborative brainstorming session fill you with excitement or dread?
Many can attest that video calls for hybrid brainstorming isn't always productive. The extroverted all talk at once, while those less social stay quiet and let the conversation run wild. Before you know it, the meeting has run over time without accomplishing anything of value.
It's no wonder many executives believe that meetings waste time and money. But leaders of successful teams know that collaboration leads to innovation. To master brainstorming, and improve collaboration, follow these five steps for effective brainstorming.
A 5-Step Guide for Successful Collaborative Brainstorming
Step 1: Add Structure Before, During and After Brainstorming
Keep sessions productive by determining the meeting purpose and goal.
Let your team know:
Goal and any desired outcome(s)
Expectations for team
Any required preparatory work
For some, the best ideas come away from the computer. Allow contributors time to understand the problem and come up with ideas beforehand.
Delegate a meeting facilitator to direct the conversation and set ground rules (i.e., don't all talk at once).
Meeting preparation adds a layer of structure to your collaboration. Still, brainstorming is overwhelming with a bunch of unorganized ideas. Or worse, the team diverges from the original problem and doesn't find a solution at all.
How to Structure a Brainstorming Session:
Collaborating using Stormboard’s Dependancies Board
1) Follow an agenda: Stay on topic, finish on time, and discuss all outstanding items.
2) Reiterate expectations and rules: To prevent those awkward silences or diverging from the discussion.
3) Use brainstorming frameworks or templates: To cut down on prep time, direct the conversation, and keep things organized. Check out Step 4 for more on templates and frameworks.
4) Use a Timer: To keep everyone motivated and focused. Less time to come up with ideas means more forethought and effort needed beforehand–so prep in advance!
5) Collaborate in a shared workspace: To share assets, information, and visuals.
6) Capture notes: Use web conferencing or transcription software to record notes for later reference.
Step 2: Prevent Bias, Groupthink & Limited Ideation
Meeting adversaries are quick to point out that traditional brainstorming doesn't work. And with good reason. There's a ton of bias that affects creativity and decision-making, for instance:
The desire to conform or agree
Fear of judgment from other, smarter people in the room
And, assuming the boss knows best when they give opinions or criticize ideas
In a busy schedule filled with back-to-back calls, everyone is guilty of skipping Step 1 and logging in to meetings woefully unprepared. In fairness, long meetings are mentally exhausting, and no high performer can ideate for hours on end before hitting a creative block.
So how can leaders sidestep hidden bias, groupthink, and all the factors inhibiting innovative thinking?
The original idea behind creative brainstorming was to generate as many ideas as possible without judging others' suggestions. But when we focus on quantity alone, we don't think critically about our ideas.
But facing criticism and conflict causes us to dig deeper, way below challenges, to surface innovative solutions and stronger thinking.
Before you read further, realize that you, as a leader, affect decision-making and the ideas put forth. Let your group lead ideation and decision-making, at least at first, to avoid unfairly influencing a group consensus.
Step 3: Employ the Best Tools for Collaborative Brainstorming
Working with dispersed teams using Stormboard
A good ol' whiteboard or paper scrap works for brainstorming small-scale ideas or solutions alone or with one other person.
But what happens when you have 200 people in a meeting from different timezones? They can’t all look over your shoulder, contribute, and see everything equal (causing severe issues with meeting equity).
Groups of three or more need collaboration tools for developing, saving, and organizing ideas. And that’s just the brainstorming part!
We aren’t all working under the same conditions anymore. The 200 people on your call likely have different internet speeds, microphone quality, and screen sizes.
How can you keep everyone focused and engaged, and avoid technical difficulties?
Leaders need to give contributors equal opportunity to see, hear and speak. That involves figuring out how to give every attendee the same sound and video equity and consider accessibility.
That equates to having the right collaboration software for hybrid collaborations, including:
A virtual whiteboard: Instead of screensharing, everyone works together in the workspace simultaneously. Collaborators engage in real-time to add, comment, and vote on ideas.
Web conferencing software: Like Teams or Webex to host or record meetings, with accessibility options like closed captioning and live chat.
A transcription or post-meeting reporting tool: Record meeting minutes (if not included with your web conferencing tool).
Pro Tip: Stormboard is more than just a whiteboard. Check out how you can eliminate post-meeting transcription with our instant reporting, or connect to your team no matter where they are with our video conferencing integrations.
Step 4: Simulate Ideas with Brainstorming Techniques
You can't always squash those awkward moments during brainstorming call. But you can use brainstorming techniques to speed up the creative process and make it more reliable.
Some teams may be good at working from a blank, infinite canvas. Others might benefit from structured templates for collaboration. Starting things off with the right template or a pre-organized workspace can cut down those awkward moments and kick things off much faster.
Brainstorming Techniques That Inspire Good Ideas:
A.I. ideation: Use A.I. to come up with ideas once you're out of them or to jumpstart the process and ignite ideas. A.I. can boost creativity quickly, but it may lack context, generate impractical ideas, and hinder creativity.
Design Thinking Brainstorming Session: Jump past the common answers and align your team around better customer solutions.
SWOT Analysis: An acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Use this template to beat competitors to the punch with a more robust business strategy.
Customer Journey Mapping: Map out all customer touchpoints to visualize how you can create a better user and buying experience.
5 Whys: Like a curious child, ask Who, What, When, Where, Why (and How) to get to the root of a problem.
6 Thinking Hats: Gives a fuller perspective of a problem or potential solution by viewing it from 6 viewpoints:
Action brainstorming: A helpful framework for determining what activities you should do less, stop, or do more.
Factual thinking
Emotional thinking
Critical thinking
Optimistic thinking
Creative thinking
Organized (controlled) thinking
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Step 5: Refine Ideas to Pull the Diamond from the Rough
Not all ideas from collaborative brainstorming are good ideas.
What can you do to select the best ideas for implementation?
Voting: Enable voting on the best ideas to reach a consensus.
SCAMPER: Another acronym, this one for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. SCAMPER helps improve ideas and enhance existing processes or products.
Affinity diagramming: The process of organizing and prioritizing the best ideas for action. You can organize similar ideas, remove redundancies, or arrange ideas from strongest to weakest. Once finished, you can move on to planning and implementation by putting your collaborative ideas into a workflow diagram.
Augmented Intelligence (A.I.): If you have a mass of ideas, A.I. can be an excellent tool for organizing, expanding, or summarizing them.
Key Takeaways to Driving Innovation in Collaborative Brainstorming Sessions
Collaborative brainstorming can be more productive if you:
Prepare to collaborate in advance
Delegate a meeting facilitator to direct the conversation
Structure brainstorming sessions to keep them productive
Use brainstorming templates and techniques to stimulate creative thinking
Be aware of bias and limited thinking to prevent skewed ideation and decision making
Encourage idea criticism and conflicting views to strengthen ideas
Select the best collaboration tools to collaborate seamlessly and equitably
Strengthen ideas through refinement
Collaborate online or in-app using Stormboard to save time before, during, and after brainstorming sessions.
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The Stormboard collaboration platform makes brainstorming, idea sharing, and asynchronous or distributed collaboration a snap. Quickly add and sort your best ideas in a single, shared workspace.
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